USB Hub Not Responding

[Beave]

We have a 4-port USB hub for our joysticks and stop button, and recently the hub has not been responding. The hub and all of its connecting members seem to receive power, as indicated by the hub and stop button lighting up when connected. The driver station, however, does not recognize anything connected to the hub at all. I'm not sure what could have caused this, because it literally stopped working in a matter of seconds, where it was working previously.

We will probably go out and buy a new hub soon, but out of curiosity (and a search for a solution, of course) I would like to know - has anyone else had a similar problem as this?

[Joe Ross]

The targus hub in the KOP hasn't been very reliable in my experience. I'd recommend replacing it, even if you can figure out how to get it working.

[billbo911]

As Joe said, the Targus hubs really were a BIG failure point for us and many other teams. This picture might give you an idea of how we felt about ours. It is tee'd up in front of our Break'a'Way 2009 bot.


All I can say is, GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!

[RyanN]

We had ours fail at the championship. We got lucky that match and had 2 great alliance partners that defeated the other alliance.

It really sucks to have it happen in competition. Our problem wasn't so much the hub, but the USB cable feeding the hub. Don't ask me how, or why, it just happened. Our USB cable failed. We replaced the hub, still didn't work. Figured I would give it a shot, tried a new cable, and it worked.

I've never had any Targus product last long.

[torihoelscher]

We had a lot of issues with our USB hub and even our stop button. Our electrical team took apart our stop button and there was nothing wrong with it we plugged it back in and it still didnt work some of the time. I dont know if it was the computer or the wire.

Anyway back to the USB we had to replace it at least 4 times and ended up using an older type of USB which worked for competitions. Why it didnt work? I have no idea!

[Beave]

Well, thank you all for these replies. It is refreshing to know that 1293 isn't the only team with these issues. I will be sure to steer clear of Targus products in this field, and also examine the feeder cable. Once again, thank you for your responses.

[Clark Pappas]

It caused us issues on several occasions, if I remember right. We went out to Best Buy in the middle of the day during the Long Beach Regional, because we didn't want to lose anymore matches to control board issues (We lost Quarterfinals at San Diego to a driver's station bug).

Slightly off topic funny thing...before season, I was offered by the team to pay $50 for a video card they no longer needed, and that money would buy a new USB hub (And something else I cant remember at the moment)...I'm starting to wonder if I made the best decision xD.

[pfreivald]

We lost two hubs during competitive play: Once at FLR and once at the RaChaCha Ruckus.

They're unreliable, flaky, and need replacing as soon as viable for your team.