toobfreak
Tungsten/Glass Member
There is something I don't know about USB hubs that I'm hoping someone here understands better as the companies making this stuff tell you nothing. Years ago I hooked up two regular hard drives to a computer via a 4-port USB 2.0 hub with rocker switches so that the computer would see one or the other drive as powered on by me remotely and it has worked great!
Now I'm trying to use a hub similarly, I have a SSD that connects to my DVR as external memory; it can only accept up to 1TB at a time so now that I've filled one and have moved onto a second, I wanted to be able to switch between the two. But I've now tried two different hubs with electronic switches and while the selected drive shows being powered up when I turn the port on, the DVR never recognizes it to mount it! Yet everything is the same except for the added foot or two of additional cable length added by the hub. Here's a drawing:
The top is the standard hookup that works fine. I plug that unto the hub and the hub into the DVR and . . . . NOTHING. I've tried both non-powered and powered hubs, I only power one port on at a time, I've checked all the pinouts---- everything is the same and compatible. My only GUESS since manufacturers give no details is that these hubs cut the power to the off ports but leave all the data links connected! And that either the SSD or the DVR doesn't like that for some reason.
So I need help from someone more familiar with USB gear and these hubs. I've also looked at possibly used a SHARING SWITCH and a KVM, but the sharing switches seemed designed for the OPPOSITE use: one peripheral switched between many computers rather than several peripherals shared with ONE computer, and the KVM is anyone's guess, I have no experience with them. None of the switches I've looked at say they can be used my way in reverse.
Any knowledge or help would be appreciated; I'd sure like to be able to make this work. Here is a picture of the current hub.
Now I'm trying to use a hub similarly, I have a SSD that connects to my DVR as external memory; it can only accept up to 1TB at a time so now that I've filled one and have moved onto a second, I wanted to be able to switch between the two. But I've now tried two different hubs with electronic switches and while the selected drive shows being powered up when I turn the port on, the DVR never recognizes it to mount it! Yet everything is the same except for the added foot or two of additional cable length added by the hub. Here's a drawing:
The top is the standard hookup that works fine. I plug that unto the hub and the hub into the DVR and . . . . NOTHING. I've tried both non-powered and powered hubs, I only power one port on at a time, I've checked all the pinouts---- everything is the same and compatible. My only GUESS since manufacturers give no details is that these hubs cut the power to the off ports but leave all the data links connected! And that either the SSD or the DVR doesn't like that for some reason.
So I need help from someone more familiar with USB gear and these hubs. I've also looked at possibly used a SHARING SWITCH and a KVM, but the sharing switches seemed designed for the OPPOSITE use: one peripheral switched between many computers rather than several peripherals shared with ONE computer, and the KVM is anyone's guess, I have no experience with them. None of the switches I've looked at say they can be used my way in reverse.
Any knowledge or help would be appreciated; I'd sure like to be able to make this work. Here is a picture of the current hub.
