have you used a wired controller through a usb hub?
my hub is leftover from the days when computers had a grand total of 2 usb ports, but there weren’t a great deal of usb devices either -- i think i had 3.
when you say wireless mice and gamepads, do you mean issues using them together? i have a wireless usb keyboard/mouse i use with the htpc but would probably leave that plugged into one of the 2 front usb ports and connect the hub to the other.
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awesome! any advice on how to tell which hubs are good quality?
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Check the amperage on the hub. It should have 500mA for each port or 1 Amp for every 2 ports. This will meet the actual USB spec and ensure that all devices work properly. For hubs to provide this power, they need a power adapted and cannot be powered by just the port they are connected to.
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Take a good look at the AC adapter that comes with it (for a powered hub). The really crap ones tend to look something like this (random examples). USB hubs are very inexpensive to manufacture, since really all they have to do is buy some other company's controller IC in bulk and slap them onto boards, so the biggest cost tends to be for a quality AC adapter. You can be sure if they threw in the cheapest, crap sub-$1 "500ma" AC adapter they could find to go along with it, little care was taken in the rest of the manufacturing process. Amazon produces some powered hubs under their "AmazonBasics" brand that aren't terribly expensive.
If possible, a cheaper solution would be to add more USB ports to your HTPC itself with a PCI or PCI-Express USB controller card.
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so mostly an issue of how much power it can supply? i was hoping i wouldn't need to power the hub but i suppose one usb port on the computer wouldn't have enough power to fully power 4 usb ports in a hub.
i have enough usb ports i could plug in all controllers directly, but since they have cords and the couch is 10 ft away i also planned to use the hub to make up the extra distance, and not need to plug into the back of the htpc. it very well could be cheaper to just get usb extension cables than a hub though -- i'll look into that as well.
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It's all an issue of how much power it can supply vs. how much a controller uses. If you have controllers with force feedback, lights, etc., those will typically use more power. If your controllers don't have force feedback, then it's very possible that all of them will work just fine.
As mentioned above, not all non-powered (or even powered hubs) are created equal. If you don't already have your hub, then get a powered hub. If you do have one, then only you can find out if it works in your scenario.
What will happen if it doesn't have enough power is that you'll see one of the controllers drop out if power isn't met for it. Probably the last one that was "discovered". If they have force feedback, just turn that feature off an it will be less likely to be a problem.
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the hub i have is usb 1.1 so i need to get a new one. that one can work without being plugged into the wall for low-power devices, but can be plugged into the wall if you need more power. i'd definitely want that option just in case, plus it would be nice to support fancier controllers if i want to.
my controller is pretty simple with just one led and no force feedback, but i'm also going to be putting a long (9' or so) cable between the htpc and the hub so hopefully that will still let enough power through.
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The cheaper hubs are hard to distinguish from the good ones. There are several good points made by other members, however - the chips are mostly the same, but the quality of the included AC adapter can be very telling of the build quality of the actual hub.
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My hub gets used with a single external drive enclosure which takes up two USB ports (powered from the ports and not from a power cord), because my computer doesn't seem to recognize ANYTHING else plugged in there. That's what I get for buying a cheap hub.
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is that a magnetic drive (not ssd)? if so, that's impressive it can get enough power just from usb! sounds like i should expect to pay more than $20 for a good hub though...
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I have a super cheap 4 ports USB hub (with no separate power supply, only the wire to PC. Also no idea which USB version it is, probably 1.1 or 2) that I use often with 2 wired XBOX 360 controllers. I works easily and the leds on the pads show which one is considered number 1 and which one is number 2.
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nice, i was hoping that the power requirements of controllers were low enough to not need to plug the hub into the wall. maybe i can get away with that for 2 but would need to plug into the wall for 3 or 4.
my controller doesn't have leds to show which controller number it is, so i'll have to figure it out some other way.
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so start the game and then give my friend(s) the other controller(s). that should work for me :)
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I've had problems with non-powered hubs when using wired PS3 controllers. When the rumble activates, sometimes the controllers will lock up and the MotionInJoy drivers will crash the system, probably overtaxing the poor hub. Never had that issue with Bluetooth since the controllers power themselves.
As for which controller is what player, I've never put too much thought into it. My friend and I just sort of work it out. It would vary by the game, since some games don't arbitrarily assign players to certain controllers and instead have a "player # press start to join" sort of system.
USB 2.0 and even USB 1.1 devices should work in USB 3 ports just fine. USB is backwards compatible.
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makes sense to me that the rumble would need extra power and not be able to get it through an unpowered hub. it's sounding like i will be okay with 2 f310s on an unpowered hub considering they don't have rumble.
good point about players joining when they press start using whichever controller they press start on. seems like a better way of doing things anyway!
i know usb is backward compatible, but does a usb3 hub count as a a usb3 device so i need a usb3 cable connecting it to the usb3 port on the htpc? i know my controller is usb2 so if the hub still works i should be fine and i already have a long enough usb cable to get the hub close enough to the couch; otherwise i have to buy a usb3 cable or just buy a usb2 hub.
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Yes, a USB 3 cable has an extended connector to enable the USB 3 function. One nice thing about a USB 3 hub is that USB 3 doesn't have the minimal power output that USB 1 and 2 have, so you can power bigger devices over USB 3 without the device requiring extra power connectors.
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tried using 2 controllers on cheap budget hub (without additional power supply) a while ago - it didn't work, sometimes only one controller would get powered, sometimes neither, sometimes both, but games wouldn't recognize them as 2 separate outputs.
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so even when both controllers worked they both controlled the same thing?
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well, that would sound more like a "switch" than a hub.
normaly it is a software error if you controll same thing with two controllers and not a hardware issue (back in the days there where irq-port problems and stuff so that two ports used the same adress but that isn't a problem anymore)
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Unless you plan on using it for devices other than controllers don't spend extra on USB 3.0/1. The controllers are only 2.0 anyway so you.ll get no benefit from it. You'd then also need to make sure your extension cable was also 3.0 and I'm assuming you already have a 3.0 port to start from.
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some people said, that the usb port they used had an external power supply. maybe, since usb3.0 has power power capability you don't need a power supply if you use a usb 3.0 port and hub.
but i didn't try that. i once used a hub on two snes retro gamepads and they worked just fine. but they don't have force-feedback or something so... ^^
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no plans now for anything but controllers and maybe phone / tablet charging cables. i guess i was thinking i'd be more future-proof if i got a usb3 hub, but that probably doesn't make sense. plus i think the front usb port i was going to use is usb3 so i'd have to plug into the back which makes it more difficult to only get out and connect when playing. i was hoping a usb3 hub could be plugged into a usb2 port with a usb2 cable and support usb2 devices, but it's probably simpler and cheaper to just get a usb2 hub.
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A USB3 hub can be plugged into a USB2 port. However if you wanted to get the benefits of USB3 (transfer rate for example) then the entire chain (port, extension, hub, device) needs to be USB3.
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I wouldn't know how much power a controller takes. But I assume it is the same a keyboard or mouse. I think you wont really need a self powered hub for it (if its just buttons and no fancy light, vibrations etc). But I wouldn't risk it. Self powered usb 2.0 hubs are hardly more expensive than usb powered hubs. Besides if you ever want to connect something else to it the chances are it won't get enough power. The self powered usb 3.0 hubs are more expensive though, but you don't need that anyway.
As for if its tricky or not. If the controller works fine normally, I don't see how a hub would cause any complications.
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I got 4 xbox 360 controllers plugged in some no name USB hub, didn't have to do nothing. It seems the players are assigned to the port order, so I made sure my controller was in the first one. However if I unplug it and replug it afterwards, it won't be back to first player unless I either reboot or unplug all the rest and put it back in the order I want.
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This one. I'm sure you can find some better options though, the cable is super short.
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i have an htpc connected to my tv which is mainly for media but also runs some games or streams them from my normal computer. the couch is further away than the length of my logitech f310 controller so i use a usb extension cable to get it to reach.
right now i only have one controller but i would like to get another one or maybe even enough to have 4 going. i have a 4-port usb hub but it’s so old it’s usb 1.1 or maybe even 1.0 so my controller doesn’t work through it (it’s usb 2). i’d like to get a hub that’s either usb 2 or usb 3 and connect it to the htpc with a longish usb cable and then run anywhere from 1 to 4 controllers off it. has anyone else here tried that?
if you have run controllers through a usb hub i also have a few more questions, some of which you might know from other setups:
please be clear if you've actually done this or if you're just speculating whether it should work, and thanks for any advice!
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