explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2317: Pinouts

2020-06-09T13:22:53Z

Lolmaus: Fix formatting broken by previous edit

{{comic
| number = 2317
| date = June 8, 2020
| title = Pinouts
| image = pinouts.png
| titletext = The other side of USB-C is rotationally symmetric except that the 3rd pin from the top is designated FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN. Should include a column for the actual purpose of the pin. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Electronics connecters are designed to transport both information and power. A {{w|pinout}} diagram describes the function of each pin such as to communicate data, transport power, physical function (keying), etc. In this comic there is an absurd alternative to the actual pins used in connectors. The pin labels are references to many tech issues and attributes, and not all may be documented correctly here.

Hardware hobbyists might feel excitement at seeing a unified specification for these common connectors, but the comic is of course humorous. The real life diagrams are as follows: [http://unitedtechnologies.com.pk/Nti/image/10ci.png HDMI], [https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/micro-connector-usb-pinout Micro USB], [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technical-articles/introduction-to-usb-type-c-which-pins-power-delivery-data-transfer/ USB-C].

=== HDMI ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation !! Pin No. !! Actual purpose
|-
| +3.3V DC
| 3.3V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" Indicates a voltage positive with respect to Ground.
| 1
| TMDS Data2+
|-
| Data
| Most digital communications cables contain at least one wire that carries data. Typically there will be a more descriptive name if there are multiple data pins. "Data" and "3.3V" set up the appearance of a normal pinout diagram to experienced readers.
| 2
| TMDS Data2 Shield
|-
| -3.3V DC
| Negative voltages were used more frequently in the past; however, modern systems typically generate any negative voltages they might require internally from the given positive voltages. This could be a reference to frustration specification implementers have to go through when handling hardware quirks: negative voltages are very abnormal, and would require design alteration to meet, but the designers of a ubiquitous plug can do whatever they want.
| 3
| TMDS Data2-
|-
| +5V
| 5V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" Indicates a voltage positive with respect to Ground. Typically this is assumed to be DC.
| 4
| TMDS Data1+
|-
| Tx
| "Tx" typically refers to pins used to transmit as opposed to "Rx"/receive
| 5
| TMDS Data1 Shield
|-
| +6VI
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VI represents the Roman numeral 6. Voltages above 5 are not usually used in microcircuitry cables. (See Pin 4)
| 6
| TMDS Data1-
|-
| Wx
| "Wx" does not typically exist in the "Tx"/"Rx" scheme. In the weather forecasting community, Wx means "weather" .
| 7
| TMDS Data0+
|-
| +7VII
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VII represents the Roman numeral 7, continuing the pattern from above.
| 8
| TMDS Data0 Shield
|-
| Rx Only
| "Rx" typically refers to pins used to receive as opposed to "Tx"/transmit. In this case "Rx" is used as part of a pun on "Rx (prescription) only." This description might also be related to the fact that most ethernet devices can exchange the Rx and Tx port automatically, if needed, in order to eliminate the need for crossover cables and the fact that it is possible to insert the USB-C connector rotated by 180°.
| 9
| TMDS Data0-
|-
| Antidata
| Some ports use differential signaling, where a signal and its inverse are sent over a pair of pins (e.g. D+ and D-). The combined signal is more robust to interferences. This mixes that practice with a humorous reference to the notion of matter versus antimatter. Currently there is no such thing as antidata. Antidata pins could be needed in the future as low-entropy or high-entropy source in quantum communication connectors to securely dispose of data.
| 10
| TMDS Clock+
|-
| Unknown
| Occasionally extra pins will be included for future use; however they will typically be labeled "reserved" to point out that their usage is not yet defined. The use of "unknown" suggests that this pinout is based on an incomplete reverse-engineering of the HDMI format, instead of on the official documentation, or maybe the official documentation doesn't explain it and this pin's function is being kept as a secret by the ones who designed it.
| 11
| TMDS Clock Shield
|-
| Water
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 12
| TMDS Clock-
|-
| +240V DC
| This is a reference to washing machines and other large home appliances, which use 240V AC for power. Additionally, many cable specifications try to provide a way to power devices over them, but these small communication cables usually carry only DC and not AC electricity.
High voltage power is only sometimes used in small communications connectors. It might help to keep the current of power lines low to avoid generating excess heat. With +240V DC inside the HDMI cable, monitors would not need any longer a separate power plug. This is similar to Power-over-Ethernet, which does not exceed 60V, or ISDN, which goes up to 110V depending on country, and help surveillance cameras or telephones to work with one connecting cable only. But with this much voltage on such a small cable, a short or a peripheral drawing too much current would seem more likely to quickly cause a fire on such thin wires, melting the insulation and wiring in a sudden burst of toxic smoke.
| 13
| CEC
|-
| Vacuum
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 14
| Reserved (1.0-1.3a), Utility (1.4+, optional)
|-
| 5V AC
| Pins often supply low voltage direct current to devices. This pin supplies 5V alternating current, which is not typically supplied. AC is used for washing machines, not microcircuitry, and conversion between the the two kinds of power everywhere makes for transformers being embedded in most modern devices, taking extra materials to manufacture and losing a significant percentage of all electricity in the conversion.
| 15
| SCL (I²C serial clock for DDC)
|-
| Amazon Copyright Pin
| HDMI can optionally be protected by a digital rights management (DRM) scheme, known as HDCP. This pin humorously implies the presence of a different DRM scheme specific to Amazon.com, as well as poking fun at the fact that copyright is an explicit part of the HDMI protocol (although it is not assigned to a specific pin). This is likely a reference to how chips and cables and specifications often have specific strange additions or functionality in them to meet the requests of various bodies invested in the design process: additionally after reverse engineering many strange things have been found laying around in the functionality of hardware that do unexpected special things.
| 16
| SDA (I²C serial data for DDC)
|-
| GND
| GND typically refers to "ground" on pinout diagrams. Remarkably, this is correct.
| 17
| DDC/CEC Ground
|-
| Decorative
| Decorative elements are pieces of an assembly that serve only an aesthetic purpose without any technical function. This would not be particularly useful inside a connector, as almost no one will ever see it--however, in HDMI, pin 14 was reserved for future use in versions 1.0–1.3a (and was only assigned an official use in 1.4).
| 18
| +5V
|-
| Ground
| Compared to Pin 17 ("GND"), this appears to be the same ground pin. However, the presence of both GND and Ground seems to imply that GND represents something other than the standard "ground" pin, unless it is this one that supplies something like soil (like [[1293|soup]]). Some systems have different grounds for analog and digital sections, but they would typically be disambiguated by terms like AGND. Many pinouts have multiple grounds or dc supplies with no apparent explanation, seen more prominently on Randall's USB connector.
| 19
| Hot Plug Detect
|}

HDMI uses four pairs of shielded twisted-pair connectors, along with seven other connectors. (Twisted-pair means a wire is wrapped with the other wire that returns the current to the original device, thus minimizing electromagnetic noise. Shielding refers to wrapping a cable with a conductor to absorb the energy of noise.) Three of these pairs are for data (TMDS Data0, Data1, and Data2) and the other is a clock. These pairs take up three pins as one of them is a ground pin for the shielding wrapped around each pair. TMDS stands for "{{w|Transition-minimized Differential Signaling}}" and is also used in the DVI standard.

DDC stands for "Display Data Channel" and is based on the {{w|I²C}} serial standard. It is used to allow the transmitting device to learn what formats of data the receiving device can accept.

CEC stands for "Consumer Electronics Control" and is supposed to allow a single remote control to control multiple devices.

"Hot Plug Detect" refers to hot-plugging, where a cable is connected to a device already turned on. The device should then ideally detect that the cable has been plugged in and respond appropriately.

=== Micro USB ===

A ground pin is commonly found on USB and other pin connectors. At least one ground is necessary to complete the circuit, and some cables use multiple ground lines to distribute current or to support {{w|twisted pair}}s. However, there is no purpose served by having many more ground pins than data pins. Therefore, it seems rather silly for the micro USB to have 4 ground pins and only 1 functional "USB" pin. It also does not give much information about what the "USB" pin would do, as opposed to a standard pinout diagram. This diagram also leaves out the +5V power pin that is present in the real micro USB connector, which would render most USB peripherals unable to function.

The ordering and count of the pins may be an allusion to {{w|Monty Python}}'s {{w|Spam (Monty Python)|"Spam"}} sketch, in which one of the many Spam-related menu items is "Spam, Spam, Spam, egg, and Spam".

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| GND
| A ground pin
|-
| GND
| A second ground pin
|-
| GND
| A third ground pin
|-
| USB
| Apparently the only data pin in this connector. This could be a play on how the USB specification tries to squeeze all data onto a single channel as if it is a software protocol rather than specializing the structure of a physical cable to provide for rapidly carrying the information likely to flow over it. USB is an external packet network similar to ethernet, but uses a totally new design without any reuse of prior similar specification.
|-
| GND
| A fourth ground pin. A real micro USB only has one ground pin, in addition to the metal plug housing.
|}

=== USB-C ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| +5V DC
| A common electronics supply voltage.
|-
| +3.3V DC
| Another common electronics supply voltage. This pin is not present on USB type C, mostly because the voltage is too low to supply useful levels of power at the current limit of the pins.
|-
| +120V AC
| Residential supply voltage in the United States; its use on an electronics connector would be very unusual, as it would burn out any unguarded transistor-logic electronics, producing smoke and melting the metal together such that the cable likely couldn't be removed. But this high a voltage might be an allusion to the high voltages USB-C screens and similar devices can request in order to get enough energy without exceeding the cable's current limit.
|-
| Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
| {{w|Solder}} is a metal alloy with a low melting temperature (typically around 360°C, but in special cases melting points between 90°C and 450°C or above are available), used to bond electronic components together permanently. Most solder materials are quite docile so it might be too easy for the forces a connector is subject to to permanently change their shape. Along with the fact that the resistance of solder is typically way higher than that for copper the pin under heavy electrical stress could overheat and melt, thus bonding the connector to its receptacle, and thereby "trapping" the receptacle. Additionally putting a pin that might slightly change their shape directly next to a high voltage pin means risking to accidentally connect two power rails with entirely different voltages together (causing an overvoltage in the lower-voltage rail that is likely to break the circuit, as has happened with some Apple devices). In this case the +120V AC pin might be able to deliver enough power to actually fuse the solder-only pin. This could also be a reference to increasing publicity around the fields of electronics security: hobby reverse engineers have been finding ways for some time now to evade the blown fuses in microcircuitry preventing them from being reprogrammed, using glitching techniques.
|-
| Mechanical
| All connectors include portions whose job is to ensure a solid connection between the cable and the port. This is typically not the job of the pins, however. In real USB type C connectors, this task is performed by the center tongue of the female connector. It could also imply transmission of energy or signal through a mechanical principle, such as torque or reciprocating motion.
|-
| +3.3eV/C
| {{w|Electron-volts}} per {{w|coulomb}} would be a very unusual unit to see in a pinout. These units are used in particle physics, but thr appearance is very similar to the common 3.3V supply. It would be a unit of electric potential equivalent to approximately 1.60217662 * 10-19 volts. There 3.3eV/C would be 5.287183 * 10-19 volts, or slightly more than 1/2 attovolts. It could also be read as +3.3 eV/c (per {{w|speed of light}}), in which case it is equivalent to a momentum of 5.3E-28 kg m/s, In high-energy physics, the momentum of particles is sometimes expressed in MeV/c or GeV/c units.
|-
| Candlepin
| Randall is making a pun on the word ''pin'', which refers to a electrical connector pin as well as a thing to knock down in bowling. {{w|Candlepin bowling}} is a form of bowling.
|-
| Facebook use
| This would imply that Facebook had a hand in specifying USB type C, and had a pin dedicated to their use. This could be seen as strange given Facebook's primary business is web technology and would have little need for a dedicated pin in the USB standard, but a lot of back doors have been found in electronics.
|-
| +5V (Positrons)
| {{w|Positron}}s are the antimatter counterparts to electrons. So this pin is supplying +5V, but does so by sourcing positrons into the device rather than sinking electrons out. NOTE: Positrons cannot be conducted through normal matter conductors as they would annihilate with the electrons.
|-
| Pin Roulette
| Presumably in the same vein as "Chat Roulette", this pin's purpose is not rigidly defined and is instead left to chance. According to the title text, this pin's counterpart on the other side of the connector is the "FireWire Tribute Pin", so this cable would only be truly rotationally symmetric (which is the whole point of the USB-C connector) when the pin roulette ball lands on that same function.
|-
| GND
| Ground pin. Typically denoted as "GND".
|-
| SKY
| Reference to the ground pin, which refers to the common grounding on the larger metal body. There is no corresponding "sky" pin, although sky is often thought as the opposite of ground.
|-
| FireWire Tribute Pin
| ''In Title text:'' {{w|FireWire}} is Apple's version of IEEE 1394 which is a 6 pin connector that has a ground pin, a power pin and two pairs of data pins. It was something of a competitor to USB, and had faster data rates than USB 2.0, but is much less popular now. Presumably the writers of the USB-C standard (which far outpaces its data rates) wished to memorialize it somehow, although it's not clear how the pin actually works for that purpose.
|}

The fact that only half of the USB-C pins are documented might hint to an alternative way to manufacture connectors that can be inserted rotated by 180°: Make the receiver use only the right side of the pins and make the sender connect both the left and the right side so all Pins that might match a function are connected correctly no matter if the cable is rotated by 180°.

=== Coax ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| Pin
| An {{w|RF connector|coaxial RF connector}} has two contacts - one pin, and the shield; typically the whole connector is labeled with whatever function/signal is carried by the pair.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption at top]
:Pinouts
:Quick Reference Guide

:[Four common connectors are depicted - vertically, rather than the usual horizontal orientation.]

:[The first connector is a 19-pin HDMI connector.]
:[The nine pins on the left are labeled:]
:*Data
:*+5V
:*+6VI
:*+7VII
:*Antidata
:*Water
:*Vacuum
:*Amazon Copyright Pin
:*Decorative
:[The ten pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+3.3V DC
:*-3.3V DC
:*Tx
:*Wx
:*Rx Only
:*Unknown
:*+240V DC
:*5V AC
:*GND
:*Ground

:[The second connector is a 5-pin Micro USB connector.]
:[The five pins are labeled:]
:*GND
:*GND
:*GND
:*USB
:*GND

:[The third connector is a 24-pin USB-C connector, with only the right side labeled.]
:[The twelve pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+5V DC
:*+3.3V DC
:*+120V AC
:*Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
:*Mechanical
:*+3.3eV/C
:*Candlepin
:*Facebook Use
:*+5V (Positrons)
:*Pin Roulette
:*GND
:*SKY

:[The fourth and final connector is a 1-pin COAX connector.]
:[The one pin in the center is labeled:]
:*Pin

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]

2317: Pinouts

2020-06-09T13:21:42Z

Lolmaus: Mechanical — torque or reciprocating motion

{{comic
| number = 2317
| date = June 8, 2020
| title = Pinouts
| image = pinouts.png
| titletext = The other side of USB-C is rotationally symmetric except that the 3rd pin from the top is designated FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FIREWIRE TRIBUTE PIN. Should include a column for the actual purpose of the pin. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Electronics connecters are designed to transport both information and power. A {{w|pinout}} diagram describes the function of each pin such as to communicate data, transport power, physical function (keying), etc. In this comic there is an absurd alternative to the actual pins used in connectors. The pin labels are references to many tech issues and attributes, and not all may be documented correctly here.

Hardware hobbyists might feel excitement at seeing a unified specification for these common connectors, but the comic is of course humorous. The real life diagrams are as follows: [http://unitedtechnologies.com.pk/Nti/image/10ci.png HDMI], [https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/micro-connector-usb-pinout Micro USB], [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technical-articles/introduction-to-usb-type-c-which-pins-power-delivery-data-transfer/ USB-C].

=== HDMI ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation !! Pin No. !! Actual purpose
|-
| +3.3V DC
| 3.3V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" Indicates a voltage positive with respect to Ground.
| 1
| TMDS Data2+
|-
| Data
| Most digital communications cables contain at least one wire that carries data. Typically there will be a more descriptive name if there are multiple data pins. "Data" and "3.3V" set up the appearance of a normal pinout diagram to experienced readers.
| 2
| TMDS Data2 Shield
|-
| -3.3V DC
| Negative voltages were used more frequently in the past; however, modern systems typically generate any negative voltages they might require internally from the given positive voltages. This could be a reference to frustration specification implementers have to go through when handling hardware quirks: negative voltages are very abnormal, and would require design alteration to meet, but the designers of a ubiquitous plug can do whatever they want.
| 3
| TMDS Data2-
|-
| +5V
| 5V is a typical voltage in digital electronics. The "+" Indicates a voltage positive with respect to Ground. Typically this is assumed to be DC.
| 4
| TMDS Data1+
|-
| Tx
| "Tx" typically refers to pins used to transmit as opposed to "Rx"/receive
| 5
| TMDS Data1 Shield
|-
| +6VI
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VI represents the Roman numeral 6. Voltages above 5 are not usually used in microcircuitry cables. (See Pin 4)
| 6
| TMDS Data1-
|-
| Wx
| "Wx" does not typically exist in the "Tx"/"Rx" scheme. In the weather forecasting community, Wx means "weather" .
| 7
| TMDS Data0+
|-
| +7VII
| V is usually used to represent volts, but here, VII represents the Roman numeral 7, continuing the pattern from above.
| 8
| TMDS Data0 Shield
|-
| Rx Only
| "Rx" typically refers to pins used to receive as opposed to "Tx"/transmit. In this case "Rx" is used as part of a pun on "Rx (prescription) only." This description might also be related to the fact that most ethernet devices can exchange the Rx and Tx port automatically, if needed, in order to eliminate the need for crossover cables and the fact that it is possible to insert the USB-C connector rotated by 180°.
| 9
| TMDS Data0-
|-
| Antidata
| Some ports use differential signaling, where a signal and its inverse are sent over a pair of pins (e.g. D+ and D-). The combined signal is more robust to interferences. This mixes that practice with a humorous reference to the notion of matter versus antimatter. Currently there is no such thing as antidata. Antidata pins could be needed in the future as low-entropy or high-entropy source in quantum communication connectors to securely dispose of data.
| 10
| TMDS Clock+
|-
| Unknown
| Occasionally extra pins will be included for future use; however they will typically be labeled "reserved" to point out that their usage is not yet defined. The use of "unknown" suggests that this pinout is based on an incomplete reverse-engineering of the HDMI format, instead of on the official documentation, or maybe the official documentation doesn't explain it and this pin's function is being kept as a secret by the ones who designed it.
| 11
| TMDS Clock Shield
|-
| Water
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 12
| TMDS Clock-
|-
| +240V DC
| This is a reference to washing machines and other large home appliances, which use 240V AC for power. Additionally, many cable specifications try to provide a way to power devices over them, but these small communication cables usually carry only DC and not AC electricity.
High voltage power is only sometimes used in small communications connectors. It might help to keep the current of power lines low to avoid generating excess heat. With +240V DC inside the HDMI cable, monitors would not need any longer a separate power plug. This is similar to Power-over-Ethernet, which does not exceed 60V, or ISDN, which goes up to 110V depending on country, and help surveillance cameras or telephones to work with one connecting cable only. But with this much voltage on such a small cable, a short or a peripheral drawing too much current would seem more likely to quickly cause a fire on such thin wires, melting the insulation and wiring in a sudden burst of toxic smoke.
| 13
| CEC
|-
| Vacuum
| Labs often have ports connecting to common sources of various supplies (oxygen, water, fuel, vacuum).
| 14
| Reserved (1.0-1.3a), Utility (1.4+, optional)
|-
| 5V AC
| Pins often supply low voltage direct current to devices. This pin supplies 5V alternating current, which is not typically supplied. AC is used for washing machines, not microcircuitry, and conversion between the the two kinds of power everywhere makes for transformers being embedded in most modern devices, taking extra materials to manufacture and losing a significant percentage of all electricity in the conversion.
| 15
| SCL (I²C serial clock for DDC)
|-
| Amazon Copyright Pin
| HDMI can optionally be protected by a digital rights management (DRM) scheme, known as HDCP. This pin humorously implies the presence of a different DRM scheme specific to Amazon.com, as well as poking fun at the fact that copyright is an explicit part of the HDMI protocol (although it is not assigned to a specific pin). This is likely a reference to how chips and cables and specifications often have specific strange additions or functionality in them to meet the requests of various bodies invested in the design process: additionally after reverse engineering many strange things have been found laying around in the functionality of hardware that do unexpected special things.
| 16
| SDA (I²C serial data for DDC)
|-
| GND
| GND typically refers to "ground" on pinout diagrams. Remarkably, this is correct.
| 17
| DDC/CEC Ground
|-
| Decorative
| Decorative elements are pieces of an assembly that serve only an aesthetic purpose without any technical function. This would not be particularly useful inside a connector, as almost no one will ever see it--however, in HDMI, pin 14 was reserved for future use in versions 1.0–1.3a (and was only assigned an official use in 1.4).
| 18
| +5V
|-
| Ground
| Compared to Pin 17 ("GND"), this appears to be the same ground pin. However, the presence of both GND and Ground seems to imply that GND represents something other than the standard "ground" pin, unless it is this one that supplies something like soil (like [[1293|soup]]). Some systems have different grounds for analog and digital sections, but they would typically be disambiguated by terms like AGND. Many pinouts have multiple grounds or dc supplies with no apparent explanation, seen more prominently on Randall's USB connector.
| 19
| Hot Plug Detect
|}

HDMI uses four pairs of shielded twisted-pair connectors, along with seven other connectors. (Twisted-pair means a wire is wrapped with the other wire that returns the current to the original device, thus minimizing electromagnetic noise. Shielding refers to wrapping a cable with a conductor to absorb the energy of noise.) Three of these pairs are for data (TMDS Data0, Data1, and Data2) and the other is a clock. These pairs take up three pins as one of them is a ground pin for the shielding wrapped around each pair. TMDS stands for "{{w|Transition-minimized Differential Signaling}}" and is also used in the DVI standard.

DDC stands for "Display Data Channel" and is based on the {{w|I²C}} serial standard. It is used to allow the transmitting device to learn what formats of data the receiving device can accept.

CEC stands for "Consumer Electronics Control" and is supposed to allow a single remote control to control multiple devices.

"Hot Plug Detect" refers to hot-plugging, where a cable is connected to a device already turned on. The device should then ideally detect that the cable has been plugged in and respond appropriately.

=== Micro USB ===

A ground pin is commonly found on USB and other pin connectors. At least one ground is necessary to complete the circuit, and some cables use multiple ground lines to distribute current or to support {{w|twisted pair}}s. However, there is no purpose served by having many more ground pins than data pins. Therefore, it seems rather silly for the micro USB to have 4 ground pins and only 1 functional "USB" pin. It also does not give much information about what the "USB" pin would do, as opposed to a standard pinout diagram. This diagram also leaves out the +5V power pin that is present in the real micro USB connector, which would render most USB peripherals unable to function.

The ordering and count of the pins may be an allusion to {{w|Monty Python}}'s {{w|Spam (Monty Python)|"Spam"}} sketch, in which one of the many Spam-related menu items is "Spam, Spam, Spam, egg, and Spam".

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| GND
| A ground pin
|-
| GND
| A second ground pin
|-
| GND
| A third ground pin
|-
| USB
| Apparently the only data pin in this connector. This could be a play on how the USB specification tries to squeeze all data onto a single channel as if it is a software protocol rather than specializing the structure of a physical cable to provide for rapidly carrying the information likely to flow over it. USB is an external packet network similar to ethernet, but uses a totally new design without any reuse of prior similar specification.
|-
| GND
| A fourth ground pin. A real micro USB only has one ground pin, in addition to the metal plug housing.
|}

=== USB-C ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| +5V DC
| A common electronics supply voltage.
|-
| +3.3V DC
| Another common electronics supply voltage. This pin is not present on USB type C, mostly because the voltage is too low to supply useful levels of power at the current limit of the pins.
|-
| +120V AC
| Residential supply voltage in the United States; its use on an electronics connector would be very unusual, as it would burn out any unguarded transistor-logic electronics, producing smoke and melting the metal together such that the cable likely couldn't be removed. But this high a voltage might be an allusion to the high voltages USB-C screens and similar devices can request in order to get enough energy without exceeding the cable's current limit.
|-
| Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
| {{w|Solder}} is a metal alloy with a low melting temperature (typically around 360°C, but in special cases melting points between 90°C and 450°C or above are available), used to bond electronic components together permanently. Most solder materials are quite docile so it might be too easy for the forces a connector is subject to to permanently change their shape. Along with the fact that the resistance of solder is typically way higher than that for copper the pin under heavy electrical stress could overheat and melt, thus bonding the connector to its receptacle, and thereby "trapping" the receptacle. Additionally putting a pin that might slightly change their shape directly next to a high voltage pin means risking to accidentally connect two power rails with entirely different voltages together (causing an overvoltage in the lower-voltage rail that is likely to break the circuit, as has happened with some Apple devices). In this case the +120V AC pin might be able to deliver enough power to actually fuse the solder-only pin. This could also be a reference to increasing publicity around the fields of electronics security: hobby reverse engineers have been finding ways for some time now to evade the blown fuses in microcircuitry preventing them from being reprogrammed, using glitching techniques.
|-
| Mechanical
| All connectors include portions whose job is to ensure a solid connection between the cable and the port. This is typically not the job of the pins, however. In real USB type C connectors, this task is performed by the center tongue of the female connector.
| It could also imply transmission of energy or signal through a mechanical principle, such as torque or reciprocating motion.
|-
| +3.3eV/C
| {{w|Electron-volts}} per {{w|coulomb}} would be a very unusual unit to see in a pinout. These units are used in particle physics, but thr appearance is very similar to the common 3.3V supply. It would be a unit of electric potential equivalent to approximately 1.60217662 * 10-19 volts. There 3.3eV/C would be 5.287183 * 10-19 volts, or slightly more than 1/2 attovolts. It could also be read as +3.3 eV/c (per {{w|speed of light}}), in which case it is equivalent to a momentum of 5.3E-28 kg m/s, In high-energy physics, the momentum of particles is sometimes expressed in MeV/c or GeV/c units.
|-
| Candlepin
| Randall is making a pun on the word ''pin'', which refers to a electrical connector pin as well as a thing to knock down in bowling. {{w|Candlepin bowling}} is a form of bowling.
|-
| Facebook use
| This would imply that Facebook had a hand in specifying USB type C, and had a pin dedicated to their use. This could be seen as strange given Facebook's primary business is web technology and would have little need for a dedicated pin in the USB standard, but a lot of back doors have been found in electronics.
|-
| +5V (Positrons)
| {{w|Positron}}s are the antimatter counterparts to electrons. So this pin is supplying +5V, but does so by sourcing positrons into the device rather than sinking electrons out. NOTE: Positrons cannot be conducted through normal matter conductors as they would annihilate with the electrons.
|-
| Pin Roulette
| Presumably in the same vein as "Chat Roulette", this pin's purpose is not rigidly defined and is instead left to chance. According to the title text, this pin's counterpart on the other side of the connector is the "FireWire Tribute Pin", so this cable would only be truly rotationally symmetric (which is the whole point of the USB-C connector) when the pin roulette ball lands on that same function.
|-
| GND
| Ground pin. Typically denoted as "GND".
|-
| SKY
| Reference to the ground pin, which refers to the common grounding on the larger metal body. There is no corresponding "sky" pin, although sky is often thought as the opposite of ground.
|-
| FireWire Tribute Pin
| ''In Title text:'' {{w|FireWire}} is Apple's version of IEEE 1394 which is a 6 pin connector that has a ground pin, a power pin and two pairs of data pins. It was something of a competitor to USB, and had faster data rates than USB 2.0, but is much less popular now. Presumably the writers of the USB-C standard (which far outpaces its data rates) wished to memorialize it somehow, although it's not clear how the pin actually works for that purpose.
|}

The fact that only half of the USB-C pins are documented might hint to an alternative way to manufacture connectors that can be inserted rotated by 180°: Make the receiver use only the right side of the pins and make the sender connect both the left and the right side so all Pins that might match a function are connected correctly no matter if the cable is rotated by 180°.

=== Coax ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Label !! Explanation
|-
| Pin
| An {{w|RF connector|coaxial RF connector}} has two contacts - one pin, and the shield; typically the whole connector is labeled with whatever function/signal is carried by the pair.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption at top]
:Pinouts
:Quick Reference Guide

:[Four common connectors are depicted - vertically, rather than the usual horizontal orientation.]

:[The first connector is a 19-pin HDMI connector.]
:[The nine pins on the left are labeled:]
:*Data
:*+5V
:*+6VI
:*+7VII
:*Antidata
:*Water
:*Vacuum
:*Amazon Copyright Pin
:*Decorative
:[The ten pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+3.3V DC
:*-3.3V DC
:*Tx
:*Wx
:*Rx Only
:*Unknown
:*+240V DC
:*5V AC
:*GND
:*Ground

:[The second connector is a 5-pin Micro USB connector.]
:[The five pins are labeled:]
:*GND
:*GND
:*GND
:*USB
:*GND

:[The third connector is a 24-pin USB-C connector, with only the right side labeled.]
:[The twelve pins on the right are labeled:]
:*+5V DC
:*+3.3V DC
:*+120V AC
:*Boobytrap Pin (Pure Solder)
:*Mechanical
:*+3.3eV/C
:*Candlepin
:*Facebook Use
:*+5V (Positrons)
:*Pin Roulette
:*GND
:*SKY

:[The fourth and final connector is a 1-pin COAX connector.]
:[The one pin in the center is labeled:]
:*Pin

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]

2069: Wishlist

2018-11-07T09:25:50Z

Lolmaus: /* Explanation */ Added general explanation for the ''wizard'' UI pattern.

{{comic
| number = 2069
| date = November 7, 2018
| title = Wishlist
| image = wishlist.png
| titletext = Disappointed that they caved to fan pressure and went with Ruth Bader Ginsburg over Elena Kagan.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
''{{w|Super Smash Brothers}}'' (titled as ''Super Smash Bros.'') is a crossover fighting game series published by Nintendo, primarily featuring Nintendo characters. As of publish date, there are 77 playable characters across the 5 games in the series. Starting with the third game, ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', characters from third-party franchises (non-Nintendo) have been made available.

Fans have suggested new characters to add, and few of these suggestions have been implemented. The comic lists 16 "characters" that Randall wishes were made available in ''Super Smash Bros.'', ranging from plausible playable characters, to the absurd.

; Mario / Luigi hybrid
: {{w|Mario}} and {{w|Luigi}} are characters in the {{w|Super Mario}} series, one of Nintendo's flagship franchises. They are both playable characters in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. A hybrid of these two characters would be quite interesting.

; The SkiFree monster
: {{w|SkiFree}} is a computer game for Windows released in 1991. The player controls a skier trying to avoid obstacles. After the end of a full run, a monster (possibly the Abominable Snowman) appears, and tries to catch the player. The SkiFree monster was a subject of the [[667: SkiFree]] comic.

; Siri
: {{w|Siri}} is the name given to Apple's personal virtual assistant for iOS, macOS, and its other operating systems. It is unclear how Siri would be a playable character in ''Super Smash Bros.''

; Ellie from ''Up''
: Ellie is one of the characters in ''{{w|Up (2009 film)|Up}}'', a 2009 Pixar film. In the beginning of the film, Ellie passes away, leaving her husband Carl alone, and leading him to start his adventure in Paradise Falls.

; Zordon
: {{w|Zordon}} is a fictional character from the ''Power Rangers'' franchise who serves as the Rangers' mentor.

; Clippy
: Clippit, commonly nicknamed {{w|Clippy}}, was one of the Office Assistants for Microsoft Office (versions 1997 to 2003). It was an intelligent user interface that assisted users. Clippy (and the other Office Assistants) was negatively received by users, and was eventually removed in Office 2007.

; The Sarlaac
: The {{w|Sarlaac}} is an alien monster that lived in {{w|Tatooine}} in the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe. It is most prominently shown in the film ''{{w|Return of the Jedi}}'', when the main heroes are sentenced to death by being dropped into the Sarlaac's mouth.

; InstallShield Wizard
: A ''wizard'' is a type of UI that simplifies configuration of an app or process by guiding the user through a number of screens in sequence. A user makes one decision on each screen, and the overall process puts less cognitive load on the user.
: {{w|InstallShield}} is a proprietary software tool for creating installer applications (or software packages) for Microsoft Windows. When the created package is being installed, the installer application can be shown in form of a 'standard Windows Wizard' dialog. Depending on the creativity of the user creating the package, the Wizard can display images while different stages of the installer are being executed.
: There are known instances of The InstallShield Wizard showing a wizard-like character images. Also, the standard wording of the installer text shown to the user ('software-to-be-installed is preparing the InstallShield Wizard, which will guide you through the program setup process') suggests that the Wizard is a 'real character'.

; Mr. Clean
: {{w|Mr. Clean}} is a brand and mascot for Proctor & Gamble used for all-purpose cleaners and melamine foam cleaners.

; Comet Cursor

; Beto O'Rourke
: {{w|Beto O'Rourke}} is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. Representative for Texas's 16th congressional district since 2013. He was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate election, running against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz. O'Rourke received much media attention leading up to the election, with many considering the election abnormally competitive.

; The Monopoly boot
: The "boot" is one of the classic pewter tokens from the board game ''{{w|Monopoly (game)|Monopoly}}''. In 2017, the boot token was retired from the standard version of ''Monopoly''.

; Lot's wife
: Lot and his wife are characters from the book of Genesis in the Bible. According to the book of Genesis, Lot and his family had to {{w|Sodom_and_Gomorrah#In_the_Book_of_Genesis|flee the city of Sodom}}, which was being judged by God for its wickedness. They were commanded to flee and not look back at the city. However, Lot's wife looked back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt. It is unclear which version of Lot's wife Randall wishes to be playable in the game.

; D.B. Cooper
: {{w|D.B. Cooper}} is the name popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft on November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted out of the plane. His identity and whereabouts have never been discovered. D.B. Cooper was a subject of the [[1400: D.B. Cooper]] comic.

; The Blair Witch
: The Blair Witch is the titular character of the ''{{w|The Blair Witch Project}}'', a 1999 "found footage" supernatural horror film. The film became one of the most successful independent films of all time.

; Mavis Beacon
: ''{{w|Mavis Beacon}}'', properly titled as ''Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing'', is a software program used to teach touch typing. However, many have mistakenly thought that "Mavis Beacon" is an actual person.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A bulleted list of items:]
*Mario/Luigi hybrid
*The SkiFree monster
*Siri
*Ellie from ''Up''
*Zordon
*Clippy
*The Sarlaac
*The InstallShield Wizard
*Mr. Clean
*Comet Cursor
*Beto O'Rourke
*The Monopoly boot
*Lot's wife
*D.B. Cooper
*The Blair Witch
*Mavis Beacon

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Super Smash Brothers never did end up adding anyone from my wishlist.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Video games]]