Hi Guys

Does anyone know of any reliable and sturdy USB hubs? We have to do a lot of uploading to the players for our audio tours and the solution we're using at the moment is not reliable (running a couple of mini usb hubs off a laptop) so my colleague has asked me to investigate a better solution. We're thinking of getting a decent desktop PC then running a powered hub off that. The maximum the software can cope with is 20 players at a time but that rarely works properly so the maximum they usually manage is 12-14. This week they have to do 1000 players so you can imagine how long it's taking.

Any help and ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanking you all.

Carolyn

Sorry this isnt what you want but how awseome is this! http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/usb-tape-hub/index.html

This is 24 port, made by Pyrogate, not sure about a UK supplier: http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/106 ... 0_Hub.html

49 port!!!!!: http://www.cambrionix.com/home/index.ph ... &Itemid=23

The PSU on that is underrated, providing enough power for only 7 devices that require the full 500mA. That means you'd have to check the power rating of the devices being used, or limit yourself to 7 at a time.

Another consideration is bandwidth. If the devices are reasonably fast, then 14 of them could saturate a single hub. Using two or more smaller hubs might increase the speed, in addition to offering redundancy and a better power overhead.

How thick are these devices? Port spacing may be a consideration.

I've never really seen any USB hubs that looked properly "rugged" or desk-mountable. I might try one of these, and then add a couple more if it fits the bill:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123772/

One of the guys was here for 4 hours extra last night trying to get the uploads to work. The players are connected by normal USB leads so spacing is not really an issue. My colleague Ben liked the tape cassette one lol. I have given them all the links so thanks for that

Love that tape one!

I've got two 4-port hubs, one of which is in constant use, the other charges two AA batteries