Current Events > anyone know anything about mechanical keyboard usb connections?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I bought this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J708CCG

except it was cherry mx.

it came with a mini usb cable, which I broke off the connector accidentally. But I've tried two other mini usb cables and they only cause the lights to come on for a blink and the keyboard doesn't work. i've tried usb 2 and 3 ports but that shouldn't matter because this thing was *just* working.

some googling came up with some stuff about an extra pin for a ground or something, i don't think this applies, since the cable was 5 pins and so are all my other mini usb cables
---

Mango Sauce posted...

some googling came up with some stuff about an extra pin for a ground or something, i don't think this applies, since the cable was 5 pins and so are all my other mini usb cables

This may well be the problem. A lot of USB cables designed just to carry data don't actually carry a ground wire inside the cable (despite the terminal having the pin) because there's no real expectation of a current sink for transmitting data.

bump
---

well, I tried a USB cable that I know powers something for a fact (used for a wireless adapter) and got nothing except a flash. shit. I guess I should open it up and examine the connector
---

i'm not sure about mini usb, but with micro usb and usb c there are different types of cable.

with micro usb, you have your base level, cheap garbage shit cable that will work for almost everything you want to do which is usually cheap peripherals or data transfer.
But with high powered devices, like your backlit keyboard, android phone with fast charging, tablet etc there is a higher quality type of micro usb cable available that can carry enough power for these devices to utilize correctly.

with usb type c it goes even further with power delivery which is capable of charging laptops, but i doubt your keyboard is usb type c

so, i can only suggest buying a decent cable like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerLine-Premium-Motorola-Smartphones/dp/B019Q4TJZC
---