USB Connecter Liability On Stage!

[siderealxxx]

Last night I watched another band experience a device failure (drum machine) onstage, seemingly a result of a USB connector failure.

USB as a protocol is largely well and good, but why-oh-why are the connectors so loose and flakey. Just about bearable in the studio but an absolute liability on stage.

I don't know why there isn't a 'pro' USB connector/cable for pro-audio and other field work. It'd be so easy to implement and take most of the stress out.

MIDI connectors were always so much stronger and more durable and we don't need a reminder of how long that's been around!

Anyway, rant over :/

[Dave Rowles]

While I've never had a USB connection fail on me live, I've seen the state that some performers allow their gear to get into and it doesn't surprise me that their connection fails. I've seen people roughly shove things into bags and yank gear around in ways that makes me wonder how it survives one show, let alone 20/30.

[siderealxxx]

While I've never had a USB connection fail on me live, I've seen the state that some performers allow their gear to get into and it doesn't surprise me that their connection fails. I've seen people roughly shove things into bags and yank gear around in ways that makes me wonder how it survives one show, let alone 20/30.

True, but the band in question are doing the summer festival circuit and played five shows this weekend alone (afternoon and evening)! All with 15 min setup and soundchecks! USB simply wasn't designed for that kind of wear and tear, not to mention the pitfalls that regularly happen on stage. It's a volatile environment!

[James Perrett]

If you want to use USB for really high profile serious work then maybe you need to fit your gear with something like a Bulgin Buccaneer USB connector

https://www.bulgin.com/products/pub/med ... rd_USB.pdf

which are rugged enough to withstand life on the road and will also mate with standard connectors.

[ef37a]

People should I think make greater use of the principle of "sacrificial connectors"

Take a USB port on a synth say? You connect a short, ~150mm A to A, M to F cable and secure it to the instrument, an adhesive cable tie pad works splendidly.
Now you make the long connection with a standard A to A cable*. My MOTU M4 sits on a small shelf and the USB C cable is cable tied to the shelf, removing any strain from the AI's connector.

When I was with Blackstar they had an AP test rig and I made up two short XLR-XLR 'stubs' that were permanently plugged in thus saving any strain and wear on those on a valuable instrument.

There is a similar philosophy regarding mic stands. Where they will be left in situ (or just put to one side) an XLR cable can be run down them and cable tied to the tube and boom. That cable can be thin and very flexible with a loose knot at the mic end to 'decouple' any stand borne noise. Makes rigging and striking a session much quicker.

*It has just struck me that I have never seen a USB B to female B cable? Off to have a butchers!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/chenyang-Print ... HgMu2&th=1
Ding! Dong!

Dave.

[ef37a]

Ooo! Just spotted that they do that B2B cable in 3 angled fomats as well as straight. Bit 'o' gaffer, job's a good'un.

Dave.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Depends on what the USB was for and how the drum machine was being used. Not much use raging about a universal standard connector.

Bulgin Buccaneer looks great thanks James.

I've seen gear velcroed into a flightcase with all connectors secured permanently, only cables out are XLR and power. The cables never get unplugged- that includes jacks, phonos, mini jacks and USB. Makes sense if you are using a bunch of modern prosumer grade devices. Lock them all into a solid box with DIs or WHY. It also greatly speeds up setup time compared to faffing around with a bag of random cables and hunting for plugboards, which I have also seen touring acts do.

[ef37a]

I think if I was gigging again I would 'normalize' things like keyboards and small mixers on breakout boxes using RJ45 shielded jacks.

Shielded patch cable is not that expensive and can carry 4 balanced circuits or 1 USB 2.0 source. I recently bought 50 shielded 'pass thru' plugs for about a tenner. Yes you have to buy an AMP crimp tool but only once and it will last forever given the merest whiff of WD-40 twice a year. And RJ45s can survive my size 12 hoof even on a hard floor most of the time.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

Bulgin Buccaneer looks great thanks James.

You can find all kinds of connectors in the Buccaneer range and I can confirm that they are fully weatherproof if you tighten the collar properly.

[resistorman]

While I've never had a USB connection fail on me live, I've seen the state that some performers allow their gear to get into and it doesn't surprise me that their connection fails. I've seen people roughly shove things into bags and yank gear around in ways that makes me wonder how it survives one show, let alone 20/30.

So true, especially wall wart powered pianos and such

People should I think make greater use of the principle of "sacrificial connectors"

+1

[AlecSp]

People should I think make greater use of the principle of "sacrificial connectors"

Absolutely.

Had a friends "lump on a cable" PSU for a Shure radio pack passed on to me, bare conductors showing where the 12v cable exits the strain relief and has clearly been over-flexed.

Of course, these things are designed to be unserviceable. So, the weld on the PSU housing had to be cracked open with judicious (and risky) use of a knife. The 12v cable forced out of the grommet, in which it was heat sealed. The grommet redrilled to accommodate the shortened 12v cable. Easy resolder onto the board. Epoxy the housing closed. Test.

Took an hour, and plenty of irritation, to fix. Vendor would just say buy a new one for £30.

Boy, how I hate external PSUs...

[Rockrooms]

People should I think make greater use of the principle of "sacrificial connectors"

Absolutely.

Had a friends "lump on a cable" PSU for a Shure radio pack passed on to me, bare conductors showing where the 12v cable exits the strain relief and has clearly been over-flexed.

Of course, these things are designed to be unserviceable. So, the weld on the PSU housing had to be cracked open with judicious (and risky) use of a knife. The 12v cable forced out of the grommet, in which it was heat sealed. The grommet redrilled to accommodate the shortened 12v cable. Easy resolder onto the board. Epoxy the housing closed. Test.

Took an hour, and plenty of irritation, to fix. Vendor would just say buy a new one for £30.

Boy, how I hate external PSUs...

Had a similar experience with a guitar multi fx wall wart PSU, pedal went off just as I was about to play a solo, then mercifully flicked back on. Discovered the cable was now bare just where it exited the strain relief so was shorting. New PSU was a tenner. I did fix the original, but wasn't easy and involved careful use of a sharp knife and expletives. I now carry a spare, but these things aren't servicible and built to a cost. The pedal itself is very well made and has a dedicated case, but a couple of years of use clearly took it out of the cheaply made power supply.

[ef37a]

Alec, if you had to dive inside equipment to fix it you might appreciate the lack of internal mains voltages! Not all mnfctrs "boot and sleeve" everything.

But yes, cable failure at entry/exit points are I think the main cause of PSUs ending up in the WEEE bin. I would like to see all 'line lumps' being supplied with a 2 or 3 pin mains socket and a co-ax LV DC output fitted with THE most common size of connector and cable.

Re breaking into the boxes? I had a very big engineers vice at B's and could squeeeeze the cases till they cracked along the weld line...THEN get a broad bladed screwy in there. MUCH safer than a knife!

Further thought...use cable ties and adhesive pads to take the strain off the cable exit points. All my laptop supplies are so protected.
Dave.

[BigRedX]

Last night I watched another band experience a device failure (drum machine) onstage, seemingly a result of a USB connector failure.

USB as a protocol is largely well and good, but why-oh-why are the connectors so loose and flakey. Just about bearable in the studio but an absolute liability on stage.

I don't know why there isn't a 'pro' USB connector/cable for pro-audio and other field work. It'd be so easy to implement and take most of the stress out.

MIDI connectors were always so much stronger and more durable and we don't need a reminder of how long that's been around!

Anyway, rant over :/

I feel your pain. Consumer-grade computer connectors are never going to be robust enough to stand up to the rigours of your typical semi-pro gigging environment where if your are lucky you'll have 15 minutes to set up and line check before you launch into your first song all in front of an audience.

Those Bulgin connectors look good but they don't appear to do a USB-C option and at some point your are going to have to connect to a standard USB socket which will become a single weak point of failure. I don't like the idea of short adapter cables either as they add multiple additional points of failure to an already dodgy set up.

I've seen gear velcroed into a flightcase with all connectors secured permanently, only cables out are XLR and power. The cables never get unplugged- that includes jacks, phonos, mini jacks and USB. Makes sense if you are using a bunch of modern prosumer grade devices. Lock them all into a solid box with DIs or WHY. It also greatly speeds up setup time compared to faffing around with a bag of random cables and hunting for plugboards, which I have also seen touring acts do.

That will be my band. We did have to use some hot glue on a couple of connectors and invest in locking IEC mains leads, after general handling of the rack box in transit caused a couple of the internal cables to become dislodged. But for the past 12 months this set up has been rock-solid (having said that it will probably fail spectacularly at the next gig). All connections to the outside world are made on a front mounted patch panel populated with XLR, jack and PowerCon sockets. We can be up and running in the time it takes to get the lids off and plug in 4 cables. We do have a USB out which was for a USB foot pedal to control the computer, but other issues meant that this is now just for transferring files from my desktop computer via pen drive, and the computer control is done over Bluetooth (something I'm not especially keen on but has proved overall more reliable than the USB option).