USB-A-PCB usage in practice...

Community PCB Design
1

Hello,

I am considering the use of a usb connector directly etched onto a PCB, rather than via a connector as usual.

Sparkfun appears to have provided this in their Eagle library: USB-A-PCB (thanks Sparkfun, you guys are awesome!).

RF shielding and other effects aside, can anyone comment on how well this works in practice?

Any hints as to what to look out for, etc?

And is a 1.6mm-thick PCB thick enough for a stable connection?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Franchie.

2

It says it’s untested. It’ll probably work but it doesn’t look as if it will be reliable in a mechanical sense. I’d avoid it and use a proper connector.

3

With card edge connectors you typically have the golden fingers selectively gold plated a significant amount so that they can handle a large number of insertion cycles. This is fairly expensive and most quick turn PCB houses cannot do this and will either no bid the PCB or have somebody out of house do the gold plating.

I would only do it if I had a good reason to do so :slight_smile:

4

Okay, thanks a million to you all for your opinions!

I think I’ll follow your advice and use a standard USB connector then, pity though, I like the idea a lot!

Thanks again for your feedback!

Have a great day!

Franchie.

5

If it’s only for a one-off project for personal use, go for it. If it’s a production thing then yeah maybe not.

6

If the device you’re building is small enough to plug directly into a USB jack, then this might be a good idea. If it’s large and you want to connect it using a cable, it’s not such a good idea - you need a back-to-back USB-A cable. Not so easy to find.

7

Okay, great thanks!

Its actually for a device the size of a small usb-key, but since I’d like to favour reliability over simplicity, I think I’ll go for the whole-blown connector :/.

Thanks everyone!

Franchie.

8

I have to add that many little USB flash drives and other small dongle-type devices won’t fit in many computer ports due to case design. For instance, my laptop has several USB ports side-by-side so that any device wider than a normal USB A plug (e.g., Logitech mouse) will bind against another device plugged into the adjacent port. Even some fatter USB flash drives really bind hard against the mouse plug. Even worse, some Dell desktop computers I’ve used won’t accept USB flash drives due to the way the plastic bezel is designed. Just something to keep in mind.

9

Good point!

Thanks for the tip! :wink:

Franchie.