USB 3 upgrades

[Mav359]

Hi guys

I've built a new i-5 astro PC with USB 3.0 onboard & I'm thinking of updating my USB runs & Hubs to USB 3.0

My Cameras and equipment will obviously remaining USB 2.0 but it future proof's any further purchases's (which is bound to happen)

Has anyone else done this? did you notice a difference in your USB 2.0 devices' speed, connectivity etc

Cheers

[m.tweedy]

I could not get my devices to run through the powered usb 3 hub and have reverted back to a powered usb 2 hub and they are recognised again.

It could just be me of course. But they are now working so I am not tinkering with them again.

[Zakalwe]

You won't get any increase in speed by running USB devices on USB3 (in fact, you might get the opposite as some hubs will run all ports at the speed of the slowest device).

I currently have an Orico USB3 hub connected to me USB2 PC. All the devices are USB2.  It all seems to work fine (touch wood).

I seem to remember seeing a post about the ZWO cameras not being USB3 compatible, so if you use one of these then there might be an issue?

[Tinker1947]

Did the new mother board not come with plenty of USB 3 slots on the back panel,  mine has 6 usb 3's plus 2 usb 2's GigaByte GA-Z87-D3HP

[Mav359]

Did the new mother board not come with plenty of USB 3 slots on the back panel,  mine has 6 usb 3's plus 2 usb 2's GigaByte GA-Z87-D3HP

Yeah 4 x USB3.0 ports.

Im currently using 2 old PC's from work, a couple of dual core 2ghz with 4gb of RAM. One in the OB's and one in the motorhome.

The PC i built is is a Mini-ITX , 3.2ghz Quad Core & 16gb of RAM. I also used SSD HDD to keep the noise and heat down. Nice small & powerfull & all for £400, i'll split its time between the Motorhome & OB's for the next six months and then build another.

The reason i built this was because of all the devices plugged into the PC, theres the CCD, Guide Camera, Scope, Auto Focuser &  DSLR. The exsting PC's feel like they are on the edge of there capacity generating random errors, crashing & generally very slow. This will be much better so i thought i'd up the USB 3.0 to ease video traffic on the bus.

From my motorhome the PC connects to an externally facing USB port which has a 10m run to the Hub plugged into it. The idea rather then increasing the speed of the devices was i would be easing traffic on the bus, like adding an extra lane to the motorway.

Cheers

[JamesF]

I seem to remember seeing a post about the ZWO cameras not being USB3 compatible, so if you use one of these then there might be an issue?

That isn't correct.  My ZWO cameras work fine with the USB3 port on my desktop box and with my USB3 Orico hub.

There certainly is an issue somewhere, with some chipsets perhaps, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.

James

[Zakalwe]

That isn't correct.  My ZWO cameras work fine with the USB3 port on my desktop box and with my USB3 Orico hub.

There certainly is an issue somewhere, with some chipsets perhaps, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.

James

Ah, OK. Thanks for the correction James.

I half-remembered seeing something about an incompatibility with USB3. So much for standards!

[JamesF]

Ah, OK. Thanks for the correction James.

I half-remembered seeing something about an incompatibility with USB3. So much for standards!

It's a weird one, certainly.  The "standard" firmware ASI120 works fine with my Linux desktop via the built-in USB3 port or on the Orico hub.  It doesn't work at all on my MacBook Pro, either directly on the USB3 port or when connected via a USB2 hub (that it also works with when conneted via my desktop).  Switching to ZWO's "compatible" firmware makes it work on the Mac, but then it doesn't look like it works on my desktop unless there's some other magic I need to do to make that happen.

James

[riklaunim]

There are USB3 problems with ASI camera, just check their forums.

[Mav359]

I'd be amazed if all those issues aren't driver related.