✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 28

pov: you wake up to receive a package with a vacuum chamber and discover that the vendor is a crackhead and a menace to society

this is a vacuum chamber. the power supply that comes with it has a type-C connector and it puts 12V on Vbus unconditionally. the pump works off both 5V and 12V, so it can pull vacuum off a normal type-C power supply. but the solenoid release valve (that lets you open the chamber once you're done) requires their illegal type-C-shaped power supply. also, not only does the chamber not support PD negotiation, it does not even have a CC pulldown.

to add insult to injury, it's using a NEMA 1-15P plug.

Show threadgroff 🇺🇦Feb 28

@whitequark

But the EU said everything had to have a USB connector.

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 28
@geoffl this is not a USB connector. this is a USB-shaped connector. there's a big difference
Show threadRob RicciFeb 28
@whitequark @geoffl I have a device that delivers 12v power via a 2.5mm audio connector and I wonder what audiophile hurt this person
Show threadRootWyrm 🇺🇦Feb 28

@ricci @whitequark @geoffl man, I got you all beat.

You are faced with a PC that has two cards with 4 RJ45 ports on them. Surely that's quad ethernet, right?

NOPE!
2 ports of 100baseT with bypass.
And 8 ports of RS232 running at 15V!

Extremely expensive hilarity ensues.

Show threadAndrew ZonenbergFeb 28

@rootwyrm @ricci @whitequark @geoffl Cisco RS232 is very much a thing, quite common in networking gear.

But if properly designed it and Ethernet can be mated nondestructively. Passive PoE probably not. But regular Ethernet shouldn't hurt RS232 and vice versa if actually spec compliant design.

Show threadRob RicciFeb 28
@azonenberg @rootwyrm @whitequark @geoffl We used to operate several hundred RJ45 RS232 ports, much easier to wire (this was for server serial ports before proper out of band management was a thing)
Show threadRob RicciFeb 28

@azonenberg @rootwyrm @whitequark @geoffl

Ceci n'est pas une Ethernet

Show threadChris Siebenmann

@ricci @azonenberg @rootwyrm @whitequark @geoffl It us. We still have ~130 servers with console serial ports wired up this way in our machine rooms, all of them using network cables and plugged into what look to an innocent, hurried eye like network switches¹ (at the top of racks, along with the real switches). Fortunately we use a different color for them than any of our other network cables.

¹ Digiport Etherlites, which do somewhat cursed things to transport serial over Ethernet.

Mar 1 at 1:33amWeb
Show threadAlexBMar 1
@cks @ricci @azonenberg @rootwyrm @whitequark @geoffl for extra spice, one can carry Avocent KVM over identical RJ45
Show threadAndrew ZonenbergMar 1
@vmp_ @cks @ricci @rootwyrm @whitequark @geoffl I have also seen full speed USB over... i can't remember if it was rj11 or rj45 but it was literally vbus/ground/d+/d- crimped onto four connector pins
Show threadChris SiebenmannMar 1

@azonenberg @vmp_ @ricci @rootwyrm @whitequark @geoffl There's also USB over network cable extenders that are probably doing a bit more than that since their length limit goes up substantially.

(We bought one once for potentially sticking USB temperature sensors into a different room than the server that was reading them. In the end we decided it was better to pay more money for real temperature monitoring modules. (I work in a university, we DIY a lot of stuff sometimes.))