USB Problems
I have a minor issue that I’d like to get resolved. I have a cheap but very good USB GPS receiver. However, it uses a weird USB connector and the cable for said connector has developed a fault (at the strain relief point, amusingly). Can anyone advise on the type of connector it uses?
In the two lower photos the cable at the top left is the one I need a replacement of. The device at the bottom is the GPS receiver, and the cable at the top right is a normal mini-USB plug. The photo on the far right is a micro-USB connector, and it isn’t that either 
The mini-B has the angled protruding corners like its counterpart, but mine doesn’t. Still stumped!
Why not just do away with the silly proprietary connector and hardwire a cable on? Do you even need the USB bit if you’re connecting it to a microcontroller?
A cable is only 3 quid on ebay, so I’ll head down that route. It’s to be connected to a computer by USB instead of a microcontroller, so I have to stick with having a plug on the other end. Hardwiring a cable onto it was going to be the last solution
I downloaded the USB specifications from http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/usb_20_122909-2.zip and discovered in Micro-USB_1_01.pdf that the micro-A plug is 6.85mm by 1.8mm, and the micro-B is 6.85mm by 1.8mm, with chamfered edges. This damned thing is 5mm by 3mm.
I couldn’t find the designs specs for the mini-USB plugs, but from all the photos and the many that I have here, the mini-USB plugs are much larger, and all have chamfered edges.
Sod it, I’ll just solder the cable on