Belkin Hubs - An essential Add On

Throttle Commands Not Working - Damaged Power Supply to USB Hub

I briefly touched on this issue in the previous post.

Commands from the throttle quadrant were being terminated (drop out) with regular frequency; everything  in association with the TQ would just stop working.  Tracking the issue down was time consuming, however, the culprit was a faulty power supply that powered a Belkin USB power hub.  The power supply was not new and was slowly overheating; the problem only presenting when the supply became warm.  After being allowed to cool, everything would operate as it was supposed.  The problem of "drop out" ceased when a new power supplied was used. 

USB Hubs - Always Select A Powered Hub

Hubs are an important piece of gear when putting together a simulator or running anything that has a lot of peripherals.  Unless you have a city of USB ports on the rear of your computer (unlikely) then you will need as hub.  Hubs are good as they minimize the number of wires to the computer and allow for easier cable storage.

On the subject of hubs, any hub used must be a powered hub.  The reason being is that there is a lot if information being transmitted from your devices to the hub and computer and back again.  A powered hub helps maintain the integrity of the hub and stops information drop outs.  I only use non-powered hubs for devices such as keyboards and mouse.

Phidgets and Hubs

I learned from experience (computer crash & scrambled phidgets) that it's not a good idea to connect phidgets directly to your computer via the USB cable.  I'm not exactly sure why this is not possible, but it's recommended on the Phidget forum to always use one or two powered hubs when connecting phidgets to your computer.