What was the worst connector ever made?
I know some people hate on the Apple 30-pin connector, but I always had a soft spot for it.
SCART, on the other hand – what a nightmare. I still sometimes remember how utterly unpleasant it was just to put it in or disconnect it. The sound and the feel were all dentist-office-grade. Absolutely dreadful.
@mwichary I kinda liked SCART. It got a bit bastardised later on, but some manufacturers tried to resist that. One of the main culprits was S-video support as it had to steal a pin that was supposed to be used for RGB.
I had a large JVC TV and high-end S-VHS VCR and later a high-end DVD player, all connected together with two SCART cables. I got automatic input select, anamorphic switching and RGB from the DVD player.
But I agree, the connector always felt cheap - which might've actually helped take-up as it was cheap and easy to make. As someone has already said, it was not designed for frequent connecting and disconnecting.
@mwichary Haha, I do find those colors at least nostalgic. They certainly don't coordinate with anything.
You are right to compare PS/2 and ADB, which are apparently two variants on this theme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-DIN_connector
@aarbrk @mwichary If you look at the picture in that article they put the sockets on their side, which is particularly horrific. All Mini-DIN plugs I’ve met have a little moulded arrow or other raised section marking the top side of the plug - in other words, make sure this bit is at the top and it should be easy to mate, even by feel.
But then some idiot decides to rotate the socket through 90 degrees..
@mwichary It's unfortunate that the retro gaming upscalers and associated switchers all love to use SCART. No matter the quality of RGB SCART cables or adapters that I use, they feel horrible to plug in, and they love to wiggle loose (especially with chonky cables).
I wished more upscalers and switchers used HD15 connectors rather than SCART.
@mwichary I hated those screws as well, especially if someone over-tightened them or when the little post they screw into decides to come out instead of the screw.
That said, it's more compact and is already used for sending over component and the VGA is basically already RGB (just differing sync methods).
@mwichary
It is not from Apple
SCART ist die Abkürzung für "Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs"
@mwichary Do internal connectors count? I never encountered SCART but these USB 3 headers are awful.
The force needed to insert the connector is like 10-20x what it takes to obliterate a pin or two, and there’s no tactile feedback if you have it aligned or not. The pins stick out as far as the “sleeve” does, so the alignment notch is just for show. And nothing but the pins themselves do anything to hold it in place against the stiff cable that usually has to be bent 180° to reach the socket.
@phl @dale_price Oh yeah! Molex as far as I remember it was pretty genuinely awful.
I do have some nostalgia for the headers, ha.
@mwichary @dale_price I love¹ how we went from absolutely unwieldy but apocalypse resistant pin arrays (P-ATA/IDE, Molex) to barely reliable surface contacts (SATA and its power connector) that dislodge just by looking at them. I'm sure there could have been something between the two extremes.
¹ not really :D
@mwichary Good I'm not alone hating this bloody connector. And all the damn versions of it that didn't have all the pins cabled. You think USB-C is bad???
I don't get all the gen Z retro hipsters who have some sort of fetish for this shit connector. Unlike them, I've been there. Fuxk SCART! VGA, BNC, RCA.... anything is better than this
@mwichary SCART is undeniably very nasty but it’s important to distinguish connectors designed to be regularly plugged and unplugged with connectors that are intended to be used as fixed equipment interconnects. SCART was very much intended for home or fixed use - plug one connector into your TV and one into the VCR and it’d sit there gathering dust forever. You got baseband video, so far better quality than the other standard option (an RF modulator), sound included, and as technology progressed various neat extra functions like automatic switching. And best of all for manufacturers it was cheap to add to consumer equipment - just bring all the lines to a single connector shell. It was physically awful but it served a single function well.
The only connectors most people plugged and unplugged on a daily basis then were mains plugs. Maybe a headphone socket on the stereo. DIN connectors as used on stereo systems were also pretty awful but they were also designed to be an idiot-proof plug once and forget thing.
But professional applications never used SCART. BNC all the way, or in some very persnickety cases (such as the BBC) TNC because the screw locking was far more robust than bayonet.
And yet, 40 years later the general public has to deal with horrors like USB-A on a daily basis.
@mwichary I have fond memories of the two-person gymnastics required to pull out and support the CRT TV while re-attaching the SCART cables that had come loose for reasons unknown (Atmospheric pressure? Cosmic rays?)
The video quality was nice, though.
@mwichary SCART is Fine, I think, if a bit unwieldy in the current era
Attempting to plug SCART in round the back of a CRT TV or video recorder where it's a bit of a stretch and you can't see? That's where it's horrible. Saying that, I'm not sure if you could really even attempt that with what other regions had for their TV connections, so maybe it's an unfair complaint
@mwichary the main 24pin power connector for ATX motherboards, it is absolutely disgusting to insert and remove.
It feels like you are going to break the motherboard while inserting, as it takes unreasonable force. And it takes minutes of wiggling while holding the lock tab open to remove, it almost feels like you're ripping the pins out of the solder joints.
It also comes in two parts you need to hold together while inserting, and often does not make any noticeable confirmation, you need to inspect visually if it's properly inserted.
Thankfully it's an one-and-done type deal, rare to have to ness with it, but when I do it's usually because there's new-to-me hardware involved and it is terrifying.
The worst part is, it isn't even retro! It continues to disgrace this earth to this day.
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