USBs
USB is a Universal Serial Bus that connects hardware to enhance the use of a software. Most basic example is connecting a mouse & keyboard to a computer to use a word processor, internet, or even a video game.
Hardware like mouse & keyboards are peripheral devices. USBs allow these peripherals to connect to host controllers. In most cases, that’s a PC.
These host controllers have their own types of interfaces, but I’ll get to those later.
To start, there are upstream, and downstream USB connectors. Upstream receives power. Downstream provides power.
This is a charger from some old wireless headphones I used to have. The USB type-A would go into the power source, which makes it upstream because it’s receiving the power. And the MicroUSB would go into the headphones’ case, which makes it downstream because it gives the case power
USB Type-A is the standard square one we’re all used to. It’s the biggest one, so you’ll rarely find it on handheld devices.
Type-A provides 5V of power, as most USB types do.
My laptop charger takes type-C, but it’s connected to a 45W AC adapter. It won’t even recognize a regular type-C like the ones for newer Androids or wireless headphones.
I never knew there was an organization behind USB, the Implementors Forum (USB-IF).
Next I’ll be going through the other USB types. I’d like to understand why we use certain USBs for different devices. As of now, it seems like it’s a physical thing. Like type-Cs are a lot sleeker and they don’t have a right-side up, which is probably why they’re becoming more popular.
But we’ll see. See yall next time.
Grant Abraham 