CP Technologies CP-UH-135 USB 2.0 Hub

Tuesday 10 May 2005 by Bradley M. Kuhn

I needed to pick a small, inexpensive, 2.0-compliant USB hub for myself, and one for any of the users at my job who asked for one. I found one, the “CP Technologies Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Hub”, which is part number CP-UH-135. This worked great with GNU/Linux without any trouble (using Linux 2.6.10 as distributed by Ubuntu), at least at first.

Image of the CP UH 135 USB Hub with the annoying LED coming right at you

I used this hub without too much trouble for a number of months. Then, one day, I plugged in a very standard PS-2 to USB converter (a cable that takes a standard PS-2 mouse and PS-2 keyboard and makes them show up as USB devices). The hub began to heat up and the smell of burning electronics came from it. After a few weeks, the hub began to generate serious USB errors from the kernel named Linux, and I finally gave up on it. I don't recommend this hub!

Finally, it has one additional annoying drawback for me: the blue LED power light on the side of thing is incredibly distracting. I put a small piece of black tape over it to block it, but it only helped a little. Such a powerful power light on a small device like that is highly annoying. I know geeks are really into these sorts of crazy blue LEDs, but for my part, I always feel like I am about to be assimilated by a funky post-modern Borg.

I am curious if there are any USB hubs out there that are more reliable and don't have annoying lights. I haven't used USB hubs in the past so I don't know if a power LED is common. If you find one, I'd encourage you to buy that one instead of this one. Almost anywhere you put the thing on a desk, the LED catches your eye.

Posted on Tuesday 10 May 2005 at 00:00 by Bradley M. Kuhn.

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Both previously and presently, I have been employed by and/or done work for various organizations that also have views on Free, Libre, and Open Source Software. As should be blatantly obvious, this is my website, not theirs, so please do not assume views and opinions here belong to any such organization.

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Bradley M. Kuhn <bkuhn@ebb.org>