|
My setup requires mount and camera only back to the laptop (AZ-EQ5 in ALT/AZ mode for EAA, so no guiding). My laptop has a USB-A 2.0, a USB-A 3.0 and a USB-C 3.0 port.
The mount and camera are both USB2.0. I have a mouse as well, that's a third USB2.0 and an external high gain wifi antenna which is USB3. So - one too many USBs required (as usual).
I had a few 5m active USB2.0 repeater cables in my cable drawer, so am running the camera and the mount back to separate USB-A ports on the laptop. I grabbed a powered USB-C -> USB-A 3.0x4 hub from Jaycar on the weekend which is now connected into my remaining USB-C 3.0 port on the laptop to run the mouse and antenna.
I pondered over the running a hub at the telescope with a single cable back to a single USB port on the laptop vs running separate cables back to the laptop and couldn't make up my mind. I went with the separate cables to discrete USB ports on the laptop because I had them lying around spare. My reasoning (right or wrong) ended up being that I wanted the mount and camera to have discrete cable runs and ports to avoid any contention for resources. My camera shifts a lot of data back to the comp and I didn't want it causing resource problems with running the mount. The mount doesn't require a lot of bandwidth I know - but just in case.
I'm really not sure if that was the right way to do it, and certainly it meant one more cable from the shed to the mount that way but it works perfectly. I may have gone the alternate route (hub at the telescope) if I only had one 5m usb active repeater cable just to save money.
If you're going for a hub, make sure it's powered just in case you need the power now or later on for any reason. The Jaycar one I chose has a micro USB port to power it from as required. No doubt it's not the bees knees but the price was fair compared to the many that I found before it online lol and it's working fine.
|