Is the ASI 1600MMC USB hub powered?

olav

Hi,

While this camera has a 12V power cable for running the cooler, it is still not obvious that this source also powers the built-in USB2 hub. Doc does not say. I have seen a few vendors being specific, so I wonder what's the case here.

Having both filter-wheel and OAG camera connected to the 1600's hub is neat cabling.

Then I just mounted, to the OTA, a 12V power splitter and a powered USB3 hub.

Now it gets easier to re-route the OAG cable to the powered USB hub.

Actually, I have barely tested the guider camera from the 1600's hub (ok so far), so I have no idea if it is worth making the cabling "slightly more complicated" by having a little longer cable forward onto the OTA, with some slack to allow camera rotation.

The FW should of course work without power issues either way, but I'm not so sure about the guider camera.

Anyone with any experience?

Anyone know for sure if the built-in hub is powered or not, by means of the 12V supply?

Thanks :)

rpastor248

Somewhere in the documentation (I forget where, exactly), it states that if you want to run the cooler, you must connect 12V. I assume this means that the camera uses USB power, hence the HUB does too.

I use two powered HUB's. One for all the USB 2.0 devices, and one for my camera and guider (both are USB 3.0). I am not currently running anything through the camera HUB.

I haven't had the chance to test yet. Every HUB I have used so far, in any application, has suffered from a serious flaw. They are only as good as their weakest link. If I run a 2.0 and a 3.0 device through the same 3.0 HUB, I have only been able to obtain 2.0 speeds. I am worried that the camera hub suffers the same way. I've tried to find information on this, to no avail.

james_screech

I don't know if the HUB is powered or not but I can run an ASI120MM and USB-RS232 converter (for mount control) from my ASI1600MM-C. The only limitation I have is that I need to drop USB speed of both cameras down to 40% and access the guide camera (ASI120MM) via the ASCOM driver as the native PHD2 option is unstable at times.

James

moonprince

Yes, if using 12V power, the HUB will be powered too.

chrisfc

How much power can the hub deliver ? Could it power an Intel pc stick ?

Sam@ZWO

ChrisFC wrote:
How much power can the hub deliver ? Could it power an Intel pc stick ?

our newest version powered hub from 12V external power supply just like ASI071 does

so it can power an intel PC stick if your 12V external power supply support

olav

Thanks Sam. Thanks James, that's interesting.

In the meantime, some preliminary findings from adding power hubs and USB hubs to several of my OTAs:

Regarding USB3 cable length, it seems that 3m might have had a few more issues (speed and stability otherwise) as opposed to 2m. No methodical lab testing though.

However, 2m + powered hub + 1m (the longest I needed) was never a problem when I found the right hub.

The two HUB types I first tried were not good at all, while being from well known brands.

The one I'm using all over now (http://www.tp-link.com/lk/products/details/cat-5688_UH720.html) is slim and compact for mounting, is powered by 12V, helps me obtain the specified framerate with ASI cams, and (opposed to some other hubs) works with all my USB2 devices.

I just recently started using PHD2, so it's a bit tricky for me to see how good the guider cameras are performing when connected through the 1600MMC hub.

So I'm leaning towards a "direct" connection, guidecam to OTA-hub (the UH720 in my case). No issues with the 1600-hub as far as I know, but maybe a tad safer. And much simpler now with a hub fixed at the OTA.

Still would like to hear more of what others have experienced, while connecting the guidecam (typically using OAG) to the 1600MMC hub :)