This USB-C device from hell brings back the worst part of USB-A

I sometimes have to admit that USB-C ports are a bit confusing. Different standards, different loading speeds, different data and video capabilities, proprietary labels like Thunderbolt, all on top of identical plugs – it can be a lot.

But one thing the USB-C port had was a solution to one of the biggest annoyances of USB-A – it is no longer possible to insert a USB cable in a ‘wrong way’ , thanks to the symmetrical design of the plugs.

Or, at least, this wash, until mechanical engineer Pim de Groot came out of hell with a USB-C device, which do behave differently depending on how your USB-C connector is facing. And I hate it so, so much.

The device itself is pretty simple: if the USB-C cable is plugged in one way, a green LED lights up at the top of the device. Insert it upside down, and the bottom LED burns green, a malicious horror blazing in a sea of ​​black silicone.

What earthly science gave birth to this horror? Well, as de Groot explains, USB-C plugs are not completely symmetrical – there is a set of connectors that are only used when plugs are connected as a USB 2.0 device that is only located on one side of the plug. And if you plug in a plug to use in a USB 2.0 setting, you can apparently use this to create the Great’s damn device above, which uses a few microcontrollers that each only burn when they detect those contacts. (USB-C 3.0 connections are fortunately immune to the trick.)

Photo: Pim de Groot (@mifune) / Twitter

Unfortunately instead of watching de Groot se eldritch sigil-ets monstrosity a warning is that some developers want to take things even further by deliberately trying to build a USB-C cable It requires a “superposition” maneuver to constantly disengage and reconnect it in different directions before it works successfully. For the sake of all that is good in this word, we can only hope that these efforts do not succeed.