Will a regular USB Hub work with these USB devices?

[Guest]

Hi, I have a mod i'm planning on making for my case, and basically what im trying to do is put all of the wireless stuff in the front, as for whatever reason, they don't work properly nor very far from the back *im not even 5-10 feet away from my couch, this is for an HTPC setup) anyways, I got this idea to put a usb hub inside of my case, as it has a tinted window perfect for allowing signals through. What I was thinking about doing was getting a regular usb hub, and wiring it to a usb header pin for the motherboard internal usb pins. problem is, I believe some hubs require a power plug, especially if you plug multiple or power hungry devices in.

So, my question is, would I be able connect these devices to a regular usb hub, without requiring an extra power source:

Logitech unifying usb adapter
Bluetooth micro adapter
infrared usb receiver
(possibly, not sure yet) Microsoft xbox 360 wireless receiver, or other wireless gaming receiever

if at all possible, it would be nice to have an extra free usb slot for something else down the line, but its not important. just wondering if those usb adapters all plugged into one usb hub would require too much power draw?

any help would be much appreciated. thanks

 

[inzone]

The problem is not with the devices that you connecting to the hub but rather the hub itself requiring a power source. I don't see where connecting a power source to the hub would be a problem , those hubs come with a goo length of cord for the p[ower cord and while there may not be an outlet right next to the case you can use an extension cable. The power coeds are very thin and the ends are usually small so you could easily get it in through the back of the case and rou it to the front.

 

[Guest]

Lol. Well that kind of defeats what I was wanting to do, but that's why I was asking if those specific USB devices would require that much power that I would need an external power source. I read an article online since that said basically a USB port provides 500ma of power, and a hub can divide this power in 100ma to up to four devices. So I'm wondering if the devices listed would only require that amount? It says if they do then that's when an external power would be neecded for the extra draw. I'm not sure though as I obviously don't know this stuff that well lol.

 

[inzone]

Like I said it's not so much the devices that you plug in but the hub it self and it most likly won't work untill you connect it's power source. If you can find a hub that does not have a power cord you could connect your low power devices.

I have from time to time bought motherboards that came with a variety of accesories and one of those accesories was a usb bracket that would plug into the usb header on the motherboard and then the bracet end would sit in one of the empty slots in the back of the case and provide extra usb ports. There is no power plug and it just connects to the header. This link below shows you what I mean.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186177

This web site below has all kinds of usb things . cables , devices , hubs and so on.

http://usb.brando.com/

 

[Guest]

I feel so stupid, I don't know why I didn't think of one of those internal bracket hubs before! Haha! Your awesome! This will work out better as well cuz the window I'm referring to on my case has screw mounts from the vfd screen. Perfect! Thanks for the tip! Haha

Your gonna laugh though. I actually went and picked up a 4 port hub and already placed it in my case lol. I routed it through the slot your referring too and plugged it into the back of my case lol. Seems to work so far, but right now I only have 2 slots used, and have 2 more planned. But I'm still gonna buy a hub with a bracket for internal use cuz it will work better. But yes the non powered hubs were what I was referring too.

One more question. Since ill have 4 wireless adapters plugged in so close together (1 rf, 1 ir, 2bluetooth) do you think there's going to be any interference between the signals? :-/

 

[inzone]

There will be interference if the frequency of the devices are close and it will depend on how close. I think that you might only have to be cooncerned with the blue tooth because the other two are different and will have different frequencies.

 

[Guest]

That's what I figured, so I was going to put them on the farthest end from one another lol. If I have too, maybe I'll get a USB extender and place them in the corners of the case. They should still have decent signal inside of the case

 

[Guest]

I figured I would post a reply of my results in case anyone was interested. Keep in mind that the reason my setup works so well for me is that I have a window for my case where my LCD used to be, and I doubt most wireless would be able to go through without it.

I decided to keep the 4 port USB hub I bought, simply because after looking online, I noticed that most of the USB port brackets I found each had their respective USB ports with its own USB pin header, and this wasn't going to work out for my case, as I would be limited on how many USB ports vs header pins. Since USB hubs only use one USB port, I found a female USB to pin header cable on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280733690483?redirect=mobile

Most of you can probably just make one yourself, but I got one at under $6 which is fine for me, and its cleaner and easier, lol.

Anyways, I have a dual boot windows/osx hackintosh, and when checking the system info on osx, it shows the USB hub, how much power (500ma) it's capable of providing, along with how many mA's each device on the hub draws. Between my two Bluetooth adapters, and the Logitech rf adapter, its barely even drawing half the 500ma from the hub, so with room to spare for the ir connector I ordered. So as long as you have low powered devices you should be fine, like inzone said. As for the two Bluetooth adapters, I plugged them in farthest from one another on the hub, and as far as I can tell, I'm getting no interference. I was even able to talk into another room with devices on each adapter and had good range! I do however live in a small studio like apartment, but for me this is more than enough, as the signal is just for a living room situation anyway.

I've yet to receive my ir adapter, which leaves one extra USB port open, but if for whatever reason it doesn't have enough power on the hub, I'll just put it on the extra USB pin header I have available.

Thanks inzone for the help and advice. Oh and just so you know, the reason I didn't pick the USB port you recommended from newegg, was because I wanted to keep my internal USB 3.0 pin open incase I wanted extra 3.0 ports for something else, when the devices I currently put on my hub are only 2.0 devices. thanks again

 

[Guest]

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