I have two Orico USB hubs, the powered one has four 3.0 ports, and the unpowered one has one 3.0 port and five 2.0 ports. If I plug the powered hub into the pc then chain the unpowered one into it, will the unpowered hub run into power issues if I plug high-power-consuming devices into it? And does it make any difference if I switch the hubs order?

  • T156@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    10 months ago

    will the unpowered hub run into power issues if I plug high-power-consuming devices into it?

    Yes, since it’s limited by how much power it can draw from the other hub, and would have a limit on how much power the unpowered hub can pass to its own ports.

    And does it make any difference if I switch the hubs order?

    Yes. Putting the powered hub second means that it doesn’t need to pull power through the unpowered hub, and it should be fine right be used as normal.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      81·
      10 months ago

      edit: I didn’t understand what a ‘powered’ hub was and I read it as a hub that could transfer high amounts of power. I’ve left my original comment below for context

      Putting the powered hub second means that it doesn’t need to pull power through the unpowered hub, and it should be fine right be used as normal.

      I might be misunderstanding, but wouldn’t this still be a problem? I was misunderstanding

      Computer
  |-unpowered hub
      |-powered hub
          |-power hungry device

      it would need something like

      Computer
  |-powered hub
      |-power hungry device
      |-unpowered hub
          |-low power devices
      • Kalash@feddit.ch
        1·
        10 months ago

        Just plug the lower power device in the unpowered or powered hub from the first example. You’re just adding a hub for no reason.

    • Xero@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      the only high power consumption devices I have is one RGB keyboard and two USB drives so I can’t really test it, but I’m curious about what happens if I plug a bunch of high-powered stuffs into it though

  • ____@infosec.pub
    0·
    10 months ago

    How high is the consumption of the devices? Probably better to invest in multiple powered hubs for this use case. Not that it couldn’t work, but you’re certainly increasing the odds of intermittent and damned difficult to troubleshoot problems by doing it as you described.

  • TealTallMachine@lemmy.world
    11·
    10 months ago

    Interesting question!

    If I’m not mistaken, charging works by the voltage potential difference of the connected devices. Think of a wall outlet, having the highest voltage in your house probably, vs a phone out of charge with effectively 0 voltage. The high potential will move towards the low potential, pushing power to the low voltage device.

    The mechanism requires a specific difference in voltage to work. Most electronics have very lower voltages, relatively speaking. So for your idea to work, you’ll need to find a device that doesn’t require a high voltage difference, and either a series of connected and fully charged devices or an electronic with high voltage. I think it doesn’t exist because they won’t be functional or unsafe if they do, but I’m not sure as I’m not as expert. I just took university electricity classes so there’s a good Chance I’m wrong.

    I hope an expert answers though because I’m curious now too!