USB hub

[FlyingForFun]

Does anyone know a way to tell whether a USB hub (and also the cables to the hub) is USB 1.1 or USB 2.0?

A search of the internet turns up lots of ways of telling if the USB controller in my PC supports USB 2.0 (it does), but nothing about a hub. I'm considering buying a TV stick which requires USB 2.0, but due to the physical location, it needs to be plugged into a hub, so I need to know whether my hub needs upgrading.

Thanks!

FFF
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[cdtaylor_nats]

If you put a device that can operate at USB 2.0 (eg a drive) and its in a USB 1.1 socket winsows will advise you with a message that says "This device will work better with USB 2.0"

[Saab Dastard]

FFF,

The USB 2.0 standard was ratified in April 2000. If the hub is older than this it cannot be USB 2. Of course, there is no guarantee of it being USB 2 after this date.

Is it possible to find the specs of the hub on the internet?

As CDT says, there is the "suck it and see" approach!

USB hubs can be bought from under £5, so it shouldn't be a problem to add a new one if necessary - although you may need to spend more if you need a powered hub.

When you say that physical location is an issue - do you need a long cable? Bear in mind the USB 2 limits:

The maximum length of a standard USB cable is 5.0 meters (16.4 ft). The primary reason for this limit is the maximum allowed round-trip delay of about 1500 ns. If a USB device does not answer to host commands within the allowed time, the host considers the command to be lost. When USB device response time, delays from using the maximum number of hubs and delays from cables connecting the hubs, host and device are summed, the maximum delay caused by a single cable turns out to be 26 ns [9]. The USB 2.0 specification states that the cable delay must be less than 5.2 ns per meter, which means that maximum length USB cable is 5 meters long. However, this is also very close to the maximum possible length when using a standard copper cable.

Using USB devices over a greater length require hubs or active extension cables. Active extension cables are bus-powered hubs equipped with two maximum length standard USB cables. USB connections can be extended to 50 m (160 ft) over CAT5 or up to 10 km (6.2 mi) over fiber by using special USB extender products developed by various manufacturers.

In practice, some USB devices may work with longer cable runs than 5 meters, if the number of hubs between the host and the device is less than the maximum number allowed by the USB standard. However, using a longer cable lowers both the signal quality and the voltage provided by the USB bus below the specification tolerance limits. This may prevent USB devices from working properly or even from working at all.

(From wikipedia).

SD

[HuntandFish]

As they say plug it in and see what Windows says .
I have tried USB TV tuners but never got a good enough signal .
USB hubs can cause problems too better to go for a card with exrta ports .

[ORAC]

Plug it in and check it in System/hardware. The key word is enhanced. See here. (http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm)

[FlyingForFun]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Orac, as far as I can tell, that screen will only tell you about the controller, e.g. the USB card which plugs into the PCI slot in the PC. Assuming the card supports USB 2.0, is there a way of finding out about a hub which is plugged into a USB port on that card?

I think I will probably end up going for the suck-it-and-see method, I will buy the TV stick and see if it works, and make sure I have some spare cash to buy a new hub if necessary.

(Saab - completely unrelated to my original question, but thanks for point out cable lengths. I didn't know about the 5m limit when I set up my current cable, which is about 7m long, but I had found out about it since. I have a powered hub at the end of this 7m cable. My reading of various documents suggests that, since it works fine at the moment, it will continue to work whatever I plug into the hub. The hub is obviously able to reply to messages within 1500ns or it wouldn't work with the devices already plugged into it; adding extra devices, as far as I can tell, wouldn't make it less able to reply in the same time. And reduced voltage isn't a problem for the devices since the hub is powered. But I am prepared to add a repeater hub if necessary.....)

FFF
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