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USB Hub Mod

R

RobAGD

n00b
Joined
Mar 13, 2004
Messages
35
Well while I was building my new puter so I could play some Doom 3 while I waited for HL2 I decided I would do more then my normal mods to the case ( airflow & cables ).

I have a 6077b ( I never remember the number correctly ) and I really like it and it has a lot of external bays to play with.

I also have a lot of USB devices and I hate having a hub kinda just floating around the computer. So I picked up one of the Targus 2.0 7 Port Hubs to play with.

usb-hub-targus.jpg


That was quickly reduced to parts and the board come out without a problem.

Then I was working on the power for this and I am going to tap the 5v on a plug when I thought why solder ? I went to the shack and got an Adapta-plug extender and an M plug end. Cut the male end of the extender off run the wire and splice it into the 5v & ground on a unused plug end.

Now I had to get a way to mount this in my case. I was looking for a way to mount it so it didnt take up room something else might make better use of. After about a week of futzing around I just decided to di it in a drive bay adapter.

Broke out the dremel, Bondo, JB Wield, sandpaper and Semi Gloss paint and came up with the following in about 2 hours.

usb-plate1.jpg


and

usb-plate2.jpg


Sorry I didnt have the camera with me at work when I did all the work. But I started out with a vented grill that was mostly solid. Fill the holes with bondo and sanded smooth. I then traced an out line of the face plate on the drive face and started to dremel to get a very rough fit. Using sanding bits I got a nice mostly fitted hole for teh plate.

I didnt like the hard edge so I mixed up some JB Wield and went to town laying down a nice radiused edge with my finger using the JB Wield. I also use it to glue the USB Plate to the Drive face. Many many peices of sand paper later I get a fairly smooth finish ( not as nice as I would like but its useable ) and lay down some semi gloss and see how much work Ill have to do to get this where I want it.

When I get it all wired in and get the USB cable issues worked out 100% Ill post up some pics of that real quick, but I am off to Orlando for the next few days for a tournament so i'll chech back in, in about a week or so.

-Robert
 
Looks great man, be sure to post pics of it in your case.
 
Very cool, I'm doing something like that with a four port hub and my keyboard. I'll have to pick up one of those Targus hubs now too. :D
 
Well I finally got to installing teh hub and making teh power harness for it.

Ran into one small snag, the face plate after 2 or 3 fittings before I started modding it somehow got flipped :( Not a huge deal but at least it looks kinda like my puter is smiling :)

usb_powerplug.jpg


and the front of my case, a crappy photo with none of its skin on.

casefront1.jpg


So thats about it. I found I needed a better way to mount the PCB as inserting plugs into the hub caused the PCB to move back a bit. ENded up kinda hacking the Hubs body back onto the board :) That made for an intresting fit.

Given teh ammount of USB stuff out now I am kinda surprised that I havent come across any 3.5 or 5.25 bays with 7+ port hubs built in. Heck with all the stuff now it shouldnt be too hard to build up a 8 port USB 2.0 Hub and a 2 or 3 port Firewire hub with MB connectors.

-Robert
 
Looks great, really like the smile there. :)
Is it just me or is anyone else having a hard time finding those Targus hubs?
 
Humm if I recall correctly I found it at Best Buy, both BB's I went to local has several hooks full of them with the USB Cables and UPS stuff, not really with "normal" accessories.

-Robert

CrimandEvil said:
Looks great, really like the smile there. :)
Is it just me or is anyone else having a hard time finding those Targus hubs?
Click to expand...
 
Looks nice, Im thinking along the lines of the same thing, but maybe modding a few USB ports into the wooden desk
 
i'm thinking of making a desk out of 1'' steel box pipe and plexi oh sorry ya usb ports wood be cool so you don't have to bend down all the time.
 
Well my first idea for this was to stuff it in the top right hand edge of the case, but there wasnt enough room to mount so it wouldn't be all flimsy.

Building the Hub into the desk would be a great mod, then you only have to undo the 1 A><B cable and leave all the bits behind where you want them :)

Next up for this box is one of those drive cases like Mashie used for he network storage SSF machine. Only problem atm is I am out of molex plugs so I am looking into hacking up another PSU to add in some cables extentions and drive connectors.

-R
 
you all don't mind if i go for the desk hub mod do you?

edit:don't want any one to think i'm stealing there mod
 
Nice idea, talk about creative. I myself wouldnt like it just because I hate wires coming out of the front of my puter, really bothers me. If there was a way to make all those occupy an empty slot in the back of my puter, it would be way cool.
 
Hey go for the desk mod :) It's all good.

Oh yea forgot this picture

usb-plate3.jpg


Yea I dont care for the cables eigher, but I have 4 or 5 small devices that are way more convient to deal with in a front pannel. ( Pen Drives, Cell Phone Data/Charging cables, Bluetooth etc )

-R
 
Did the PCB just snap into the old shell? I ask since I don't see any mounting holes. I'm working with a small four port hub thats going into a keyboard and it's PCB was secured via a single screw.
 
Is it one of those hubs that has a pair of stacked(2) ports? I have mounted one like that internally, which only had one screw hole in the center of the pcb. I just screwed it to a mobo style standoff. Applying some silicon adhesive will prevent it from rotating when you plug something in.

Good use of an extra bay btw.
 
You mean me? If so then no, it's just a small, slim four port hub. No stacked ports.
 
Crim - Not a hole in the PCB to put a screw through. The case held it with the corners and edges molded to the board.

I think I am going to do a Hub mod to my desk as well, for all the stuff on the desk that I keep attached :)


Next up is trying to hack in a Optical Input into my Live w/o giving up my Digial Daughter card for my speakers.

and getting MythTV working

-Robert
 
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