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

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

#31

Post by mrngld »

bayindirh wrote: post #22
lostlogin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I managed to get a couple of good ones. While they're more like docking stations, Kingston's, now discontinued, Nucleum and UGreen's wares are all good. If you go higher level, of course there's Thunderbolt docks, but you can't make them cheaply, so they're generally good.

I've yet to come across truly reliable Thunderbolt 3 and above stations. Seems like every brand has, like this 7 port wonder in the article, lots of 5 star reviews. When you dig deep into the weeds of the reviews, Reddit, user forums, etc., you find the undercurrent of people who actually bother to check the stats reported by their OS, or have disconnect issues, etc, etc.

I'm somewhat sympathetic because from what I can tell engineering something capable of pushing that much data requires some exquisite engineering for every part of the process (chips on your computer, your computers port, your cables, the dock, the cable into the end device and the device and its port and chip). But still, they present these products like they're bulletproof.

It's possible I've had bad luck. A Caldigit TS3 had issues with dropping external drives and becoming unresponsive, then died after 2 years. Caldigit TS4 bricked itself after about a year. Got an OWC Thunderbolt Dock now and it just decides sometimes to stop communicating to anything new plugged in until you power cycle it.

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

#33

Post by mrngld »

MallocVoidstar wrote: post #15
netsharc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

So the US had the USPS stop subsidizing Chinese postage rates... and they innovated to leverage subsidies elsewhere.

Just stop subsidizing international shipping period seems the smart play. If they want to undercut their own high-end domestic competition and destroy foreign competitors then they can at least pay fair rates.

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

#34

Post by rickdeckard »

My first thought whenever I come across such a badly-engineered no-name device is "oh great, another bad reference design which will poison the pool of all the available devices out there"

It helps a bit to spot and avoid that exact exterior design, but often those devices are designed to reuse the same mold as more-expensive ones and/or keep changing the design based on the purchasing customer.

So you end up on AliExpress looking at 5 identical hubs, but the cheapest one may have a different PCB inside.

Or you look at 5 different hubs, with all of them having the same PCB inside...

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

#35

Post by kasabali »

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.

Whenever I get the same device from AliExpress and the local white label importers, even though the outside casing is identical, AliExpress option has always had more quality. Locally sold ones has always the crappier internals albeit they come in a box (versus AE ones come in a bag)

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

#37

Post by ddtaylor »

Klaster_1 wrote: post #28
ddtaylor wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was automatong pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a loop with a knob to adjust the loop time. This was to protest Path of Exile potion management requiring you to constantly press that for hours near end game. Also, to be clear, this is not a good potion strategy in terms of being competitive, it's a survival mechanism.

I'm curios why go HW route versus programming a keeb/mouse/ahk macro? For example, that one time I had a build in Diablo 4 where I needed to constantly rotate abilities to maintain it, which I solved with a macro on repeat that was toggled on/off with a button press. Does PoE discourage macro/ahk use?

It was kinf of a protest against the whole popcicle stick controversy in Path or Exile. People were getting banned for using macros and I wanted to demonstrate it was a pointless battle. Yes, ban botters and cheaters, but not for loops that reduce injury.

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

#39

Post by ssl-3 »

mrngld wrote: post #33
MallocVoidstar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

So the US had the USPS stop subsidizing Chinese postage rates... and they innovated to leverage subsidies elsewhere. Just stop subsidizing international shipping period seems the smart play. If they want to undercut their own high-end domestic competition and destroy foreign competitors then they can at least pay fair rates.

Which part of "send a giant box of stuff to the US using regular shipping channels and pay whatever duties and/or tariffs are due, sort it out into individual destinations once it gets there, and then deliver with USPS at regular domestic rates" involves this subsidy that you speak of?

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

#40

Post by wildzzz »

mrngld wrote: post #31
bayindirh wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I managed to get a couple of good ones. While they're more like docking stations, Kingston's, now discontinued, Nucleum and UGreen's wares are all good. If you go higher level, of course there's Thunderbolt docks, but you can't make them cheaply, so they're generally good.

I've yet to come across truly reliable Thunderbolt 3 and above stations. Seems like every brand has, like this 7 port wonder in the article, lots of 5 star reviews. When you dig deep into the weeds of the reviews, Reddit, user forums, etc., you find the undercurrent of people who actually bother to check the stats reported by their OS, or have disconnect issues, etc, etc. I'm somewhat sympathetic because from what I…

I use Dell Thunderbolt docks because that's what my employer gives us and as such I've collected a few of them. I've had zero issues with them. The only complaint is that the power button on the dock only seems to work with Dell laptops, not a huge issue since I don't think that's a typical feature anyway.
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