USB hubs for ASICs

[Xfinity]

What did you get that didn't work?

I am curious as well.

On topic:

I like to buy USB hubs that have proved themselves by reading user reviews.

[Unacceptable]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-7-Port-USB-2-0-High-Speed-HUB-ON-OFF-Sharing-Switch-For-Laptop-PC-/110954699994?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

$5
Free shipping (from China, but I don't need it for a month at least)
Cool blue lights
7 ports.

How can you go wrong?  I got 2.

Its cool,but thats not a powered hub,it won't work for the Jalapeno's,only for the SC Singles 30 or 60 gh models.

[Morblias]

I've gotten LOTS of cheap electronics from China, and I've never had a problem.  It's not that hard to implement USB (all of the USB you're using right now was almost certainly made in China).  I'll be very surprised if these hubs don't work.  If they don't, $10 loss.  No biggie .

What did you get that didn't work?

My biggest complaint was the cctv security camera I bought from China. It took FOREVER to figure out how to work it due to the software not working on Windows 7. Seems like every software of things sold on ebay from China only support windows xp. Then finding drivers for it to work took hours of looking and managed to download 2 viruses along the way (thank god it was in a virtual machine). I guess you should be fine though since USB doesn't require trying to find software haha.

[squeept]

Kind of on topic: I think I'm going to buy a Jalapeno just to mod it to fit in a 5.25 bay for the novelty of it.

[Desolator]

If you want to see one that doesn't work and what it did to not work, just hop over to newegg and sort by "best rating" then go to one of the last pages.  You'll find epic equipment like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817175014&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

read some of the reviews for mega lolz.

[MoonShadow]

I've gotten LOTS of cheap electronics from China, and I've never had a problem.  It's not that hard to implement USB (all of the USB you're using right now was almost certainly made in China).  I'll be very surprised if these hubs don't work.  If they don't, $10 loss.  No biggie .

What did you get that didn't work?

My biggest complaint was the cctv security camera I bought from China. It took FOREVER to figure out how to work it due to the software not working on Windows 7. Seems like every software of things sold on ebay from China only support windows xp. Then finding drivers for it to work took hours of looking and managed to download 2 viruses along the way (thank god it was in a virtual machine). I guess you should be fine though since USB doesn't require trying to find software haha.

I once bought a cheap off-brand MP3 player off ebay that was shipped directly from China.  It never worked, and I think it might have simply been a theatre prop.

[MoonShadow]

And you don't think daisychained firewire gets "overwhelmed"?

Sure, it can.  My point is that USB is great for many things; such as thumbdrives, keyboards & mice.  But streaming across a USB bus (particularly across a hub) is a hell of a bottleneck.  Firewire was literally designed for streaming of data.  Again, don't limit yourselves simply to the interfaces that you are used to.  USB would be fine for a single unit, but not for a large number of them.  They will each need their own stream from the host, and the overhead for streaming on USB is huge.  Each unit will be competing with all others for access.  This would also be true for firewire after a point, of course; but overhead for setting up and maintaining a dedicated data stream on firewire is much lower than USB.  USB's greatest advantage is that it's everywhere; and it's everywhere because it was the first market ready hot-pluggable serial bus standard.  USB is VHS, Firewire is BetaMax.

[ralree]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-7-Port-USB-2-0-High-Speed-HUB-ON-OFF-Sharing-Switch-For-Laptop-PC-/110954699994?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

$5
Free shipping (from China, but I don't need it for a month at least)
Cool blue lights
7 ports.

How can you go wrong?  I got 2.

Its cool,but thats not a powered hub,it won't work for the Jalapeno's,only for the SC Singles 30 or 60 gh models.

It is a powered hub - says right in the description.  You need to put a 5v power supply into it, and I don't think one is included.  I'm doing SCs and bASICs, so it won't matter.

[ralree]

I've gotten LOTS of cheap electronics from China, and I've never had a problem.  It's not that hard to implement USB (all of the USB you're using right now was almost certainly made in China).  I'll be very surprised if these hubs don't work.  If they don't, $10 loss.  No biggie .

What did you get that didn't work?

My biggest complaint was the cctv security camera I bought from China. It took FOREVER to figure out how to work it due to the software not working on Windows 7. Seems like every software of things sold on ebay from China only support windows xp. Then finding drivers for it to work took hours of looking and managed to download 2 viruses along the way (thank god it was in a virtual machine). I guess you should be fine though since USB doesn't require trying to find software haha.

Ah yeah things like that from china can be a huge pain.  As long as it's a dumb piece of equipment, it's usually somewhat safe, but as soon as drivers are required, good luck.

[ralree]

And you don't think daisychained firewire gets "overwhelmed"?

Sure, it can.  My point is that USB is great for many things; such as thumbdrives, keyboards & mice.  But streaming across a USB bus (particularly across a hub) is a hell of a bottleneck.  Firewire was literally designed for streaming of data.  Again, don't limit yourselves simply to the interfaces that you are used to.  USB would be fine for a single unit, but not for a large number of them.  They will each need their own stream from the host, and the overhead for streaming on USB is huge.  Each unit will be competing with all others for access.  This would also be true for firewire after a point, of course; but overhead for setting up and maintaining a dedicated data stream on firewire is much lower than USB.  USB's greatest advantage is that it's everywhere; and it's everywhere because it was the first market ready hot-pluggable serial bus standard.  USB is VHS, Firewire is BetaMax.

If my ASICs need more than 480Mbps (even combined) to calculate hashes, I'll be extremely surprised.

[ralree]

What did you get that didn't work?

I am curious as well.

On topic:

I like to buy USB hubs that have proved themselves by reading user reviews.

I'll try to remember to leave a review on here when these arrive.

[Unacceptable]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-7-Port-USB-2-0-High-Speed-HUB-ON-OFF-Sharing-Switch-For-Laptop-PC-/110954699994?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

$5
Free shipping (from China, but I don't need it for a month at least)
Cool blue lights
7 ports.

How can you go wrong?  I got 2.

Its cool,but thats not a powered hub,it won't work for the Jalapeno's,only for the SC Singles 30 or 60 gh models.

It is a powered hub - says right in the description.  You need to put a 5v power supply into it, and I don't think one is included.  I'm doing SCs and bASICs, so it won't matter.

Ah,I just looked at the pic & saw no wallwort.So you need to buy it seperately They say 1 amp,so you can run only 1 Jalapeno.Oh well..............

[Mobius]

Belkin makes some very solid powered hubs

[freeAgent]

Belkin makes some very solid powered hubs

I can second this.  Belkins are good.

[bitpop]

I still have my 10 year old dlink.

[stochastic]

The problem with USB hubs is there aren't any "good" ones.  There are only okay ones.  Newegg has 254 of them and none have significant numbers of high ratings.  If you want one that probably won't fail too soon, I'd go with basically anything without horrific ratings from:

Inland
Bytec
SIIG
Koutech
Belkin
Hawking
US Robotics
Kensington
TrendNet
Sabrent

A lot of those companies make some pretty bad ones but they also carry a couple that are pretty nice.
Ultra "makes" really bad products but their hubs I've had a lot of luck with too. (they don't make anything, they buy OEM and put their name on it).

if I had to buy one right this second, I'd say none of the above and get this beast:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4621333&CatId=392
not a bad price either

I have a D-Link DUB-H7 for 4 or 5 years now I think.  I have never had any problems with it.  The only problem is that it does not contain any USB 3.0 ports.

[EuroTrash]

In preparation for ASICs, what USB hubs do you have/are going to buy?

I am currently leaning towards http://www.manhattan-products.com/en-US/products/9583-mondohub

The ports are only 500mA, but I am assuming BFL Jalapenos will have something like dual usb inputs.

Do the Jalapenos use the USB port only for power, or do they use it for data connectivity?

According to the USB Charging Specification the max current is negotiated digitally. When non negotiated, the maximum is 500mA for USB2 and 900mA for USB3. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Charging_ports_and_accessory_charging_adapters for details.

[bitpop]

Of course it uses data, but im pretty sure hubs dont care about negotiated power

[ralree]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-7-Port-USB-2-0-High-Speed-HUB-ON-OFF-Sharing-Switch-For-Laptop-PC-/110954699994?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

$5
Free shipping (from China, but I don't need it for a month at least)
Cool blue lights
7 ports.

How can you go wrong?  I got 2.

Its cool,but thats not a powered hub,it won't work for the Jalapeno's,only for the SC Singles 30 or 60 gh models.

It is a powered hub - says right in the description.  You need to put a 5v power supply into it, and I don't think one is included.  I'm doing SCs and bASICs, so it won't matter.

Ah,I just looked at the pic & saw no wallwort.So you need to buy it seperately They say 1 amp,so you can run only 1 Jalapeno.Oh well..............

Hmm I wonder if you have a PSU molex 5v and ground if you could just wire it directly into the DC barrel on there.  It would definitely supply more than enough power for some jalepenos.

[bitpop]

the pcb traces may melt