Source of legacy USB leads

[Tricky Dicky]

I have a legacy electronic device which has a USB type A mini charging port. I am looking for a USB lead with a type A connector at one end and a type A mini connector on the other end. I am finding plenty of leads with type B mini connectors but absolutely no type A mini. I believe type A mini was only used for rare devices and was quickly superseded by type B mini and layer micro.

I have been all over Amazon and eBay and a few electronics suppliers like Farrell and RS without success and I am looking for suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help Richard

[Andy Burns]

USB A-to-A leads are generally "not allowed" through they certainly exit.

I'm not sure there is even such a thing as a type-A mini connector, do you mean type-B mini, which is an more angular and fatter connector than the type-B micro?

[NY]

I've found a few references to mini A

shows that it had sloping sides a bit like a micro, but with the pins in a different location.

Google returns too many false-positives to be able to tell whether anyone sells a USB A to USB mini A cable.

[Andy Burns]

OK, so "USB mini A" did briefly exist, but even if it does still exist, it's going to be a pig of a thing to search for ... all the search terms you use will get adjusted to match "USB A to mini B" by search engines that think they know better.

[Theo]

Are you sure it accepts charge on a mini-A port? Mini-A was designed to be a power and data *output*, much like a regular USB-A port on a PC. Or do you mean a mini-AB port which could do both?

There are mini-A cables availabe:

and once you've come out as B or mini-B male, then find an adaptor from female B to a fullsize A, or cut off the B end and splice in an A cable.

I think you'd probably want to do that without connecting the data lines, since otherwise you'd be connecting two data outputs together.

If you do want data, you may have to dig into the cable to change the connection to the ID pin, which is either grounded (port is a USB host, like a PC) or floating (port is a USB device, like a card reader). All these cables look like they will have the pin grounded so they operate in host mode.

Theo

[Theo]

I found 'usb "mini-a"' did it (on Startpage, which is Google without the spying).

Although I generally find ebay's search is better at abiding by what you asked for than Amazon's, so I tend to start there.

(Both Amazon and Aliexpress are desparate to show you 'something' - in particular endless lists of somethings that make them the most money - even if that something is not what you asked for. ebay is better at giving 0 results if the term you asked for doesn't exist - although I tend to use the advanced search features which stop it being 'helpful')

Ali does have a valid hit though:

Theo

[Tricky Dicky]

Thanks for all the suggestions, but I managed to find by a tortuous route exactly what I wanted. The device was a Nintendo DS Lite, I managed to find a YouTube video about replacing damaged charge ports on said console. The video had a link to a supplier of parts for Nintendo consoles and amongst the spares was the exact lead I required. So duly ordered, and thanks again for all the help.

In all this searching I have not come across a single description of what type of port it is, but it certainly looks like a type A mini. Here is a photo of the port and connector see what you think it is?

Richard

[Paul]

I would expect an A-to-B than other choices. And I don't know if the "thing" on the end of this one, is what the OP needs or not.

Paul

[Andy Burns]

According to this, a normal mini-B can be used (with care?)

[Tim+]

To my eye it looks exactly like a “standard” micro USB.

Tim

[Tricky Dicky]

I can assure you it is not micro USB attached is a photo of both:

I wish I had prefixed my original search with Nintendo DS Lite having done so now quite a few examples have turned up including on Amazon. I still think from its shape it is Type A mini but so far I have not found an example which actually confirms that opinion.

Richard

[Adam Funk]

I clicked on the link and was about to answer "you need to search for a special Nintento USB cable" ... then read the rest of your post.

[Andy Burns]

The red one is micro-B, not mini, the other one does at least look similar to mini-B ...

[mm0fmf]

Search challenged ?

USB mini A produces 23000 results on ebay.co.uk.

[Andy Burns]

Most of which are only included in results because they have the word "mini" and the letter "A" somewhere in the description, but in practice they are "USB A to mini-B" cables

It's not *me* who is search challenged!

[John Rumm]

It is a custom Nintendo connector - looks like micro, but is the thickness of mini.

[SteveW]

I think everyone so far has been search challenged. It is far, far easier to go to Ebay and search for DS Lite cable.

[Tricky Dicky]

I was replying to Tim+ who suggested it was micro-B showing the comparison.

This picture shows the difference between mini-A and mini- B;

However, there is one more variation which to me seems more like the Nintendo connector, namely the mini-AB;

Without dimensions it is hard to say if it is but it certainly has the right shape.

Richard

[Clive Arthur]

Does the connector look like eBay item 184898487263 ?

[Tricky Dicky]

The second link did not work. Try this;