A Random Annoyance - magnetic USB connectors

 A few weeks ago I bought a watch, perhaps a smart watch, perhaps a not very smart watch.  Anyway this is not really about the watch.  The watch had an interesting USB charging port.  

The USB "socket" has two plates also surrounded by two magnets.  

 

The USB connector has 2 pins and the pins are surrounded by two magnets.  I found it interesting.  The magnets meant that the connector would only contact and stick on in the right direction.  The socket was completely waterproof.  Cool.  

A couple of weeks later I got a bone conduction headset.  It had the same charging connector.

 

The magnets are buried.

And apparently the same cable and almost the same connector.  

 

Oh, I realised that the magnets were opposite polarity.  Ouch! I carefully marked the cables so as not to get them mixed up.  I checked the polarity of the power pins.  Same electrical polarity but opposite magnetic poles.

It's annoying that there isn't a standard.

Maybe there's a rectifier bridge inside the devices, but these are small devices and I don't want to test this, just in case.

That horrible rubbery plastic coating that turns sticky

 I hate that horrible rubbery plastic coating, that they sometimes put on small electronic devices, that turns sticky after a year or three .  If I want to keep using the device, I have to remove the coating which has turned sticky, which is a major undertaking.

To clean the rubbery coating I need to use eucalyptus oil, ti tree oil, citrus oil, alcohol, propyl alcohol or a mixture of one or two of them and some old cloth.  The process is messy and time consuming.

Just stop it.