USB Hub Malfunction

[fine-tune]

I was searching eBay for a small USB hub that I could use with a laptop on business
trips.

I found several round 8-port hubs like the attached image. I liked the vertical ports
a lot. There was one seller from the USA. All the others were from China.

The guy from California sent me a different hub! It's a 10-port model with a power
jack and switch. I'm always wary about cheap electronics with power switches.
Sure enough, something is definitely wrong. It's probably the switch.

A power indicator LED should be on when you throw the switch. Everything seemed
ok for a couple of hours. Now, the LED is off and all ports are disabled. (The data
cable has a mini USB plug for the hub.)

I have several hub power adapters. After plugging in an adapter the LED stays on
whether the power switch is on or off.

This piece of junk caused my operating system to crash a few times. Fortunately,
I've spent many hours creating "bulletproof" systems. Several backups and other
things protect my computers.

The hub is rectangular, about 5/8" height. If I can pry the case open, what's on
the inside? Do you think bypassing the switch might restore this hub, or should
I toss it in the trash?

[Lenp]

IMO....
If it's got these bugs right out of the box you will never trust it.
Have them send a replacement or scrap it.

[Janitor Tzap]

IMO....
If it's got these bugs right out of the box you will never trust it.
Have them send a replacement or scrap it.

Agreed.

Unless the 30 day or 90 day Replacement/Return & Refund period is up.

Then I'd consider cracking it open.
But this has a Walwart that it gets power from, not the computers USB Port?

Check the Walwart, that it is putting out the correct voltage.

If that is okay, then crack open the HUB, and check the Power Jack.
See if it hasn't worked itself loose from the PCB, or the Power Switch has come loose.
Check for bad solder connections on the board as well.

If after checking these, and repairing them, the Hub still doesn't work.

Yeah,
Throw it into the scrap pile.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

[fine-tune]

My experience buying stuff through eBay has been 99% positive.

PayPal was a seperate company that became the "bank" for eBay. eBay owned
PayPal for several years. A few months ago PayPal became an independent company
again.

I like PayPal!

The few times I had serious problems with eBay they always forced the seller to refund
my money. That's what happened with this junk hub. I informed PayPal that the seller
shipped a USB hub I did not order and the substitute hub was defective. Thirty minutes
after I contacted PayPal the eBay seller refunded my money.

Janitor Tzap, this hub is like all the others. For low power devices like flash drives no
external power source is needed. I plugged in a power adapter just to see if I could
learn anything about the problems with this hub.

Before this hub stopped working completely, I noticed that slight pressure from my finger
on the case cut power to the hub. Not good at all!

I still would like to purchase one or two of those 8-port round hubs with the vertical ports.
Buying anything from China always seemed like a bad idea. Returning a defective product
would be impossible.

There are so many small to medium size hubs listed on eBay. Could one of you guys help
me find something reliable? After purchasing a junk hub, I don't want to make the same
mistake again.

[Janitor Tzap]

Merry Christmas fine-tune!

Okay, the HUB has a external power jack on it.
It's there if you need more power, for something like a USB Hard Drive, Floppy, or DVD/CD-Rom Player/Burner.
Or if your just plugging in a lot of devices into the HUB, and the Laptop's or Computer's Power Supply can't handle the extra load.

Seeing a lot of that, with people plugging in External HD's to their Laptop's,
to off load Pic's, Videos, and other stuff.
Only it tends to eat up the battery life.
Unless the External HD has it's own Battery Pack, or Power Supply.

But from what you described:

Before this hub stopped working completely, I noticed that slight pressure from my finger
on the case cut power to the hub. Not good at all!

This is a classic case of bad solder, or a cracked PCB.

Well since you've gotten your money back.
Then your free and clear to tinker with it all you want.

As for recommending a good USB HUB......

Belkin has in the past made some fairly good USB HUB's.
As well, as Black Box has made some pretty good USB HUB's.

But it's sorta a crap shoot right now.
With almost all electronic manufactured equipment coming from China {Foxcon}.
The quality of the product is questionable at best.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

[fine-tune]

I managed to pry the case apart using a chisel (flat) X-Acto blade.

You can see the hub case and board in the attached images.

There are four articulated ports (0º - to - 90º) and six soldered to the board.

The switch is a simple SPST rocker. Both switch terminals had sheared away from the board!
I immediately soldered what was left of the terminal stubs to the board, but that was not a
good idea. After examining the board with a headband magnifier I found a crack in the switch
body. I rummaged through my collection of surplus switches and found a suitable replacement.

It seems to be working fine right now, but I don't trust the other components on board. I've got
a few dozen flash drives. There are numerous encrypted files for my business on these drives.
I know any device can fail, that's why backups are important. If I can find a couple of those
round hubs with vertical ports (not shipped from China) I'll buy.

[Lenp]

Reminds me of the stuff I got from Radio Shack stores that was returned I paid a dollar a pound for crap-construction. Full of sloppy cold solder joints, solder splashes and long bare wires. I guess that's what you expect for unskilled labor.

[Janitor Tzap]

Interesting design.......

Only you got to wonder what the person was thinking making 4 of the port jacks swivel.

It would make more sense, if the 4 jacks were mounted in a permanent 90 degrees.
Less chance of the wires fraying, breaking, or just breaking the sockets.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

[haklesup]

Who needs a switch, just hardwire it on and use the plug to turn it off like just about every other USB hub. I can't even think of a good reason to have a power switch on a hub.

The ones shipped from CA were probably shipped from China just before you got them. One of several ebay sales models has manufacturers sending a box of items to a partner in the US who can sell them with shorter shipping times than when they come from China.

Though the last thing I bought from China on Ebay got here in 4 days, China Post gives them an unfair advantage with a direct portal to USPS including tracking sometimes for less than local rates. The same in the opposite direction does not exist. Shipping to China remains a challenge. Seriously, how can they sell anything for $1 and have free shipping, I see USB cables as low as 0.84 with free shipping, that seller has sold nearly 10k of them. I bet he made only a few hundred $ from the lot. I would have to ship it in an envelope to get a rate that low in the US.

I too typically have excellent results from eBay and use it often.