Comment on USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible
PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 11 months agoWay back, joysticks had a DIN-25 connector that was identical to the MIDI connector.
I blindly plugged my brand new MS Force Feedback joystick into the MIDI port behind my miditower (yes I’m that old) and watched the magic smoke rise out of the joystick. That was not a good day to learn about plugs. MIDI carries 50 volts or something. Stick wasn’t happy.
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 11 months ago
Strange. I always thought they were the exact same port. Because most of the time you would need a sound card to plug in a joystick. And nowadays I can’t use my MS Force Feedback because all the USB adaptors don’t implement all of the MIDI stuff the joystick needs to run the force feedback.
PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Oh you are right, I misremembered: what actually happened was that I was indeed going for the MIDI port of my SoundBlaster card but found a matching socket in my networrk card!
I will update my comment to correct this.