Belkin BusStation™ 7-port Modular Hub
Introduction
In the PC industry, the ubiquitous acronym, USB, is everywhere you look nowadays. USB this, USB that; it's not beyond the realms of possibility to own, and need, several USB-powered peripherals, such has been USB's impact on the PC world. USB, or Universal Serial Bus, as you may well know, is simply a modern-day interface between your motherboard and external peripherals. The list goes on and on, USB keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, joysticks, PDAs, digital cameras, media readers, and a plethora of other peripherals now commonly ship with USB being the preferred transfer interface.
It does make sense, too. USB1.1 offers a theoretical maximum transfer speed of 12MBit/s per port, far superior to the parallel and serial ports that it effectively replaced as a conduit between the motherboard and peripherals. The newer, faster USB2.0 standard increases this base speed to an impressive 480MBit/s.
The problem, however, is that the majority of motherboards ship with a standard 2 USB ports integrated to the backplane, and, on occasion, a further two ports via a supplied USB bracket. The increasing number of USB-supported devices are often at odds with the lack of ports offered. If, like me, you own several USB devices, having to remove and insert USB cables can become tedious, especially as the ports are usually located in such an awkward location at the rear of your PC.
The simple answer to this problem is to invest in a USB hub that connects to one of your motherboard's ports via a single USB cable, and then replicates further ports in a standalone module. Sounds easy enough ?. As you might expect, the market is littered with USB hubs that offer varying degrees of expansion and replication. Today, I'm having a look over a hub that does that little bit extra. Time to introduce the Belkin BusStation™ 7-port modular hub.
You can't really tell what differentiates this hub from the generic hubs by looking at the front cover, but you may get an inkling from the statement about 'configuring your own multi-port hub'. Support for 7 ports is impressive considering the overall size of hub. Opening the package yields the following.
The unusual hub is packaged together with a mains adapter and power cable, a 6-foot USB cable that links hub to PC, and a multi-language instruction booklet complete the contents. Note, there is no driver CD or disk, USB products usually install without personal intervention. You may be, by now, wondering where the 7 ports of this hub are. Time to enlighten you.
The back reveals all. The BusStation's name is derived from the fact that this is a modular hub. The lighter, grey pod at the bottom houses 4 main USB ports, along with the USB cable port and PSU socket. Incidentally, the need for a separate PSU is required on the basis that all seven ports, if run concurrently in high-power mode, would draw 3.5A of power (500mA per port). The upper 3 pods offer one USB port each. The novel aspect here is that you can remove the upper 3 modules and replace them with a number of other like-sized modules that offer ethernet, serial, SCSI, PS/2 and ADB support.
The upper 3 modules simply push out of the main module with a little bit of force, as shown below. You can then slot in any modules you may require. The modular nature of this hub allows you to mix-and-match adapters at will. The extra modules are all available separately.
So, 7 USB1.1 ports combined in a modular form that allows for novel expansion and configuration. It certainly gives the humble USB hub a new lease of life. Let's have a look at the specifications and ease-of-use now.
