geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: sLeezy on Tue, 25 January 2011, 08:44:17

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: sLeezy on Tue, 25 January 2011, 08:44:17

When I plug anything into the USB port on my hhkb I get the following message:

Quote

USB mass storage device is connected to a hub that does not have enough power available to support it

When I plug it directly into my comp it works fine. Just wondering how I can fix this. This happens both on my laptop and desktop.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 25 January 2011, 08:54:27

There really is no fix.  The USB ports on the HHKB are not powered, so they are sharing power with the keyboard itself.  Something that is self-powered, like a USB HDD that you can plug in or a mouse, should work fine (my mice work fine on the HHKB).  You will get that message on any non-powered hub.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: woody on Tue, 25 January 2011, 08:56:25

What are you trying to plug in?
This is a bus powered (passive) hub, so don't expect miracles from the limited power supply. It's almost the same as using passive hub, except that some power goes into the keyboard as well.
Better forget about powering external USB hard drives.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: sLeezy on Tue, 25 January 2011, 09:48:50

I'm not trying to plug in an external HD or anything that power intensive. I tried to plug in my flash drive, which I feel should work through the USB on the the keyboard. Otherwise, what's the point of having USB ports on the keyboard if they're not going to work with anything?

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: sLeezy on Tue, 25 January 2011, 09:50:26

I just tried to plug in my mouse and that works just fine. Not sure why I can't use a flash drive though.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: iMav on Tue, 25 January 2011, 12:40:31

I really like USB ports on keyboards...however, I use them pretty much exclusively for pointing devices.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: theferenc on Tue, 25 January 2011, 12:48:06

Flash drives use power, relative to the size of the drive. For instance, my 1 and 2 GB drives work fine on my HHKB. My 8 and 16GB drives, on the other hand, do not.

This is a very old problem. Going back to the old school apple keyboards that had USB ports on them, they wouldn't work with anything but a mouse.

After all, that's the intent of these ports.

Oh, and any unpowered USB hub will have this same problem, as stated. It's just the nature of the spec. USB puts out 500 mA (theoretically). This is all the ENTIRE hub gets, to share. There are higher power ports, but that has to be negotiated upon plugin, but that can't be done through a hub.

What happens is the device negotiates with the hub controller, rather than the PC controller. The hub controller just says "sorry, only got this amount of power", and the device doesn't work.

Powered hubs, on the other hand, have the power to spare for these devices, as they are drawing direct power, usually from the mains. I've seen 1 hub that had 2 USB connections, one for data, one for power. It would dynamically renegotiate with the host computer in order to increase current along the power lead. However, it was just a prototype in an engineering class discussing the USB spec. Not sure if those exist commercially.

Hope that helps.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: bakageta on Tue, 25 January 2011, 13:19:41

I don't know about dynamically handling the power, but there are plenty of devices that have 2 USB connectors, with one intended for power only. I've got an external dvdr drive that has 2, it needs both plugged in to work on my netbook, but works fine from just the data one plugged in on my desktop.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: DanGWanG on Tue, 25 January 2011, 14:16:58

Another reason why I love my DAS keyboard.  The extra USB port it steals from the back of my computer gives me two on the front!

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: DanGWanG on Tue, 25 January 2011, 14:21:17

There's 2 USB plugs, one for the keyboard and one to steal power for the hub.  I just put on the PS/2 adapter on the keyboard usb plug, so it only takes up one usb port to power the hub....

Re-reading that hurt my head.

Title: HHKBP2 USB Ports
Post by: Superfluous Parentheses on Tue, 25 January 2011, 17:56:26

Quote from: ripster;284633

Me too.

You guys need this.  Thinkgeek.  24 ports of awesomeness.  On sale for $45. (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/usb-gadgets/e5be/)

Show Image

(http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/e5be_24_port_usb_monster_hub.jpg)

That is amazingly ugly.