USB hubs / extension cables

[rottenlungs]

Hi

After a string of unreliable USB hubs and cheap & nasty extension cables can anyone recommend a quality powered USB hub and cables?

Thanks

James

[Matt Olieman]

Sorry to see that you're having problems James, it aggravating, I know.

Bottom line on cables and hubs, usually the higher price ones are the best. I use th gold plated cables. Sorry don't have the brand for the Hubs, they were stackable, but wasn't cheap.

Someone will come along with a brand name

Lot's a luck James

Matt Olieman

[ak49er]

I have had excellent luck with Dynex hubs, I just purchased three 4 potr, powered hubs fron *bay, as I was pleased with the first one I bought locally. I have not tried piggybacking them yet, but I do plan to.

I haven't given much though to cable construction and material, but I have noticed I have some larger diamater cables, and I assume they have more shielding if not core material, and I install those first, leavign the thin ones as spares.

[rottenlungs]

Hi and thanks for the feedback,guys.

Points noted. I like idea of a stackable hub. The DSE (local own brand) is not really up to the job.

I have a small unpowered targus inline hub which is quite high quality and seems to work fine when attached straight to a port on the PC - if I try and use the 5 meter extension cable none of it works.

More experimentation - annoyingly FSUIPC had (maybe they`ve fixed this now) a habit of reassigning the usb id numbers when devices were unplugged - most annoying when the two saitek tq`s swap places in the numbering after days of work mucking with profiles for axis assignments!

Cheers

James

[TobiBS]

We are using D-Link 7-Port Hubs, powered for the use of high power devices, not stackable, but due to its rectangular housing easy to mount with cable binders. They are working perfectly with seven devices attached (FDS SYS-Boards, FDS Joystick Controllers, self built devices).

We are using two of them behind a USB extender which is from a local brand and is capable of extending the USB-Port 50m from its socket, but only using it with 10m cable.

The only problem in this setup is, that you should only connect new items to the USB when the machine is running, because otherwise there seems to be an enumeration problem during startup and none of the devices is recognized by WIndows, then unplugging and replugging is the solution, but normally when your setup is fixed this should not be a problem.

We are using another D-Link 7-Port Hub behind a 10m connection bundled from a normal 5m cable and an extender which gives us another 5m, this also works perfectly.

Just to notice, I recognized that exactly the same setup can cause problems on another computer, maybe due to the chipset used on the mainboard.

More experimentation - annoyingly FSUIPC had (maybe they`ve fixed this now) a habit of reassigning the usb id numbers when devices were unplugged - most annoying when the two saitek tq`s swap places in the numbering after days of work mucking with profiles for axis assignments!

I wouldn't blame this on FSUIPC, but on Windows, had a strange problem yesterday. After reconnecting the controllers, moving the stick to the left side lead to a moving to the right side and vice versa. I found out that Windows had reenumerated the devices and therefore FSX recognized these new devices and activated them directly in FSX, now our joystick reading and writing software which recognized the controllers correctly was fighting against the internal FSX logic and at the end FSX won.

[dvincent]

Hi,

the quality of the cables is something to consider ofcourse, but... the most important is the powersupply !
You should try your "bad" usb-hub with another more powerfull powersupply, i.e 1000 mA up to 2000 mA.
You will be surprised, take my word.
(I 'm a technician)

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

i have a myriad of usb connections and some of them are quite a way from the FS machine.
instead of extension cables, did you think about using USB2.0 Repeater cables. solved my problems......
good luck and regards ... ian

[rottenlungs]

Hi and thanks for the all the additional advice.

It certainly sounds like my extension cable is the culprit. I will invest in a 7-port d-link hub and a decent repeater cable.

Understood re the powered hub, Dirk. I previously had a generic (**** Smith) powered hub but it killed my motherboard so I ditched it. I Hopefully a decent brand wont have the same effect..

Incidentally didn`t mean to malign FSUIPC, it is right that windows enumerates the devices differently and fsuipc is the innocent victim. However, the effect is felt in my fsuipc config..

Thanks again

James