I have some USB C chargers that only charge in 1 orientation. I don't know if it's my phone, or the cable, or what, but for me this isn't true.

Same is true of Apple's Lightning. It looks symmetrical, but electrically it isn't.

> Same is true of Apple's Lightning. It looks symmetrical, but electrically it isn't.

Have you every used an Apple product? Because if you did you'd know that it doesn't matter which direction you plug it in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)

"The male Lightning connector is symmetrical (same pins on either side), so it can be inserted into a female Lightning port in either orientation."

From an end user's point of view, there is no difference in the orientation. But from the device's point of view, one orientation has pins 1-8 and the other has pins 8-1. It's up to the device to figure out which is being used. This is still considered symmetrical though.

It's not, though.

https://www.techinsights.com/blog/systems-analysis-apple-lig...

The context, however, is important: the OP responded "same as in Lightning" to this:

"I have some USB C chargers that only charge in 1 orientation"

I get the point you're trying to make, but the connector is electrically symmetrical: "made up of exactly similar parts facing each other or around an axis"

Well, that's something barrel plugs had going for them way before data connectors caught up :)

And then some - hadn't really thought about it until your comment, but somehow we regressed from infinite orientations (well, in that plane) to one, and are now all excited about having two...

Are there any example of barrel-style connectors with >2 pins, i.e. coaxial barrels? Similar is the 'jack' (3.5mm and such) but with split regions along a single pin rather than concentric rings of course. I wonder why such designs aren't more popular/explored (that I'm aware of anyway) for multi-pin data connections?

There were barrels with three..

eg lenovo, two charger generations ago:

https://i.imgur.com/Wn4EM33.png

But usually the inner one was only connected via a resistor, to tell the device the wattage of the charger (but could be used by a bunch of 1 wire protocols instead.

From how often this is mentioned by people who love USB-C, I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person who never had an issue with correct orientation.