Broken USB Type B female connector

[tjfitz]

I have had a Canon BJC-3000 printer for several years. It comes
equipped with a USB Type B female connector on the rear. I bought a
Belkin USB A to USB B cable and hooked it between my computer and the
Canon printer. The USB Type B male end of the cable that plugs into
the printer is roughly 13 mm long (the metal portion), while the USB
Type B female end on the printer only allows roughly 8 mm insertion,
and so the cable plug really isn't "driven home". The result is that
the plastic piece (the stopper?) inside the female connector snapped
when the plug was only slightly strained to one side.

Did I get the wrong Belkin cable? Is there a USB Type B male plug that
is more on the order of 8 mm long? Or is the problem with the Canon
printer's receptacle?

I re-glued the plastic piece but know that it will snap if I put the
Belkin cable back on, and so have used a parallel port cable for most
of the time I have had the printer. Now I am looking at the cable
again and thinking maybe there is a shorter USB plug available, and
maybe I just got the cable with the wrong plug to begin with.

Would appreciate any comments.

 

[Gary Tait]

while the USB
Type B female end on the printer only allows roughly 8 mm insertion,
and so the cable plug really isn't "driven home".

9MM is normal There sould be some shroud exposed (it is that way to account
for recessed jacks).

 

[tjfitz]

Gary, thanks for the reply which I just read this afternoon.

Two days ago, I went to a PC sales outlet and looked at Canon's new
low-priced printers equivalent to my BJC-3000. Each one had its USB
receptacle surrounded with a square plastic "collar", or as you wrote,
"shroud". The collar/shroud is an integral part of each new printer's
case.

I had a narrow piece of card stock along with me, marked with the depth
of insertion possible with my printer, and it was identical to that of
the new printers, so the USB female connector hasn't changed.

I also had my USB A to B cable along, and I tried plugging the B-plug
into the store's Canon printers receptacles, and the collar/shroud
fitted snugly around the plastic handle of the plug and prevented any
side-to-side or up-down movement of the plug, and so I'd say Canon
redesigned the USB connection to prevent cracking of the stopper inside
the receptacle.

It seems odd to me that I can't find any examples posted on the
Internet by others of this problem with the earlier Canon printers.
(I'm not too surprised that Canon doesn't mention any problem in any of
their literature!)