Inline surge protector for USB powered hubs?

[Marios]

Hi Guys

I have had a powered USB hub literaly go sucidal and kill equipment attahced to it.
I find myself now needing to use a hub to consolidate all the cables coming of my RIG. Im not keen to risk my DSLR and guide camera thought they work well on a USB 3 hub.
I came across this site selling a inline surge protector which Im tihnking of using to protect my most expensive squipment.

http://www.bb-elec.com/Products/USB-Connectivity/USB-Surge-Protection/USB-Surge-Protector.aspx

Does anyone know of any other brands of inline surge protectors for USB? :question:

[Merlin66]

Marios,
I've been using my USB hub on a 12V to 6V convertor for the past six years and never had a moments trouble......
What happened with your gear??

[ZeroID]

A surge protector is only partial protection against AC power input fluctuations or spikes. The ac>dc power supply that came with it should also protect it somewhat as it converts the volts. The newer ones are all switching circuits, not even transformers. Sounds like the hub was a bit cheap on the internals maybe, poorly protected outputs.

[killswitch]

Was it a cheap no frills hub you used? Ive opened up a cheap hub that died and the soldering inside was shocking.

A compliant hub that follows USB 2.0/3.0 specifications will have polyswitches and suppression diodes to protect from overcurrent, transients and ESD.

[Marios]

Hi All

Thanks for the input, the old hub that died was a Belkin with an AC adapter it litterally started smoking. I pulled the power and later found my USB HDD drive was dead along with the port on my computer. Looking at your replys it seems such cases are rare and should not be mulled over.

The current USB hub I have is a 4 Port USB 3 - 12V DC input and it works very well with guide scope and DSLR.
My concern is the risk of surging 12v into the ports if something should go wrong internally.
Unfortunatley I lack the skills to open up the hub and check whether a basic level of protection is being used.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201010566359?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX: IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

The company I contacted did come back to me with a full protected USB 2 hub but at the cost of $260.
http://www.bb-elec.com/Products/USB-Connectivity/USB-2-0-Hubs/Industrial-Grade-USB-Hubs.aspx

[killswitch]

Hi Marios,

I suggest getting an Anker USB3.0 hub like this (http://www.amazon.com/Release-Adapter-VL812-B2-Chipset-Firmware/dp/B00E1GI9Y8/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1396397501&sr=1-3&keywords=anker+usb+hub). Anker hubs are popular with Bitcoin ASIC miners because of their reliability.

Its got a good chipset, its surge protected and USB spec compliant.

[Marios]

Thanks for youre recommendation.

I found the manafacturers website for the hub I currently have the claim to have some surge protection built in.

"
ORICO H4928-U3 is high speed USB3.0 hub, support 4ports of USB3.0 interface; you can connect with your PC, and disk driver, high definition camera with USB3.0 interface, video monitoring cameras, digital video monitoring cameras, digital video monitors and multichannel audio. High-band broadband and other peripheral devices. USB3.0 with high speed of 5.0Gbps, downward support USB2.0&1.1. ORICO H4928-U3 can make full use of USB devices, and support Multi-USB3.0 with traditional USB devices make operation simultaneously; Built-in current protection placed in the case of a sudden the effective
Protection of power connected equipment and the HUB itself, to provide enhanced durability and reliability."

http://www.orico.com.cn/en/ProductInfo.aspx?typeid=239&id=511#