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No USB On-The-Go (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go) or Wireless USB (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_USB)?

USB is a triumph of marketeers over engineers. All these things are called USB because USB sells (see also: Bluetooth).




I don't know anything about wireless USB but USB OTG is called USB because it is USB. It's not some totally unrelated protocol.


I thought OTG was just changing up where the host controller is sitting in the USB relationship? So you can have a device that acts like a client when hooked to a computer, or a master when hooked to a thumb drive/webcam/etc...?


Yeah it just allows you to use a B port as a host (if supported). It's still the USB protocol.


AFAIK, according to the standard you still cannot use the B port as a host, it should instead be an AB port (a socket in which both A and B plugs fit).


I had an iRiver H320 with USB-OTG support. At the time I thought it was just a straight-up mini-B port but you're right, that's actually a mini-AB port!

https://www.guru3d.com/miraserver/images/reviews/soundcards/...

I am not sure I have ever seen mini-A anywhere.

God, what a wacky standard. (USB-OTG specifically but really USB plugs in general)


Another example of mini-AB is the TI-84 series. Two calculators can be directly connected but a USB A-A cable is verboten by the spec (although I sometimes see them nonetheless), so TI put an AB port on the calculator and sold a mini-A to mini-B cable. It is somewhat confusing to users that a cable with two different ends was nonetheless completely transposable.

I'm not sure of this at all but I sort of doubt the TI-84 used spec compliant OTG, because in general the USB implementation on that calculator was very weird and unreliable and gave the feeling that they were doing something uncouth like bit-banging and not quite fast enough. I remember it routinely taking multiple attempts to get something to transfer successfully.


It is one of these connectors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#USB_On-The-Go_con...

But every OTG device I have ever used has just used the USB-A port.


i cannot find any examples of this kind of port, can you share a link?



Bluetooth Smart aka. Bluetooth Low Energy aka. Wibree aka. not actually bluetooth




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