Protronix 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub with 5V/2A Power Adapter

Needed a powered hub for a Raspberry Pi project, this was cheap and came with an adapter. By the way, it's not listed anywhere in the description, but this is a 3.4mm barrel connector powering it: I was going to scrap the supply that came with it, but found this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X7B1WUQ/ and it works well to power the hub from a battery. It's possible to cut the 5v (red) wire leading to the PC if you want to avoid feedback. Of course this will mean that you have to use the power supply after that, in the current configuration it's (sort of) optional. Ideally there would be a diode that allows the PC to power it when it's not plugged into the wall and prevent feedback, but like I said, it's cheap. I might look into adding just that.As others have mentioned, you can take advantage of this (out of spec) design for things like powering a Pi Zero via the OTG port. Even knowing this, I'm not giving it 5 stars because they don't warn people in the description and it's already proven to be inconsistent recognizing devices plugged into it. I haven't tracked down the issue, but I suspect it's related to the feedback problem. I had to plug everything in, launch my software and then power the hub, ewwww. Something's off.

I liked that it worked right up until day 6. Then it croaked and fried the USB ports on my raspberry pi. I swapped in a new pi and that didn't fix my issue. I swapped out entirely this Powered USB hub, and that fixed it. The blue power indicator on the unit (not on the power adapter plug itself) lights up momentarily when plugged in, but no longer remains lit as it used to when the unit was working. Fool me once, shame on you, but what did I expect for $10. Did I really save a few bucks considering the hassle, service interruption, and fried USB ports on my rpi? No.

The power cord came loose, separate from the USB Hub which was in its own packaging and it does not plug all the way in, making me kinda scared to use it in case the metal part that is still sticking out touches something metal. I also did not check to see if the polarity of the plug matches that of the Hub, something that really needs to match or you can have major issues. I will never buy something like this again from this seller if they think this s acceptable to send to customers. I will use the USB Hub as a non-powered one since I would have to pay shipping to send it back. My advice: Do NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT, SINCE YOU WILL BE LEFT WITH JUST AN UNPOWERED USB HUB.

WARNING. This causes restart & boot problems & might damage your components. It fried my $50 webcam & now it won't show video on any computer I try it on. Amazon gave me back my money for the hub because they are awesome. But now I have to buy a new webcam.

I hve two Intel NUCs, a laptop and a desktop with no optical drive so I use a USB powered portable Blu-ray burner when I need it for those machines,. Unfortunately none of those machines are able to power it without help, so I use a powered hub. I lost my old hub though and finally, after a frantic search for it failed, broke down and ordered this new one.I didn't read any reviews before I ordered it and would have probably went for a more expensive one had I done so, but I haven't see any issues with it. The plug fits fine, sure there is a little metal visible on the power prong when you plug it in, but just two freaking millimeters! No quality issues with any of the plugs either and I tried it with all four machines and it works fine. No noticeable heat issues either. I'll likely never have it plugged in all the time though- only when I need to use an external drive.

Spend two more dollars and get a decent hub - this won't reliably detect hardware as has been stated before. Amazon should pull this off their site completely. The seller won't accept returns even for defects so I had to have Amazon step in and make things right. Ordering another brand.

Item was exactly what I wanted in terms of size and USB 3.0 capabilities. One of the ports required adjustment as the metal surround was slightly deformed preventing easy insertion of devices but otherwise arrived in good shape. Not sure if it was due to my devices or the hub itself but I had a webcam and headphone which could not be recognized by this hub. Those devices worked fine with another 2.0 hub so hard to tell what was the cause.Bottom line is this hub is a great value for the money and I'd purchase again.

Many people don’t realize that some USB devices require more power than a single USB port from a computer can support. As computers and laptops get smaller and run on ever lower energy, using a USB hub and plugging several devices that are power hungry can result in overload on a cpu motherboard. This simple powered USB port is compact, low cost, and allows you to expand your ports AND feed power hungry devices line external hard drives, smart phones, wireless adapters, printers...