Driverless powered USB hub?

L

leicray

Member
I recently bought an Iomega 320 GB HDD so that I can make recordings. It's powered via the USB cable but it must be a bit of a power hog as the cable has two Type A plugs at one end and the "manual" suggests that both plugs might need to be connected depending on the power that can be delivered from the USB port on the device to which it is connected. This turns out to be the case with the HD-Fox T2. So, I dug out an old powered USB hub (circa 2003) and plugged the second Type A plug into that and everything works fine. Just to be clear, the HDD is connected via the "data" Type A plug to the Hummy and via the "power" Type A plug to the hub.

I then tried connecting the hub to the Hummy and both Type A plugs into the hub. (That would allow me to add an additional drive to the Hummy via the hub.) This did not work at all and the Hummy could not see the HDD connected to the hub.

I presume that the basis of the problem is that a driver is needed to connect to the hub since the hub was supplied with a driver disk. So, does anybody know of a powered (driverless?) USB hub that is guaranteed to work with the HD-Fox T2?

Many thanks, and apologies for not being succint.
 
One wonders why a USB port expander would require a driver. Psuedo-dad is using a port expander on his HD-FOX-T2, but he splits between a portable drive and a USB stick without additional power (I know he's lurking - make & model? Does it have an aux power connector?).

Does the Iomega have an aux power inlet? Alternatively you could run a USB extension lead from a USB power adapter to the second plug from the Iomega.

It's a lot less fuss to get a portable drive (instead of an external drive - portable drives don't need additional power) in the first place.
 
Thanks for the feedback. The problem is that the Iomega portable HDD does not have an aux power connector but does seem to need more power than can be supplied by the USB port on an HD-FOX T2. As I explained in my original post, I'm using the powered USB hub simply as a power source: no data are going through the hub.

I agree that there ought to be no need for a driver for the hub, but when I try to connect the HDD data through the hub, the Hummy cannot access the drive. I guess that I could telnet into the Hummy and look at /var/log/messages as I connect and disconnect the hub.
 
Maybe as the USB hub is old it is only usb1 and that might cause problems? I've tried a couple of hubs (both usb2) and they "just worked". I'm surprised you don't get enough power from the port for the drive though. I also use a drive which has an extra usb plug for power - on my laptop I need to plug in both, but on the humax one is fine. I think I saw somewhere that 800ma is available on the port, whereas the standard on most PCs is 500 - So looks like your drive must need 800 - 1000ma (at least at spin up time)... An alternative to powering it through the hub could be to get a cheap ipod charger (just a few quid on ebay) - these are usually just a small powerpack with a usb port on it.

Steve
 
leicray said:
I recently bought an Iomega 320 GB HDD so that I can make recordings. It's powered via the USB cable but it must be a bit of a power hog as the cable has two Type A plugs at one end and the "manual" suggests that both plugs might need to be connected depending on the power that can be delivered from the USB port on the device to which it is connected. This turns out to be the case with the HD-Fox T2. So, I dug out an old powered USB hub (circa 2003) and plugged the second Type A plug into that and everything works fine. Just to be clear, the HDD is connected via the "data" Type A plug to the Hummy and via the "power" Type A plug to the hub.

I then tried connecting the hub to the Hummy and both Type A plugs into the hub. (That would allow me to add an additional drive to the Hummy via the hub.) This did not work at all and the Hummy could not see the HDD connected to the hub.

I presume that the basis of the problem is that a driver is needed to connect to the hub since the hub was supplied with a driver disk. So, does anybody know of a powered (driverless?) USB hub that is guaranteed to work with the HD-Fox T2?

Many thanks, and apologies for not being succint.
Click to expand...
 
I too have the Iomega 320 hdd. You will find it only needs one usb connection to work . If you are using the Humax wifi dongle and the hdd then I suggest using a powered usb hub.I am using a Belkin powered usb hub £8.49 from Amazon and all is well!
 
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