Printer and USB cables

That is the reason serial is the way to go now - it's cheaper.

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I wish.

Last weekend I took my daughter to look for a new printer. I was suprised to find that you now have to buy your own cable with the lower end models.

eg HP Deskjet £29.99; USB cable £19.99 also required.

I can buy a standard parallel printer cable for £1.50 and a ribbon one for £0.50 in the same store.

studiot said:

I wish.

Last weekend I took my daughter to look for a new printer. I was suprised to find that you now have to buy your own cable with the lower end models.

eg HP Deskjet £29.99; USB cable £19.99 also required.

I can buy a standard parallel printer cable for £1.50 and a ribbon one for £0.50 in the same store.

Click to expand...

That's pretty bad news. I suppose they have to make their money somehow, or at least give you incentive to consider the high-end models. I'll be in the market for a printer in the next couple of weeks so will bare this in mind.

Mind you, that is why I hoard cables from the many PC projects I work on.

Dave

The upper end HP printers don't come with USB cables, either. Do look for USB cabling at stores other than for computer equipment. What costs $40 in the store may be had for $5 online.

studiot said:

I wish.

Last weekend I took my daughter to look for a new printer. I was suprised to find that you now have to buy your own cable with the lower end models.

eg HP Deskjet £29.99; USB cable £19.99 also required.

I can buy a standard parallel printer cable for £1.50 and a ribbon one for £0.50 in the same store.

Click to expand...

If the cable is standard A-B USB cable, then £19.99 is an exorbitant price for it. I bought mine (2m length) from one of those one pounder shop. I tend to cut and use them a lot when developing USB systems, certainly far cheaper than buying the connectors and cable from Farnell! The quality is not bad either.

n9352527 said:

If the cable is standard A-B USB cable, then £19.99 is an exorbitant price for it. I bought mine (2m length) from one of those one pounder shop. I tend to cut and use them a lot when developing USB systems, certainly far cheaper than buying the connectors and cable from Farnell! The quality is not bad either.

Click to expand...

I've never bought a USB cable of any kind, so wouldn't know what is good value and what is not - I just looked at the cable being 2/3s the value of the printer.

I could do with find one of the those pound-shops that actually sells electronics items. I want as short a possible USB-USB cable for my laptop cooler (~12 inches or less), but I cannot find one for love nor money. Currently I have a spool of cable on my desk which connects the lappy to the cooler. I'm tempted to make my own.

Dave

Since this experience has generated some interest, I will confess to publishing the worst case.

We went to four big national chains of tin sheds. Two are electrical retailers, one pc retailer and one is an office supplies specialist. I also looked in the Argos catalog and on the internet.

The printer was generally priced at £29.99, although Comet has it for £19.99 and Morgan for £25.

The cables varied from fancy pink and green ones, placed by the printers as a 'now you need this oprional extra' between £15.99 and £19.99. I think they were a bit longer than the average 0.5 to 1 metre cable that comes free with USB gadgets.

Comet were offereing a cable for £1.50.

I should also add that most printers now seem to require a USB2 cable (is there a difference?).

I remember that there was a similar markup on Iomega parallel and SCSI cables with their zip drives.

Short USB cables? Just Google to get a local supplier eg

http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-usb2-6in-ab.html

Thanks for the suggestion studiot, I am looking for A-A USB cables. I might have a browse through Google - 6-10 inch cable would be ideal.

The difference between USB1 and USB2 is the data rates 12Mbs against 480Mbs IIRC. The connectors are physically the same (at least the A-connections are). All modern OSes support USB2.

Dave

0.5 metres

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/r...h_003&Ntt=usb+cables+0.5m&Ntx=&isGoback=false

or the retractable ones at .15m min might do you.

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/r...rch_003&Ntt=usb+cables+1m&Ntx=&isGoback=false

studiot said:

or the retractable ones at .15m min might do you.

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/r...rch_003&Ntt=usb+cables+1m&Ntx=&isGoback=false

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Ideal. I have a retractable mouse and network cable for when I'm out of office, and they are great. At £1.25 I'm sure I can stretch to that!

Thanks for the suggestion.

Dave