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Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

goughlui.com

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Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#11

Post by mschuster91 »

> This means a connected external power supply will backfeed the computer and that could be a recipe for damage to the port or the computer and is something we had known about causing issues over 20 years ago, yet we’ve still got designs with this issue today.

On the other hand it's useful for space constrained embedded projects. I got a small outdoor enclosure for a Pi Zero, to which two RTL-SDR sticks are attached - too much to supply via the Pi's USB-OTG power rail alone. With the Adafruit microUSB OTG hub [1], I now only have one power supply going into the hub that backfeeds the Pi Zero... one cable less.

[1] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DBMXCTRG

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#12

Post by netsharc »

nar001 wrote: post #4
IveSeenItAll wrote: post #2

Not much to say about the article itself ("cheap stuff from AliExpress-or-its-Amazon-representatives isn't great, news at 11"), but just in case the author happens to be following comments here: I'm pretty sure the first photo shows your name, address and email in small print at the top?

It's actually the importer's info from the Chinese manufacturer, not the OP, since it's the switch packaging (it'd be inside the original package they'd have received from Aliexpress)

AliExpress shipping is wild.. as far as I understand it they try to find the cheapest place to send packages from, so (living in Europe) I've received packages from Australia and Azerbaijan. They probably send a palette of stuff to a country that has cheap International postage, and from there the palette of goods get broken down and packaged for the 1000s of end-consumers..

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#13

Post by bayindirh »

teiferer wrote: post #10

$5 USD. What did you expect? Always surprises me when people pay essentially nothing for a product and then complain about quality.

Marketed as a USB 2.0 hub with a single USB 3.0 port? When I last looked, typing truth via keyboards were free and valuable at the same time.

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#14

Post by ddtaylor »

Klaster_1 wrote: post #5

Wow what an unexpectedly useful article! I have exactly this hub and wondered if I was imagining things. It absolutely has issues beyond that, for example I somehow managed to make a couple of ports unusable for micro-controller flashing even though they used to work just fine. For that price, it's an OK choice to low bandwidth stuff like periphery dongles and security keys, and the form-factor makes it easy to attac…

I had the opposite problem actually I think. I have these small nano teensy USB things that are programmable similar to Arduino, but they have a poor negotiation at start. I was using these to automate keyboard activity, so when plugged in they appear as a USB HID.

This crappy 7 port hub is one of the only ones that "works" to reprogram the chips over USB. Direct connections and other hubs cause it to always appear as a HID and never appear as a thing that can be reprogrammed.

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#15

Post by MallocVoidstar »

netsharc wrote: post #12
nar001 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually the importer's info from the Chinese manufacturer, not the OP, since it's the switch packaging (it'd be inside the original package they'd have received from Aliexpress)

AliExpress shipping is wild.. as far as I understand it they try to find the cheapest place to send packages from, so (living in Europe) I've received packages from Australia and Azerbaijan. They probably send a palette of stuff to a country that has cheap International postage, and from there the palette of goods get broken down and packaged for the 1000s of end-consumers..

Yeah, I used to get stuff directly from China, then after the postage rate changes I was getting packages that had gone China -> Thailand -> Azerbaijan -> USA. Nowadays they seem to batch packages for the good shipping, from Aliexpress in China to (I assume) some US subsidiary, and then from there it gets parceled out to a shipping company seemingly at random (Maersk, Amazon, USPS).

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#17

Post by lostlogin »

avhception wrote: post #7

Well, of course there is the "buy cheap, get trash, duh!" talking point. But if I pay more, who's to say I'll get a better product? The OEM or some middleman or whoever might just pocket the difference and push crap anyway. Well-known brands have done this as well, either intentionally or because they got shafted by their supplier as well.

The stance ‘all hubs are trash’ has served me well.

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#18

Post by lostlogin »

ddtaylor wrote: post #14
Klaster_1 wrote: post #5

Wow what an unexpectedly useful article! I have exactly this hub and wondered if I was imagining things. It absolutely has issues beyond that, for example I somehow managed to make a couple of ports unusable for micro-controller flashing even though they used to work just fine. For that price, it's an OK choice to low bandwidth stuff like periphery dongles and security keys, and the form-factor makes it easy to attac…

I had the opposite problem actually I think. I have these small nano teensy USB things that are programmable similar to Arduino, but they have a poor negotiation at start. I was using these to automate keyboard activity, so when plugged in they appear as a USB HID. This crappy 7 port hub is one of the only ones that "works" to reprogram the chips over USB. Direct connections and other hubs cause it to always appear a…

> I was using these to automate keyboard activity,

I’m interested.

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#19

Post by lostlogin »

ddtaylor wrote: post #16
teiferer wrote: post #10

$5 USD. What did you expect? Always surprises me when people pay essentially nothing for a product and then complain about quality.

Would you say the same about a vendor selling rotten or spoiled food?

If it was 1/4 the normal price, I’d be suspicious.

Re: Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

#20

Post by flyflewflaw »

netsharc wrote: post #12
nar001 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually the importer's info from the Chinese manufacturer, not the OP, since it's the switch packaging (it'd be inside the original package they'd have received from Aliexpress)

AliExpress shipping is wild.. as far as I understand it they try to find the cheapest place to send packages from, so (living in Europe) I've received packages from Australia and Azerbaijan. They probably send a palette of stuff to a country that has cheap International postage, and from there the palette of goods get broken down and packaged for the 1000s of end-consumers..

I regularly get addressed Aliexpress packages that contain multiple addressed packages (e.g. from the same order), so they may in fact be sending pallets full of packaged and addressed items to another country for re-packing and re-shipping
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