Incompatible Self-Powered Hub

[This thread was split off from an earlier general one about Powered Hubs and has been given a more appropriate subject line. Note that replies prefix "Re:" to the old subject line.]

The Pi's very poor power design results in some perfectly good self-powered hubs being incompatible with it. For example, the cheap little 7-port self-powered Dynamode USB-H70-1A2.0 hub that Farnell advertises as a Pi accessory:

http://uk.farnell.com/dynamode/usb-h70-1a2-0/hub-usb-2-0-7-port-with-ac-adaptor/dp/2115058

is not actually Pi-compatible at all, because in addition to powering its 7 host ports, it also powers the Pi board through its A-B upstream lead yet is incapable of supplying enough power to do that successfully (the Pi's Vcc drops to well below 4V). As a result, when the micro-USB is powered down but the hub is powered up and connected, the Pi ends up rebooting continuously every couple of seconds, potentially leading to destroyed HDMI displays among other worries.

So, buying a self-powered hub is not necessarily the end to your Pi power problems.

Really the Pi's power design needs to be nuked from orbit and redesigned from scratch. It's just plain bad in numerous ways.

Morgaine.

Parents

dharr19 over 13 years ago

Hi Morgaine,

Thanks and may I say, England ROCKS!!! I loved the Olympic openings. This is the third time the world has been blessed to have England preside over this event.

I'm guessing that although a powered hub will not end my Pi power problems it might be beneficial to have one if I want to power additional peripherals like wifi and bluetooth adapters.

Any peripheral recommendations such chargers, self-powered hubs, or wifi and bluetoothadapters are appreciated.

Thanks
David
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel

Reply

dharr19 over 13 years ago

Hi Morgaine,

Thanks and may I say, England ROCKS!!! I loved the Olympic openings. This is the third time the world has been blessed to have England preside over this event.

I'm guessing that although a powered hub will not end my Pi power problems it might be beneficial to have one if I want to power additional peripherals like wifi and bluetooth adapters.

Any peripheral recommendations such chargers, self-powered hubs, or wifi and bluetoothadapters are appreciated.

Thanks
David
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel

Children

morgaine over 13 years ago in reply to dharr19

Unfortunately the only item of those that I can recommend from personal experience is Maplin's 1A USB charger --- http://www.maplin.co.uk/micro-usb-power-supply-393067 --- but even that will be of no use to you because they've gone out of stock. I guess I shouldn't have mentioned in these forums that Maplin advertises it as Pi-compatible and that it works fine.

I haven't tried wifi nor Bluetooth with Pi, and the only self-powered hub I've tried with Pi fails with it, as I reported.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to dharr19

actually all the peripherals that do work (and those that don't) are listed here
http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals

As for chargers, Nokia's AC-10E seems to be favorable according to some thread I can't find now, 5V and 1200mA. Beware of Chinese fakes though, especially on ebay and amazon.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
GreenYamo over 13 years ago in reply to dharr19

Hello David, from personal experience I can recommend the HTC chargers (as long as they are genuine) - 5v & 1.2A supply, works well for me.
I have bought, but not tried yet, this charger from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0073JB4QU/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00 altough you need the additional lead which adds to the price, and it has also risen in price since I bought it.
Re Wireless, I have found the following from Amazon great, and very cheap: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003BKBGF4/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00 I have two and they work well in both Squeeze and RaspBMC.

Steve
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
morgaine over 13 years ago in reply to GreenYamo

This thread has nothing to do with USB chargers nor with supplying power to the Pi's micro-USB port. David's question is over in that other thread -- http://www.element14.com/community/thread/19258?tstart=0 .

If replying over there ends up over here (because this thread was split off from that one) then that's a forum bug.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel