Mini vs. micro USB

[ColinR]

Apologies if this has already been discussed, which I'd bet it has.

I'm currently using USB micro on my CuPID boards, as it is the current standard, at least until USB-C gets here. I hate them. The PCB mounts are not really solderable by hand, which is something I would like all my components to be. There simply do not exist DIP micro connectors. It's hard to even find versions with legs that can be soldered as mechanical support.

I had considered going back to mini USB, as I just like them better and DIP versions are available, but after some reading, it seems as though micro really are more reliable, although anecdotal evidence indicates otherwise, and there exist conspiracy theories involving Nokia about why the switch was actually made. The connectors do have retent, which mini do not.

So sorry for taking this long to get to the question (and possibly inciting a flamewar), but are Moteinos going to transition to micro anytime soon?

Colin

[Felix]

Well not yet, at least not for a while. I really agree that mini seem more reliable although I could not break any micros either. I use the micros on ATXRaspis and I make a lot of those, I never heard back about micros not working or something like that. I did hear back one or 2 times about minis on the Moteino being flaky but I still suspect the cables were at fault - the person returned them and I could not find a fault in the connectors. So no real evidence the minis are crap. Initially I sourced them from china when I used to make moteinos by hand. Those proved to be lower quality - they were kinda loose and did not grip the cable well and moving the connector could break the USB connection. That was early on and I moved to digikey sourced connectors that are much better (the ones with yellow kapton covering). The micros for ATXRaspi are also digikey sourced and very good quality as far as I can tell, no complaints. Different people say different things. The micros are hard to reword if there is a bridge and hard to solder by hand since there are SMD pads under the connector, need hot air etc. So I personally prefer the mini over the micro for these reasons and also because of lack of empirical evidence that minis are not as good. The 1 and only reason for micro on the ATXRaspi is because the Pi uses micro and I wanted to keep consistent, but having a feeder with a different part on the pick & place is not ideal with feeders being so expensive and feeder space in the machine not being infinite.