Belkin Hubs - An essential Add On
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BELKIN powered hub with external case removed
Throttle Commands Not Working
Refurbishing a throttle quadrant is not without its problems. In an 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 throttle quadrant would cease to function.
Determining 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 computer power supply unit (PSU) and it was not new. The PSU was overheating, and when it reached a particular temperature it would cause the powered Belkin hub to disconnect. When the PSU returned to normal temperature (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 use a powered hub. The reason being is that there is often a lot of information being transmitted, via the hub, between your device and the computer. 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 is 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 is recommended on the Phidget forum to always use one or two powered hubs when connecting phidgets to your computer.
