Connecting cables

If you need to connect two things together, you can use a cable to connect them, and cables come in loads and loads of different shapes and sizes, and they can do different things. First thing you need to do, if you have got one item, maybe you are trying to connect an external drive to your computer, you need to think about how long the cable is, you do not want a cable so long, it gets messy. It may be you are connecting your camera and you want something very short or you need to have it a little bit longer. So look at the length of the cable. Do not have anything too long because the shorter the cable, the more effective it's going to be. Also, you need to work out what you want the cable to do. Now, some cables will be like this one, this is a USB to a USB cable, and what this can be used and can be for connecting two USB C devices together. But also some of the new computers, the Windows computers and the Mac books, they can use those as charging ports as well. So that cable can not only be used to go between your mains charger and your computer, but also could be used to go between your computer and your camera or your external drive. And the types of cable vary as well, this one here is a braided cable, and it's a lot stronger, so if you are doing something where you are continually moving and continually working with the cable, maybe go for something that's slightly stronger.

Other cables are, again, this one here is a braided cable, and this is a connection cable is around about one meter long, and this one converts from USB to USB C, and you can get these in lots of different colors and shapes and lengths with them, but it is not only is it connecting a product, so something like this could be connecting a camera to a standard computer, because the computer will probably just have the standard USB, but the camera may well have the USB C. These cables are used for connecting between your computer and your Apple mobile phone or tablet. On this end, you have got USB C, and this is a standard USB, and this is the lightning connector on this end, which goes straight into your mobile device. These cables, again, can come in different lengths, they can also be connected between your mobile phone and your mains socket on the wall or USB port. So if you're in a hotel you want to charge your mobile phone, you can use these even without a computer. You can also use these to connect between an external battery pack and your mobile phone.

Another cable, similar with the Apple side is this, this is a USB, standard USB, and on this end is a connector which just goes to charge your Apple watch up, it's connected directly through, you are going to, again, use your computer to charge your watch, and there's other watches out there, and you have similar cables with this, so you can use your computer as a charging device for your other electronic gadgets. Final two we are going to look at are these, which are the micro and the mini USB, these are just a very small port, they are slightly angled in the shape of them and only the older devices have these older cameras, but they are still used today for lots of different devices, but just be careful, there are two sizes, they are quite similar in size, so do not go forcing the small one into the larger hole or vice versa, because you will damage the end of it. With any connector you are putting into a computer, it should go in really, really easily and come out easily, you shouldn't ever have to force it in or really hard force it out, they are very, very simple connectors, and very few of them actually even lock into the computer, so you can literally just pull them out.

And when you do pull them out, just hold the cable firmly and hold it on the end and pull it straight out, try not to pull it an angle. Try not just to rip it out by the cable like this, because again, you will start to damage the cables.