Inside USB cable connectors?
prof_braino
Posts: 4,313
What's supposed to be inside USB cable connectors? I thought there would just be the wires soldered to the connect, from RS232 cable experience.
I have a micro USB cable that cracked open, and there's a bitty little circuit board with at least one tiny surface mount part. What would that be?
I just saw this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-connected-to-internet.html
Could I have a lucky cable?
I have a micro USB cable that cracked open, and there's a bitty little circuit board with at least one tiny surface mount part. What would that be?
I just saw this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-connected-to-internet.html
Could I have a lucky cable?
Comments
If non normal USB then it might be a charge chip
http://blog.curioussystem.com/2010/08/the-dirty-truth-about-usb-device-charging/
I have a few here.
Nonetheless, some manufacturers see any plug-in as an opportunity to hide some circuitry.
An N.S.A. transciever? That is way cool. It is like finding a prize in a cereal box. This nonsense has been going on in the US since the dawn of telecomunictions. Just ask yourself why all telephones have a 4 wire line when only 2 wires are required for service. The other 2 were there so that J. Edgar Hoover could tap into your telephone as an open mike anytime he wanted to.
In 1994 I arrived in Taiwan, had a telephone installed... and the phone company only used 2 wires to provide service. So you see....?
I hope you are being facetious here - the other two wires are so you could have an additional phone line e.g. children's phone or home business, etc
The extra wires are not normally connected.
Sometimes they were used to power lighted key pads via a transformer...
EDIT: Sorry for the ambiguity on the third wire. I remembered something of it in school, but after 25-ish years, some of it gets a little fuzzy... The third wire was used for selective ring. It let one subscriber's phone ring without ringing the others. Then all we had to annoy us was when someone else was using the line when we picked up the handset.
Princess phones were a very late comer to the 4-wire game, and a party line was just two wires. When did 4-wire intallations begin?
See the history section below... look for discussion about 'extra wires'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_tapping
http://ivn.us/2013/06/21/the-history-of-wiretapping-from-prohibition-to-the-patriot-act/
http://www.spybusters.com/History_1955_Exposed_The_Truth.html
Without a picture its hard to know - decoupling capacitor, ferrite bead, tvs diode...
For that to happen, it needs the data lines.
And more modern devices such as tablets can draw even more power, if they can verify that the port is capable of delivering the up to 2A that some chargers and dedicated ports can deliver. And that, too, requires some form of communication between the devices.
It's a bit of a messy standard...
The other end of the drop has the active pair terminated via a cross connected (aerial, pedestal, etc.) to the assigned pair on the Telco's feeder cable. Any additional pairs in the drop are again neatly terminated until additional or replacement pairs are needed. This is another place where you could tap or disrupt service. You would need to be able to identify your targets drop as it came into the cross connect (plus have access to the cross connect). You, of course also need access to the cross connect. (feel free to set up your ladder to work on an aerial drop - it's an experience everyone should have, especially in ice, snow, wind, rain, etc.)
The next place to intercept or tap would be the Serving Area Interface (SAI) This is where the Telco's F1 cables coming from a central office cross connect to the F2 feeder cables. To do this efficiently, you need access to the Telco F1/F2 pair assignments for your target plus you need access to the inside of the SAI. These should be physically locked in most locations.
You of course can tap into the F2 cables at any point but the chances of getting your targets assigned pair out of 625 or more active and inactive pairs is pretty slim.
All of these cables have additional unused pairs to allow new assignments to be made to replace faulty pairs without having to replace a cable.
In any case, unless you use some sort of inductance device against an active pair, you physically need to put your tap into the pair you are interested in. Since the 2nd pair in a 1 line residence isn't connected to anything on either end and the extra pairs in a drop wire aren't connected to anything on either end and this is the case for any extra pairs all the way back to the central office, using them for any sort of tap is way too much effort. It's much easier to insert your tap into the active pair at any one of the points described above.
Telco employees do it all the time during testing and installation with their handy Butt set.
This is all theoretical speculation on my part, of course.
The reality is that just about everyone is snoopy.
If they have access to the inside of the premise to connect those wires to something and then connect those terminated wires to the the drop at the NID and then carry that down the rest of the circuit as far as they need it.
Once in side the house, I can't see the benefit of using the spare pair in a telco line for your bugging purposes. If you really just want a phone tap, there are less intrusive ways to do those. Put the tap in the NID or in the cross connect where it's still easy to isolate the line you want and also a place that doesn't get opened very often.
I don't think everyone is snoopy to the point of installing bugs and wire taps but maybe I just run in the wrong social circles!
Thank you for the reply!
Historically, there was a time .. the 1960s and before that the extra pair was very useful. We didn't have transistors and integrated circuits way back then. And before 1967, the police didn't need a judge to authorize a wire tap. People were more daring, technology was less accommodating. Even a good tape record was expensive and bulky. Do you remember reel-to-reel wire records in lieu of mylar tape?
I don't think everyone is snoopy to the point of installing bugs. I never have. But listening in on a telephone extension is something we have all likely done. People watching is more fun that TV., especially if you live in a small town without good cable TV.
I can't get a fix on exactly when the US telco went to 4 wires, but it was always in my home and I was born in 1947. I grew up when the telephone company had control over the entire installation... legally they owned all the equipment and the home owner was not supposed to touch any of the wiring.
Somewhere and sometime in the distant past, there was a policy decision for all the telco in the US to have 4 wire installation. And it is very likely the FBI lobbied for this.
Looking over wiring diagrams from this site, the majority of telephones were three-wire units during the 1930s and 1940s, the third wire being a ground. The Western Electric 500P, though, was a four-wire unit. Can't say how widespread that one was, however.
The four wire policy, I'm thinking, was driven more by Bell/AT&T, anti-trust suits and regulation notwithstanding. When I worked for a machine builder, we always ran spare wires to junction boxes and other remote locations from the main control panel. It was never a question of whether some functionality or feature was going to be added or not, or if a wire is broken or not. It was a question of when it would happen. I believe that it was either a forward-thinking for new technologies, or an effort to minimize downtime.
I could be wrong, but it looks to be just protection diodes.
Hello!
Right close enough. The standard four wires, were Tip then Ring, then Accessory and finally Ground. Now if you want colors, that's a bit harder. But look here:
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=42999&minisite=10251
Of course, if you talk to any lawyer... I suppose they would fear than all and everything is being watched and snooped.
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I seem to recall seeing 4 wire telephone installations with cloth over rubber insulation wires, before vinyl.
Hello!
You're very welcome. Close on the name of the late Silent Film comedian. The name was (Fatty) Arbuckle. As it happens that's the last name the creator of Garfield chose for his (the cat's) human's last name.
And that all happened right here. In Coney Island NY. And your good friend's grandfather was an amazing individual.
Incidentally, I recited the name scheme from memory, but needed to check my bookmarks for the color codes.