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What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

OwainM — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:31:23 GMT

Hey everyone,

A small thought experiment came to mind today when discussing what the worst or most inconvenient connector or connector combination you could find on a device is? I'm specifically thinking of obscure or compact variants of common connector standards.

It came to mind when discussing a Sony camera I have which includes Micro-HDMI Output, or the USB 3.0 Micro B port Samsung used on one of their phones a few years ago.

What is the worst still contemporary connector you could find yourself using is?

If you can't think of anything, what is the most inconvenient connector type you once used, that was contemporary at the time?

I'm intrigued to hear what you've had to use, or at least commiserate together [emoticon:98f842990f454422aa6a04953955f9d9].

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

OwainM — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 13:37:40 GMT

The Samsung Galaxy S5 also used the connector, tucked behind a little plastic cover with a gasket to achieve the IP rating it had at the time.

I was amazed that they shipped that connector on such a mass-market product.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

balajivan1995 — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:23:15 GMT

That monstrosity got into some other products as well?

I am sure people who designed this had good intention of bringing high speed communication but that's a short lived connector and less commonly available cable.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

gpolder — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 22:07:48 GMT

the Ettus USRP B205mini-i SDR board also does have a high speed Micro-B.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

balajivan1995 — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:14:06 GMT

Micro-B, and I mean the high-speed version that's only used on SATA HDD/SSD enclosures. I've never seen it used anywhere else, and it usually just come bundled with the enclosure as a free accessory. One time I lost the cable and ended up buying an entirely new enclosure, because a new cable cost almost as much as the enclosure itself.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

beacon_dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:07:32 GMT

A lot don't have an outer connection to start with... bzzzzzz....

Also ground tends to mate after signal.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

beacon_dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:04:01 GMT

Not so much the connector itself but rather some of the attempts to make a connector retractable to avoid the need for a cable, but then you end up needing a cable anyway.

The current one is a Sony digital voice recorder

It's probably fine if you are plugging in vertically to a charger socket but not so good directly into the front of a PC, or even the side of a laptop where it may block access to other ports.

I've been meaning to get a USB A extender with a dock base so as it can stand vertically.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

shabaz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:01:46 GMT

A lot of RCA connectors are quite bad because they get used in the wrong environment : ( in-car hi-fi. After a while, poor connection and crackly sound appears : ( One or two mnfr make really nice RCA connectors though; Pomona from memory, their outer connection doesn't loosen as easily.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

shabaz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:21:39 GMT

They are the gold standard of connectors : ) Gold might actually be cheaper : )

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

beacon_dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:45:36 GMT

Looks like France mandated it to be present on TVs from around 1980 to 2015.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

beacon_dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:41:08 GMT

Perhaps not so 'contemporary' though ? It was designed half a century ago...

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

OwainM — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:38:25 GMT

My 5-year old TV doesn't feature SCART either, and an RCA to Four-pole 3.5mm jack is needed for an RCA Connection

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

geralds — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:32:01 GMT

Absolutely, yes.

I use these LEMO's for smaller devises.

Round connectors are easier to use than flat, rectangle connectors.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

kk99 — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:26:00 GMT

The LEMO connectors are good, too.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

kk99 — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:22:08 GMT

In case of cheap RJ45 often the locking clip/tab breaks.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

kk99 — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:18:09 GMT

Probably a bit less complex than matching the correct colors in the case of RCA.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

geralds — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:17:28 GMT

I hate any connector that wobbles inside its socket.
This includes USB-B and Micro-USB.
USB-C is another such case: you only have to plug it in a few times before it starts to feel loose—which can even cause individual contacts to fall out.
The bulky SCART connector is another example: it would frequently fall apart whenever you tried to plug it in or unplug it.
The heavy, thick cable would constantly pull the connector out of the socket’s spring contacts, bending them open in the process.

"The smaller, the better"—that’s often the sentiment, and it seems to be the philosophy adopted by many manufacturers—or perhaps the standards bodies themselves.

The only connectors I would consider good are the screw-on coaxial types.
Of course, that brings us to the issue of the number of conductors required and the physical size.

Starting in the early 2000s, I worked with LAN - "EC7" connectors.
These connectors are very similar in design to coaxial connections.
https://image.schrack.com/katalogseiten/k_datend7-075-082_de.pdf

You could use a twisted-pair (PiMF) cable and connect various devices using adapters.
With these connections, I was able to transmit TV signals—up to UHF frequencies; up to > 1GHz) —over distances exceeding 100 meters.
I used them to equip many server rooms and their associated patch panels.

It’s incredibly frustrating when the contacts are loose or wobbly...

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

Jan Cumps — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:58:56 GMT

My last one - a 5 year old smart TV - doesn't. The previous one still had one..

Also, no more SCART on the recent cable decoder that I got from the provider. Previous version had it.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

dang74 — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:44:26 GMT

Just curious, do newer TVs for the European market still have SCART?

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

BigG — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:44:05 GMT

Exactly!

IMO, the Olimex boards get it right.

www.olimex.com/.../

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

ralphjy — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:26:37 GMT

In my old age with poor eyesight and arthritic hands, I find that the smaller connectors are the worst problem - always have been to some extent. The worst is the u.FL connector that is used to connect parts on PCBs to external antenna cables. It is a pain to connect and disconnect those, especially if the PCB designer doesn't provide enough clearance to other components to enable use of a tool. It is a miracle, but I've never damaged one of those yet. My other issue is with some of the flat ribbon cable PCB connectors like those that are used to connect cameras and displays (CSI, DSI). The plastic piece that is used to clamp the cable end is very fragile. And I have broken a few of those.

My other peeve that is not related to connector design but to standards is the 2mm JST connectors that are on small Lithium battery cables. The RC toy/model standard and the one used by vendors like Adafruit have the + and - connections reversed and not many boards are protected against incorrect polarity. I am very careful and have never damaged anything, but I have many of both styles of batteries and mating cables/connectors.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

shabaz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:14:30 GMT

Plus it seems unnecessary, they could have had space for a slightly larger pitch connector.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

shabaz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:12:06 GMT

That's one of my favourite connectors : ) but you're right, they are often squashed together.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

colporteur — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:27:14 GMT

RJ-45 connectors where the connector release pin faces down. My finger are just to fat to get between the wall and the connector to release them. Many a blue streak of words standing on a ladder reaching up to take one cable off among ten other connections. I've put my fingers on a diet if I knew it would help.

RE: What's the worst contemporary connector you could have on a piece of hardware?

BigG — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:07:46 GMT

I don't like those high-density 100 pin board-to-board connectors on the Raspberry Pi compute modules. I've bent those individual copper connector pins far too many times now.