OT - USB printer cable

[Dave Baker]

Following on from my "cheap printer scanner copier" thread I've just bought a Canon Pixma 270 from Tesco because A) it was there, B) I was there, it was cheap (£28) and I couldn't be f**ked to look any further. Sadly it didn't come with a USB cable. It's therefore sat next to the pc doing F all until I can plug it in. What cable do I need? Is USB 1.0 different from 2.0 in cable terms? My PC is 10 years old and has two USB ports which I guess are the very first versions. Google says version 1.1.

I thought my USB camera cable would do but that only has a very small 4mm x

3mm male port on one end and the printer has a big black lump in the middle of where the cable plugs in which means the cable is a female item.

Pissed off and wanting to print something.

[Bob Eager]

Sounds like a bog standard 'A' (flat one on the PC) to 'B' (square one on the printer) cable. The most common of all USB cables, same connectors for USB 1 and 2 (and 3 I believe). Get one practically anywhere (even B&Q).

[Dave Liquorice]

The cable spec might be higher for the higher versions of USB but as your PC is 10 years old I wouldn't worry about it. As to the connectors, USB connectors falls well and truely into the "standards, the wonderful thing about standards is there are so many to choose from".

Hopefully the printers manual will tell you the "type" of connector, the PC end will be a Type A (flat about 1/2" wide amd 1/8" thick) the printer is probably Type B (about 1/4" square).

[dennis]

You usually need a USB A to B cable. Flat USB one end, squareish USB at the other. They are about £1.50 in pound stretcher, £6 in asda, £10 in staples, £15 in PC world. They all work on USB 1 and 2 and probably 3.

The only printer I have seen where they supplied a USB cable was a wireless one and you used it configure the network (or print)!

[Andy Burns]

Or £33 from you-know-who, surprisingly he makes no claims whatsoever that the printer will output smaller, squarer pixels with an increased colour gamut to give more vibrant photos that make your wife look more beautiful and your kids look more intelligent ...

[airsmoothed]

Same here, bought a wireless HP job in pissy world and it actually had a USB A-B in the box! Presumably the profit margin on a 50 quid all in one is diddly so they charge 15quid+ for a 1quid cable.

[Another John]

(You're going to be even more pissed off when you find out how long the cartridges last, and how much new ones cost! I've got one of these too.)

I bought my USB cable in tesco (probably right next to where the printers are). NOTE: I bought a 3m long one -- it has given me a lot more flexibility in positioning the printer.

Another note: I also bought, a few years ago, a Samsung ML2010 B/w laser printer, which was also very cheap, but which can be refilled easily from 'the usual sources'. Compared to an inkjet this is FAST, quiet, and trouble-free. I use the Samsung for almost everything, and the expensive and very impressive Pixma for special colour prints.

And finally: I use Photobox whenever I want photos: arsing about with an inkjet printer simply isn't worth it, time-wise, cash-wise, younameit-wise.

Cheers JOhn

[Davey]

Total agreement on Photobox, they are fast, cheap, and do the job. I wanted passport photos for the two of us, I took them with my cheap digital camera, and was able to set up exactly what was wanted, then Photobox printed them, 8 of each, and the whole thing cost just a little more than one would have done if the kiosk at Morrisons had been working, with no chance of editing the pictures. Colour printer is only used for printing web pages.

--=20 Davey.

[Dave Baker]

From what I can see online about 5p per page from the b/w cartridge. Pretty steep compared to my old HP Laserjet which printed for nearly 20 years before needing a new toner pack and that was only because it was printing stripes on everything rather than actually having run out of toner. Inkjets seem to be about 220 pages for a £10 cartridge and lasers 5000 pages for a £30 toner pack.

However I print very rarely so it'll do for now.

Just ordered a 5m A to B USB cable from fleabay for £1.28 plus 69p postage. Then I saw a 2m one for under a quid with free postage but too late. Drat. I'll just have to try not to agonise about the wasted 90p. I'm sure if I buy another bottle of scotch I'll get over it.

[Bill]

In message , Dave Baker writes

My HP C5280 works fine on a 1.5 metre cable, but won't work with any 3 meter cable I've tried or a 5 metre cable. I've installed the HP firmware update "to cure this" but it didn't.

My older, cheaper HP printer worked fine in the same place with the same cables. Now I have to walk to the printer with the laptops if I want to scan or colour prints. The antique laser printer does all the serious printing over the network.

The cable problem means I save money because I rarely colour print.

Is HP still run by a woman?

[Man at B&Q]

Does it make the bulge in your trousers look bigger?

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

All true, but the official toner cartridges cost more than the cheap Sammy printers.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Use short cables with hubs between them if you really want to solve the problem.

- No.

MBQ

[John Rumm]

What, you missed the classic BS:

"Our listening tests have shown that the sound is sweeter and more natural with the silver USB cable in place, with better bass and a more open sound. It has to be the cable of choice if you are connecting your computer to any kind of DAC that features a USB input."

Must be good and only £58 for a 50cm cable.

[Tinkerer]

Yes, you roll the USB cable up and stuff it in your pants. ;o)

[Mike Humphrey]

USB 2 cables are just higher spec versions of USB 1 cables. So a USB 2 cable will work with USB 1 devices, but a USB 1 cable may not work with USB 2 devices. If you connect devices of different speeds, they'll use the highest speed they have in common.

That sounds like a mini-USB. Printers usually use the larger "normal" USB connectors, while phones, cameras etc. use the "mini" version.

USB connectors are a bit odd in that they aren't obviously male or female - there are no pins or sockets in a conventional fashion, both halves have a plastic bit with contacts on the side. However they are polarised, and two plugs won't go together.

Mike

[Dave Liquorice]

Rule #4 (I think). Rate of cartridge use is inversely proportional to how easy it is to find out the standard page count per cartridge.

[Windmill]

Depends on the content of the last picture printed!

[Windmill]

And IME there are dozens of different or nearly-the-same mini and sub-mini variants. (I've got a small box full of adaptors yet still sometimes have to hunt for a suitable cable.)

[Bob Martin]

I had a Canon ip2700 (is that the same thing?) which cost me a lot less than a set of carts and I kept the original carts going for over a year using £10 refill kits from Argos.