January 25, 2007 12:53
You are facing the same problem that I encountered last summer. I posted something about converting from 12vdc to 5vdc and received 0 replies. I've spent hours searching for a power supply to buy to power a USB hub, and the only thing that I have found is a cheap plug-in converter for car use that puts out 500ma. For a 4 port USB hub you need 2 amps, if the downstream devices are not self powered. Since USB devices are all 5vdc, self powered devices would pose the same problem.
I was talking to a professional marine electronics technician a few weeks ago, and he described how to make my own voltage converter using a transistor that puts out 1 amp at 5vdc. To supply more amps, I would need to add multiple transistors in parallel. This was in idle conversation and I didn't have a chance to write down the transistor (there were a few other parts too) or make a diagram, but this sounded like a pretty simple device to build, and it is the only genuine solution I've found to this USB power problem.
You desire for one more USB port ignores the wide world of possibilities with USB devices. For example, you can put a camera in some critical area, like the engine room or a sealed void, and monitor it remotely. There are so many cheap and easy possibilities with USB that I'm quite surprised not to be able to find more voltage converters out there.
I was talking to a professional marine electronics technician a few weeks ago, and he described how to make my own voltage converter using a transistor that puts out 1 amp at 5vdc. To supply more amps, I would need to add multiple transistors in parallel. This was in idle conversation and I didn't have a chance to write down the transistor (there were a few other parts too) or make a diagram, but this sounded like a pretty simple device to build, and it is the only genuine solution I've found to this USB power problem.
You desire for one more USB port ignores the wide world of possibilities with USB devices. For example, you can put a camera in some critical area, like the engine room or a sealed void, and monitor it remotely. There are so many cheap and easy possibilities with USB that I'm quite surprised not to be able to find more voltage converters out there.