VEX IQ micro USB cable vs generic micro USB?

VEX IQ General Discussion General Discussion
1

I need to order about six replacement USB cables for VEX IQ. The VEX cables are five dollars each, generic micro USB are about three dollars each. Is there any reason to buy the more expensive VEX IQ cables?

2

Just check the length of them, the $3 versions are sometimes shorter than you want.

3

I would add that I have generally bad experience with non-VEX cables - I suspect the original VEX IQ cables have a little longer exposed metal body so it gets deeper into the brain. But I haven’t measured them…

4

I have also started pushing down the “tabs” on the micro USB connector so they don’t grab internally on the brain. Otherwise, they are difficult to get out and micro USB is known for coming off the PCB internally and tearing traces in many designs (don’t know about the IQ brain)

5

We buy all of our teams 10’ long purple USB cables from Monoprice for connecting to the brain. We picked 10’ so they can download programs with the robot on the field without moving the laptop. We picked purple so they are obviously not a personal cable, and won’t disappear as easily for phone charging. They seem to work well. I just checked, $2.07 each.