Product description
Applications & Usage
A/V in Meetings (BYOD)
A/V during meetings just got easier. When meeting attendees bring their own devices, Acroname USB hubs tame the chaos. Easily share room resources, automatically switch between projectors, computers and devices, and monitor connected devices so information and equipment are up and secure.
Software Regression | Mobile Device Testing
Acroname provides software control with a simple, elegant API to monitor and manage your usb control hub exactly the way you want to. Enable ports in exactly the sequence you choose and restore COM ports in the correct order. Accurately monitor the power in your test environment. Enable any port via software to ensure that you are only communicating with the DUTs you want.
Manufacturing Testing
We designed Acroname hubs with world-class hardware that you can trust to keep running. We understand the rigors of production testing and the reliability demanded by manufacturing teams. High power drive requirements? Short circuited DUT? Reversed power supplies? No problem. Even ESD certification labs can’t break these hubs. Compare Acroname hubs with others to see for yourself: Acroname hubs lead the industry in uptime and robustness.
Battery Conditioning
Acroname hubs accurately monitor voltage and current on each port, so you know exactly how much energy is used to charge your device or battery. Once your device is charged to your specifications, you can disable power on that port to ensure that the device does not get too much energy or overcharge.
System Backups and Cold-Spares
With Acroname USB 2×4 Hub, you can minimize the risks involved with backing up your system. Don’t let ransomware take your connected USB backup drive! With an Acroname Programmable USB hub, seven backup drives are used together to create seven different daily backups — one for each day of the week. For extra protection, you have the option to safely disconnect the drives via software, use a batch file for the command, or set up two hubs for extra backup. Read our blog to learn more about how our USB Hubs can do your system backup for you.
Industrial Grade for Harsh Environments
Not all hubs are created equal. Many industrial USB hubs are simply consumer-grade hubs which are repackaged to metal enclosures. Our engineers designed Acroname hubs from the ground up with careful attention to the types of issues that cause hubs to fail, including ESD strikes. See how Acroname hubs exceed the toughest ESD standards in the industry and some of the state of the art tools we used to do it.
Product Description
The USBHub2x4 is a 4-port software-programmable USB 2.0 (480Mbps) hub that is designed for demanding industrial environments where advanced control and monitoring of USB ports is required. This is very useful in testing or development environments where standard “always-on” behavior of a consumer-grade USB hub is not desirable.
Software control of the USBHub2x4 is established and maintained over the selected one of the two available host-facing ports.
The USBHub2x4 can be used to enable/disable individual USB ports, measure current or voltage on downstream USB ports, set programmable current limits, set USB charging protocol behavior and otherwise automate USB port behaviors in development and testing.
Customer Reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars 26
4.1 out of 5 stars 26
DEVICE PORTS
4 programmable 8 programmable
CONNECTIVITY
One of four devices/host to one host/device Many devices simultaneously to one of two hosts
HOST PORTS (UPSTREAM)
2 (type mini-B) 2 (USB 3.0 type-B)
USB SPEEDS
Low Speed (1Mbps) Full Speed (12Mbps) High Speed (480Mbps) Low Speed (1Mbps) Full Speed (12Mbps) High Speed (480Mbps) Super Speed (5Gbps)
USB LINK SPEED REPORTING
no data
✓
DEDICATED CONTROL PORT
no data
✓
USB CHARGE CURRENT
Up to 2.5A per port Up to 5A per port
INTERNAL TEMPERATURE MONITORING
✓
✓
ESD PERFORMANCE
+/-30kV (IEC61000-4-2 Level 4) +/-30kV (IEC61000-4-2 Level 4)
CURRENT LIMIT
Constant Current Circuit Breaker
Programmable industrial USB hub, 4 downstream, 2 upstream
Control and measure port voltage and current and data
Programming APIs in C++ and Python
DIN rail mountable
12V, 5A Power supply and USB cable included
Levitate Labs –
Every feature and protective measure feasible is incorporated in this design, the only unit which survived our extensive testing
Simply the best USB 3.0 hub on the market. This unit was extensively tested for use in a mission critical health care telemedical application against competing products such as Tripp-Lite U360-007-IND.Under basic load testing the Tripp-Lite, Dlink and Anker products failed at LESS than the rated capacity, in contrast the Acroname product withstood 4A per channel, over 200% higher output than the other devices under test.Several attractive features exist:1. The ability to control current limits on a per port basis.2. Each port can be set to a specific function such as charge only (no data) or USB 2.0/3.0 only; this comes in handy when you want to have a device such as a cell phone only charge and not be mounted by the operating system.3. Remote On/Off for the ports, helps in remote access situations when a device is locked up; most hubs stay on.4. Graphical representation of power use (voltage and current).5. Per port voltage increase feature to compensate for drop in long cables; allows for trimming so the end device gets exactly 5V, a must for sensitive devices such as speakerphones.6. Upstream and downstream USB ports for maximum throughput; ideal for video conferencing hardware such as Inogeni and USB cameras.7. Over 30kV (-/+15kV) ESD protection for industrial use; most applications that allow for humans to touch the gear are susceptible to electrostatic shocks created by static picked up from carpet or tile, these small zaps can destroy sensitive chipsets.8. Solid steel housing is easily mountable in and is DIN rail compliant; for CNC machines or harsh environments this unit stands out, most of the other units tested are plastic which do not allow for heat to escape.The engineering and sales staff are top notch, we reached a real receptionist and where immediately routed to a live person. In follow up calls with their engineering staff they topped out my 30 years of electronics design experience in a no-nonsense polite manner without ego. In short they know there product and the market and have added every feature and protective measure feasible into this design.A picture of the test rig is attached, each channel was independently loaded. Both the shipping 12V 5A 60W power brick and an external supply where used in testing. Temperatures of the casing where taken at various loads.I don’t work for this company and we paid full boat for our test units, many reviews are skewed by free products which is not the case here. My strong recommendation is to buy this unit as it will not only perform but last a lifetime.
Rodger Butler –
Excellent usb hub
Works better than I expected
Michael J. Kidd –
Rock solid on top of my telescope in New Mexico desert heat!
Provides the ability to toggle power, data and data speeds available on a port by port basis.I have this riding on top of my telescope in a remote observatory. In astronomy, many items are very low production quantity and edge cases can pop up which require fully disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable to recover. With this programmable USB3 hub, I can do that just as easily whether I’m standing next to the scope or 1000 miles away.Further, I can have two control computers running and switch the entire USB3 Hub’s connected devices from one to the other in the event that one fails.The unit even survived the summer heat in southern New Mexico desert!Such piece of mind when operating so much from so far. I’ve found NOTHING else that provides this feature set.Did I mention customer service? Acroname staff went out of their way to ensure things were operating 100% in my environment. Great product, dependable performance, great customer service… what more could you ask for?
Sorin –
Products in good use.
The products are almost new, they look very good. Also they work as expected.
California Dad –
Handy device
Sometimes a USB device needs to be remotely power cycled to get it working again and this fits the bill. Solid construction. Has other features engineers would like, such as measuring the USB voltage/current.
Phil A –
Programmable Industrial USB 3.0 hub
It does what it claims to do, kinda pricey, would be nice if one could independently select different usb’s to go to different cpu’s.
Sergiu Partenie –
Good but too expensive for the issues they have.
Not a verified review – purchased hundreds of them thru my company.They do what it says on the sticker but be aware of:- If you don’t add the grounding wire on the Phoenix connector, they will burn out from static zaps. The power brick shipped with them is 2-prong and will not ground the case;- For continuous use, you will have to play the “upgrade/downgrade firmware” game on them until you find a version that will be happy with your OS drivers. Linux Kernel lower than 4.10 does not like the latest HUB firmware, so you get kernel crashes;- The hubs are more than capable of saturating each USB bus. For use with Linux equipment, only specific USB chipsets can handle continuous loads without kernel crashes/freezes;- About every couple of months or so of intense use, the HUBs OS will start acting up. Consider scheduling automatic software reboots of the hubs every weekend;- Warning: after a software reboot, the hub will come back with all ports enabled, there is no way to prevent this;- Every 6 months or so, plan a hardware power-cycle. The software reboots seem to not fix all issues – a complete power down (unplug both power & usb from the back) will clear everything;- The USB ports in the front are normal connectors – if you application has the cables being moving around, the USB plugs will eventually shake themselves out enough to not make full contact;- Each USB port puts out up to 4A, regardless if there’s a device connected or not – a damaged/shorted USB cable WILL catch on fire. Guess how we found out. You can limit the max current per port, but the setting clears after a HUB reboot.Other than that, we’re happy with them.
Brenda –
Does what no other USB hub can.
This USB hub is amazing. But what it can do best is kind of lost in the wordy description. For regular people, this is what it can do for you.1) Turn on or off USB ports individually.2) Turn on power on USB ports individually.3) Eliminate the need to unplug and plug-in USB devices that hang or stop working. This allows you to do it with the included program. Great for remote setups.4) Monitor USB ports individually.5) Switch all of the USB ports from one PC to another. Useful if your PC crashes. You can boot up a second PC and the device will automatically switch to the second PC.6) All of the above can be scripted as well…