Posted: 2/16/2017 12:39:46 AM EDT
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I'm using a cheap Windows 10 laptop in my shack. It only has 3 USB ports and I need about 5. Is there any way to add more USB ports while maintaining a decent USB port performance?
I need to use the ports for the following: 1 - Ham Radio Deluxe (connected to FTDX-3000). 2 - SDRPlay receiver (will be synced with the radio and used as an additional bandscope). 3 - Wireless keyboard. 4 - Wireless mouse. 5 - Spare port for programming radios etc. (can live without it) Are there any good USB port extenders/splitters that will work? SDRPlay and HRD will be on two separate, dedicated ports. I can probably split the third port into two and use it for the keyboard an mouse. I do know how to use Goggle search but would like to hear from those who have practical experience with adding/splitting USB ports. Any advise will be appreciated. 73! |
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I use a passive USB hub to run my LMR SDR setup that has 2 RTLs and an airspy. That is 14ms/s when everything is running and it does fine.
If you are using it at home you might as well get a powered hub if you want to power up a phone or such. I would suggest using the hub for the mouse, keyboard, radio control, and HT programming. Keep the SDR play plugged directly into your computer. |
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I like to use industrial USB hubs with the radio. They have a metal housing, include ESD, over current & surge protection and can run from the same power supply as the radio. They also have provision for grounding. You can find them in the $50 - $70 neighborhood if you shop around, brands that come to mind are Tripp-Lite, SIIG and StarTech.
Nick |
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Thanks guys. I bought a 4 port, powered Insignia USB hub at Best Buy for $29. It works with the mouse and keyboard, just fine. I also stopped by Sam's Club. They had a 27" Samsung monitor, on sale for $159. It was hard to resist and the monitor traveled home with me. So far I like it and the cheap laptop has no problem supporting it.
Now I need to figure out how to sync my FTDX3000 with the SDRPlay, so that SRPPlay can be used as a bandscope. I think it can be done with Ham Radio Deluxe supplying information to the SDRPlay. I have a paid version of HRD 6.x (free one does not support my radio) but have not used it in a long time. Hope it does not take 5 days and all of my remaining hair, to make it work 
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Quoted:
I like to use industrial USB hubs with the radio. They have a metal housing, include ESD, over current & surge protection and can run from the same power supply as the radio. They also have provision for grounding. You can find them in the $50 - $70 neighborhood if you shop around, brands that come to mind are Tripp-Lite, SIIG and StarTech. Nick What brand do you like? I've used a lot of managed N-Tron Ethernet IP industrial managed switches at work. They were pain in the ass because some models were very picky about power supplies. I specified regular 24VDC power supplies for the PLC control rack, like we do for all applications. The switches would work for several days and all of the sudden quit sending or receiving some data. I lost a lot of sleep over that because one minute of downtime costs over $200, when the plant is down. N-tron help was usual - confused underpaid and overworked nerds. I finally got a hold of their chief engineer who was waiting for his flight somewhere in Europe and we finally figured it out. Apparently the Sola power supplies were not good enough. The switch requires 0.5 Amps DC @ 24 V. I specified a good quality, 5 ADC power supply in the rack, powering 3 switches. The problem was that N-tron switches required a power supply capable of providing at least 15A surge current for 10 ms, at power-up. The f*ckers never mentioned this anywhere, except that they recommended PULS brand power supplies. I had to overnight a bunch of new, very expensive PULS power supplies and this fixed the problem. While waiting for a new PS, I used cheap Walmart switches and everything worked fine. The morale of the story is that, expensive industrial shit is not always better but always costs astronomical amount of money. |
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The two I have now are SIIG and StarTech (both acquired via Amazon). Both can run off supplies in the 9v - 24v range and are currently powered by the same Samlex 30A that is supplying 13.8v to the radio. The terminal block on both has a removable plug with 3 screw sets for adding wire (+,-,GND). The SIIG had published specs regarding protection (ESD, surge & over-current) like the Tripp-Lite. The StarTech, which was a fill-in while the SIIG went back for a warranty replacement after dropping a port, does not publish those specs but had other characteristics like the SIIG. The SIIG stays between the radio & PC.
Nick |