World’s Biggest USB Hub

29 July 2009

Why on earth would anybody need a hub containing 49 USB ports? With industrial sensors and metrology moving towards USB devices and away from legacy RS-232 serial devices, there is an increasing demand for USB hubs with a larger number of ports. This one has seven rows of seven.

49 port USB hub
49 port USB hub

Victoria Tyson, the Sales and Marketing Director of its manufacturer, Cambrionix Ltd. calls it the CBRX49PH002A. And she says it’s a “professional-grade product that has been engineered for dependability and performance first and is aimed squarely at the business user but can be used as a standard hub for the home user.”

She says an industrial version with a higher IP rating is being developed.

The product is exclusively built and tested in the UK. It supports all USB 2.0 compliant products and recognised legacy speeds, with a separate transaction translator for each port.

Each port features independent Vbus current limit and low-ESR supply decoupling, complete with thermal protection and over-current shut-down.

The price of the hub in the U.K. is £399 (€460), optional accessories are available which include protection plates, power supply, and extender cables at an additional cost.

The Cambridge-based company, Cambrionix Limited, is made up of a small team of electronics engineers that develops its own brand of products and technologies as well as offering design consultancy services to startup companies and individuals.

Applications

Ms. Tyson says there are many industrial uses for a hub with this number of ports. She gives three examples:

1. To enable the user to create a mechanical test fixture containing a large number of USB measurement probes. This kind of fixture is used when measuring tolerances on large mechanical devices such as engine cylinder heads. The Swiss manufacturer Tesa (www.tesa.co.uk) is an example of someone who makes USB test probes.

2. For builders of PC peripheral equipment, it can be used in the functional testing of a number of USB devices simultaneously.

3. For testing the robustness of USB drivers when designed for use with multiple products simultaneously.

For more information visit www.cambrionix.com


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