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Home > Archive > Flight simulator > October 2004 > Powered USB HUB and CH Products USB Stuff
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Powered USB HUB and CH Products USB Stuff
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| HockeyTownUSA 2004-10-24, 12:46 am |
| I own a USB CH HOTAS setup: Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, Pro Pedals. Love 'em
dearly.
However in performing an experiment unrelated to flight sims, I have my
gaming PC plugged into a Watt meter. At idle, my system runs at 95 Watts.
One day, however, I realized that my system was idling at 110W. What the
hell was the difference? I realized my CH stuff was plugged in.
Now isn't a powered USB hub supposed to fully power any USB devices plugged
into it? My system is sacrificing 15W of power for no apparent reason. Could
it be the USB hub, or is this normal? Everything works fine, however.
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| HockeyTownUSA 2004-10-24, 12:46 am |
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"Bob Church" <sticky_NO_@_SPAM_stickworks.com> wrote in message
news:41750a92.16731327@news.compuserve.com...
quote:
> On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:40:26 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA"
> <magma@killspam.comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> Yup. That's way too much for the USB devices, anyway. At 5 volts that
> would be 3 Amps and I think the most that a hub (or maybe it's a port)
> is expected to supply is 500 ma or so. Anyway, like you say, it
> shouldn't be reflected back into the PC supply when you use a powered
> hub.
>
> It seems to me the CH device descriptors say they consume 50 ma, I
> think it's probably less than that, but even 3 controllers at 50 ma
> apiece only comes out to 0.75 watts. At 3 amps I'd think you'd smell
> smoke.  Did you try unplugging the controllers from the hub, then
> the hub from the PC, and see if the power fell off on one or the
> other?
>
> - Bob
>
> The StickWorks
> http://www.stickworks.com
Bob,
Thanks for the reply. And thanks for the upated driver to help with the
ClickStart.
Someone explained to me that the extra power is probably coming from the
increased CPU cycles and onboard USB just consumes power. But 15W seems
rather high. But then again, who knows. I will try what you suggest. Iwill
even try to plug devices directly to the PC USB port itself.
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| Bob Church 2004-10-25, 6:47 am |
| On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:40:26 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA"
<magma@killspam.comcast.net> wrote:
quote:
> I own a USB CH HOTAS setup: Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, Pro Pedals. Love 'em
> dearly...
>
> ...isn't a powered USB hub supposed to fully power any USB devices plugged
> into it? My system is sacrificing 15W of power for no apparent reason. Could
> it be the USB hub, or is this normal? Everything works fine, however.
Yup. That's way too much for the USB devices, anyway. At 5 volts that
would be 3 Amps and I think the most that a hub (or maybe it's a port)
is expected to supply is 500 ma or so. Anyway, like you say, it
shouldn't be reflected back into the PC supply when you use a powered
hub.
It seems to me the CH device descriptors say they consume 50 ma, I
think it's probably less than that, but even 3 controllers at 50 ma
apiece only comes out to 0.75 watts. At 3 amps I'd think you'd smell
smoke. Did you try unplugging the controllers from the hub, then
the hub from the PC, and see if the power fell off on one or the
other?
- Bob
The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com
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| Bob Church 2004-10-27, 12:48 am |
| On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:15:05 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA"
<magma@killspam.comcast.net> wrote:
quote:
> Thanks for the reply. And thanks for the upated driver to help with the
> ClickStart.
My pleasure!
quote:
> Someone explained to me that the extra power is probably coming from the
> increased CPU cycles and onboard USB just consumes power. But 15W seems
> rather high. But then again, who knows. I will try what you suggest. Iwill
> even try to plug devices directly to the PC USB port itself.
Well, it's an easy thing to check. If the power drops 15 watts when
you pull the CH stuff, though, I'd hesitate before plugging it
directly to the motherboard, at least until you figured out why. If
there really is something wrong with the controllers that's causing
them to pull that much current, I'd worry that it might damage the
motherboard ports.
- Bob
The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com
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