Belkin Hubs - An essential Add On

Throttle Commands Not Working

Refurbishing a throttle quadrant is not without its problems.  In my earlier post I touched briefly on the issue of the throttle commands not responding.  The connection between flight simulator and the throttle would 'drop out' and anything related to the thorttle quadrant would cease to function.

Determing the problem was time consuming, however, the culprit was a faulty power supply that powered a Belkin USB powered hub.  The power supply I had been using was a standard compyter power supply unit (PSU) and it was not new.  The PSU was overheating, and when it reached a particular temperature it would cause the powerted Belkin hub to disconnect.  When the PSU returned to normal temeprature (after being turned off) the Belkin hub worked perfectly.

USB Hubs - always use 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 a hub.  Hubs are good as they minimize the number of USB cables that need to be connected to your computer.

When selecting a hub only purchase 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.