Acroname Programmable Industrial USB 3.2 Gen 1 Hub (8 Ports)

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The USBHub3+ is an 8-port software-programmable USB 3.2 Gen1 (5Gbps) hub designed for demanding industrial environments where advanced control and monitoring of USB ports is required. Ideal for testing or development environments where standard “always-on” behavior of a consumer-grade USB hub is not desirable.

Software control of the USBHub3+ is established and maintained over one of two available upstream-facing host ports or via a dedicated Control Port connection.

The USBHub3+ 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.

MSRP

$565.00

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Price

$545.00

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If you have any technical questions, please email support@acroname.com

SKU:

S79-USBHUB-3P

Manufactured by

Acroname, Inc.

United States

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Overview

Description

Building on the trusted and robust design of Acroname's USBHub2x4, Acroname is proud to offer the USBHub3+, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Hub with 8 programmable ports. Designed by engineers for engineers - connect the USBHub3+ with confidence to expensive lab or production equipment. design has been designed and certified to withstand ±15kV ESD strikes (certified to IEC61000-4-2 Level 4).

Take control and optimize your manufacturing, testing, and development environments. Features 8 programmable ports. Control USB hi-speed, SuperSpeed, and power lines. Set port current limits. Monitor voltage and current. Auto-switch between two input ports, and expand to multiple hubs via the expansion port. Built to withstand±15kV ESD strikes.

Software compatible with Mac 10.8 and above, Linux and Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and above.

Uses

USB device manufacturing
USB device validation and development
Plug/unplug cycle testing
Functional testing
Battery charging
USB device resets
USB power monitoring
Controlling USB device enumeration sequence

The USBHub3+ gives engineers advanced flexibility and configurability over USB ports in testing and development applications. The USBHub3+ hub architecture consists of two layers of internal hubs to achieve true 8-port hub functionality. Each downstream USB channel implements separately and independently switched data lines and current-limited power lines. USB power, data and SS data can be independently disconnected for advanced USB testing applications. Pin interfaces are protected against reverse polarity and overvoltage. Connections are designed to operate from 0°C to 50°C ambient with no external cooling or fans. Each USBHub3+ is uniquely addressable and controllable from a host PC via the selected USB host input or through a dedicated Control Port. Acroname’s BrainStem™ link is then established over the USB input and allows a connection to the on-board controller in the USBHub3+. USBHub3+ can be controlled via a host running BrainStem APIs or alternately, it can operate independently by running locally embedded, userdefined programs based on Acroname’s BrainStem Reflex language.

The USBHub3+ is DIN Rail mountable (mounting kit is not included, Acroname part C31-DINM-1).

Features

Supports USB hosts and devices up to USB 3.2 Gen1 (5Gbps); backwards compatible with USB1, USB2
Individually enable/disable any of 8 downstream ports
Measure voltage and current on each downstream port
Hi-Speed data, SuperSpeed data and power lines can be separately enabled for each downstream port
Set programmable current limits for each downstream port (up to 4A)
Dedicated Control Port for software control; independent of the selected upstream port
Select between two (2) host connections
All ports support USB link speeds up to 5Gbps
Detect established link speed on each port: SuperSpeed (5Gbps) or Hi-Speed (480Mbps)
Supply up to 5A per port; measure upto 4A
Set enumeration delay for discovery of attached downstream devices
Backward compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.x devices
Boost USB 2.0 upstream and downstream signal levels
DIN-rail mountable
Alternate Euro-style terminal block power input connector
Certified to +/-15kV ESD strikes (IEC61000-4-2 level 4)
Overvoltage and reverse current protected Vbus outputs
Monitor voltage and current on any/all ports
Maintain selectable control of data, SS lines, power lines for any port
Enable/Disable any downstream port

Applications

Block Diagram

Mechanical

Dimensions are shown in inches [mm].

Software Control

The USBHub3+ is built on Acroname’s BrainStem system, which provides simple high-level APIs, a real-time embedded runtime engine and modular expandability.

Software control of the features of the USBHub3+ is done with the BrainStem API via a BrainStem link. BrainStem links are done over USB and can be established via upstream port 0 (Up0), upstream port 1 (Up1), or the Control Port. After one or more of these ports is connected to a host machine, a user can connect to it via software on the host. An example graphical user interface application is available at https://acroname.com/software. Functionality details unique to the USBHub3+ are in the online API documentation. For more information on getting started with software control of the USBHub3+, see the online reference documentation at https://acroname.com/reference/.

BrainStem Control Port

By integrating Acroname's BrainStem technology, the USBHub3+ can be controlled with a simple and powerful programming API in C++ and Python. Acroname also provides HubTool as an example application which can be used to quickly setup or control the hub. The BrainStem APIs and HubTool is available on all modern operating systems (MacOSX, Linux and Windows 7, 8 and 10 (32bit and 64bit)). And of course, the BrainStem platform provides an embedded virtual machine API. This embedded RTOS allows for completely automatic control of all features of the USBHub3+ without needing a host PC.

The latest BrainStem development API is always available in the Download Center. The latest firwmare can be applied using the Updater utility. Check out the BrainStem Firmware Management reference entry or video for instructions on how to update your device.

HubTool

HubTool is an example application utilizing the Qt GUI framework. Source code for HubTool is available in the Download Center, which can serve as a quick start to writing your own GUI application to meet your needs. It also serves as a good entry tool for understanding the functionality of the USBHub3+, or just watching the battery charge curves of your various devices.

Let Acroname help you take charge of USB in ways you had not previously thought possible.

Downloads

Name	Open
HubTool GUI and SDK	Open
HubTool GUI Source Code Distribution	Open
CAD model for OEM/PCBA version only	Open

Product Assets

File	Download
EC Declaration of Conformity	Download
Product Dimensions	Download
Product CAD (STEP and IGES)	Download
Letter of Volatility	Download
S79-USBHub-3P UL Declaration	Download
s79-usbhub-3p_v1.21.pdf	Download

Specs

Specifications

Typical Performance Characteristics

Specifications are valid at 25°C unless otherwise noted. Indoor application use only. Sample rates are typically limited by the USB throughput of the host operating system except where bulk capture is supported.

Parameter	Conditions/Notes	Min	Typ.	Max	Units
Input Power, Wsupply, no downstream devices attached		-	2.2	-	W
Vsupply Under Voltage Lockout (UVLO)		7.7	8.0	8.2	V
Vsupply Over Voltage Lockout (OVLO)		26.0	26.8	27.8	V
Wide Input Range System Efficiency	At 12.0V input, nominal 8A load3	84	-	92	%
USB Downstream Output Voltage, Vbus	No load on downstream USB ports	4.947	-5.10	5.25	V
Vbus Measurement Resolution		-	8.0	-	mV
Vbus Measurement Accuracy		-2.0	-	2.0	%
Vbus Short-circuit Trip Current, Ilimit		4.8	5.0	5.4	A
Vbus Short-circuit Trip Time, tlimit		-	0.7	-	µS
Vbus Short-circuit Average Current, Ishort	After trip	0.3	0.5	52.0	A
Vbus Current Measurement Resolution		-	1.0	-	mA
Vbus Current Measurement Accuracy	Vbus current < 4.00A	-1.0	-	1.0	%
Vbus Current Measurement Range		0	-	4095	mA
Vbus Current Limit Trip Point Range	Software programmable	0	-	4095	mA
Vbus Current Limit Trip Point Resolution		-	1.0	-	mA
USB3 SuperSpeed Data Throughput			5.0		Gbps
USB2 HighSpeed Data Throughput			480		Mbps

Reviews

Comments

Excellent

Average: 5 (1 vote)

Worked perfectly, out of the box... This is going to be a game-changer for our regression testing...

2021-05-26

UEFI Boot Volume Selection

Average: 5 (1 vote)

It’s an excellent tool that does exactly what I hoped it would do, it’s just a shame I didn’t buy the correct one in the first place. The support team got me straightened out, and I couldn't be happier.

2021-03-05

Rock solid on top of my telescope in New Mexico desert heat!

Average: 5 (1 vote)

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?

2019-11-07

Best hub ever

Average: 5 (1 vote)

I continually have hubs failing (I guess because of ESD). The USBHub3+ has been up and running for over 300 days. I know this because it has a nice little uptime counter.

2021-07-15

Perfect for device automation and power measurement

Average: 5 (1 vote)

If you're looking for a way to programmatically control USB devices, or test specific 2.0 or 3.0 signal paths independently, this is the hub for you. Anyone truly serious about testing or evaluating a USB device should have one of these. In addition to the awesome switching capabilities, the device also provides precision real-time power consumption per-port, allowing you to monitor charging current (up to 4A) and visualize charging profiles. The hardware quality is excellent and the software support is superb.

2019-04-26

This thing is amazing!

Average: 5 (1 vote)

Love using these hubs! They make my regression system so simple! No more relays!

2021-07-15

Much more than a simple hub!

Average: 5 (1 vote)

This is more than a USB hub. Our problem was that we had an industrial machine exporting data to a USB flash disk. And we also needed to access this USB flash disk from a certain PC, at the same time. USB protocol does not allow two hosts accessing the same device simultaneously. We bought this programmable hub, and we programmed it to share access between the machine and the PC at specific times of the day. We programmed it in such a way that whenever we need to read the data from the machine the PC seizes the USB flash disk, retrieves the data and yield access back to the machine after the retrieval of data. This was easier to do than it sounds. Their awesome API offers much much more. It works with Python and C++. It runs on Windows and Linux. The company also offers A-level support. Finally, the device is extremely well-built. No plastic here. Definitely worth the money.

2018-07-16

Rock solid USB hub and a simple API for remote control

Average: 5 (1 vote)

My team had investiaged building something similar to this and even experimented with a bunch of relays and duct tape. That was a mess. The USBHub3+ worked perfect for our software regression testing, and the simple python API had us up in less than 2 days.

2021-07-15

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Average: 5 (4 votes)

85 out of 5

Average: 5 (4 votes)

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Acroname Programmable Industrial USB 3.2 Gen 1 Hub (8 Ports)

Tabs

Uses

Features

Block Diagram

Mechanical

Software Control

HubTool

Product Assets

Specifications

Typical Performance Characteristics

Comments

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