Looking for 6 inch usb cables

November 24, 2006 1:47 PM

Anyone know where I can order short usb cables? I'll be happy with anything under 1 ft but would prefer about 6 inches. Mainly I'm looking for usb A to mini-5 pin, male to male.

I spend 1/2 my time out on the field with a laptop, digital camera, and portable HD. I don't need 3ft of cable. I don't like retractable cables as they tend to curl when extended, adding to all the clutter. And when I use retractables with a portable HD, the cable gets alarmingly hot.

I know I could cut and splice my own cable, but would prefer not to. If the info on the HD somehow gets corrupted, I'd rather not have people think it was the fault of my DIY cable.

Thanks

posted by Cog to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Wow, that's really hard. A quick search of several online retailers fails to turn up anything.

The shortest USB cable in my big bin-o-cables is about 18 inches, which came with a firewire/usb hard drive I bought from Other World Computing. But that's longer than you want, and it looks like they don't sell them separately.
posted by raf at 1:54 PM on November 24, 2006

What about this one? It has a more complex name, but it looks like a normal USB cable to me....
posted by raf at 1:58 PM on November 24, 2006

Here's I think the same thing, at lots of stores.
posted by raf at 1:58 PM on November 24, 2006

Ah, I missed the limitations on what kind of USB cable you're looking for. That sounds harder.
posted by raf at 2:01 PM on November 24, 2006

Buy a longer cable that fits your needs, cut it & reattach the wires. Alternately, buy the two male heads & wire it yourself. There's a pinout here.
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:13 PM on November 24, 2006

Here is a one-foot cable of the type you want.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:21 PM on November 24, 2006

(Sorry, didn't read the complete question.)
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:34 PM on November 24, 2006

Thanks Kirth,

However, that store is pure evil as I've put 4 items in my shopping cart and I haven't gotten the cable yet.
posted by Cog at 2:36 PM on November 24, 2006

Get a card reader that fits in the PC Card slot of your laptop. Then you don't need a cable at all.
posted by cillit bang at 3:48 PM on November 24, 2006

Yeah, the evil store also has card-specific readers that plug into a USB port. That's what I use. They are actually smaller than a short USB cable.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:17 PM on November 24, 2006

@Cillit

Card reader doesn't help with my portable HD.
posted by Cog at 5:05 PM on November 24, 2006

@Cog

Unless your portable harddrive is a CF size harddrive!
posted by SirStan at 5:45 PM on November 24, 2006

Did you search Google for short USB cable?
I did.

1, 2, 3, 4, (last one with one of those litle adapters)

enjoy!
posted by fake at 6:00 PM on November 24, 2006