Video. If there is something mindlessly excessive, it’s always video. And if you have tree leaves for budget, instead of slightly more expensive hardware controllers or PCIe cards that can combine multiple inputs and outputs, and do it right, you default to cheap usb dongles per device used, and compose them on software level. If you collect inputs from several devices and output these to something like displays on a scene, while also collecting audio from mics, DJ deck, and outputting these too, numbers add up quickly. This clownshow is further expanded by unreliable software, usb power limits, Microslop Windows in most cases - because pros use it or Mac, no penguins. I have no pride in greatly exceeding what some random PCs could predictably do, for fixing random errors here and there when USB and USB hubs hit their practical ceiling is just another level of Dante’s hell, for all us time- and harware-restricted tinkerers.
Ethernet adapter 2 (connection to small switch with no uplinks, for device testing)
Ethernet adapter 3 (connection to local avoip network)
External drive
Microcontroller programmer (universal, let me cut down on a few other adapters I had)
Serial adapter
Card reader
Video capture - analog
Video capture - digital
Audio interface for xlr I/o and my good headphones
NFC reader/writer
Then a couple of loose cables for connecting the random devices, like a tablet for adb purposes, DSLR, etc. Not including the built-in devices on the laptop which show up as USB devices, like the crappy built-in webcam, microsd only card reader in the worlds stupidest spot, etc.
I’d say its easy to hit 15 - thats only the USB devices attached to my work laptop.
Sabrent. Bit more money, but I like the ones with built in power switches per port (handy for testing disconnection events), and the build quality is solid. Power supplies they provide can be a bit bulky, but I mount them in my rack so its not really a problem for me.
Anker I like for their slimmer powered hubs, but those mostly sit in my laptop backpack, not the daily driver on my home office desk.
I see that getting one with a power adapter increases the price a decent amount. Do the models without an adapter at least have a connector so I can provide my own?
Depends on the model, so you’ll have to take a look at each. The really big ones usually have a port rather than a captive cable, the smaller ones it varies wildly.
I mean, it’s pretty easy to imagine needing 10 USB ports. I think I’m using around that many myself on my desktop. Then just add a couple more for things that may be things needed temporarily.
The thing is though, every situation is different. I’m glad the designers of USB did not think like you do. Having the ability to use a lot of devices might be rare but it’s definitely been needed before, whether or not others can imagine it.
Fuck’s sake I was just asking what they were using it for that they filled out 15 ports and everyone is attacking me for thinking 15 is too much or something.even though I never stated that
My kids gaming pc tower has a set of usb ports on the back and a set on the front. It’s great to have options, but he’s not going to use them all. Ie he has ten usb ports for the five he uses
Fair enough, but not everyone is your kid. Needing to have things plugged in at once shouldn’t need defending. I would prefer to leave things plugged in if I can. USB supports that, so why wouldn’t I?
When I worked for Apple, I do remember the iOS devs having racks of iOS devices all being flashed at the same time off a single Mac. But I don’t remember the count and this was years ago—like Snow Leopard to El Cap era.
I was just kind of data analytics, but the labs were near my area, so can’t really give much more info, but mildly interesting, I guess?
Well, from an Apple pov, there’s no reason to change that limit (which is probably there because of some legacy limitation) until they release a device with more usb ports, which they probably won’t. macOS isn’t supposed to run on your pc motherboard after all.
But I agree that it’s annoying. I was daily driving a hackintosh with catalina for two years. Wasn’t the easiest setup.
Yeah, and from an Apple POV it makes sense to take away common ports just to make the phone .01mm thinner and sell you a shitty peripheral to replace the hardware port.
Doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or something that people would accept from a company they didn’t have cult like devotion towards.
I‘d argue though, there is a difference between a technical limitation apple just doesn’t care about resolving because it just doesn’t matter for any device their software is officially available on and them intentionally removing features.
Like, I don’t think the port limit was an executive decision but some random programmer’s who wrote that code like 25 years ago when he decided that one byte must suffice for the total count of usb ports.
It’s not actually that hard to get up there. Mechanical keyboard, wired mouse, external drives, headset, webcam, other peripherals, etc. And if you are trying to do anything more involved like music production, you end up needing way more (audio interfaces, midi controllers, etc.).
one physical USB-A socket on the machine can read as two USB ports virtually due to that physical socket supporting USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 at the same time, I believe its a backwards compat thing. I think there might also be internal (virtual) USB ports as well but don’t quote me on that. On mobos with 8+ physical USB A sockets it can easily get past the 16 limit unless you specifically disable the USB 2.0 port, which then might break older devices relying on that and it becomes a whole headache. this person explains it better than I can
More realistic option is 15 other Logitech wireless device receivers, and you don’t know which one goes to your current mouse and keyboard, so you just leave them all plugged in.
At least, that is my experience working in IT. Personal record was 6.
Okay but what kind of application is it used for that you exceed 15 ports filled??
Video. If there is something mindlessly excessive, it’s always video. And if you have tree leaves for budget, instead of slightly more expensive hardware controllers or PCIe cards that can combine multiple inputs and outputs, and do it right, you default to cheap usb dongles per device used, and compose them on software level. If you collect inputs from several devices and output these to something like displays on a scene, while also collecting audio from mics, DJ deck, and outputting these too, numbers add up quickly. This clownshow is further expanded by unreliable software, usb power limits, Microslop Windows in most cases - because pros use it or Mac, no penguins. I have no pride in greatly exceeding what some random PCs could predictably do, for fixing random errors here and there when USB and USB hubs hit their practical ceiling is just another level of Dante’s hell, for all us time- and harware-restricted tinkerers.
Don’t judge, I need this RAID 0 array of 30 flash drives for my workflow!
For my work, I personally have:
Then a couple of loose cables for connecting the random devices, like a tablet for adb purposes, DSLR, etc. Not including the built-in devices on the laptop which show up as USB devices, like the crappy built-in webcam, microsd only card reader in the worlds stupidest spot, etc.
I’d say its easy to hit 15 - thats only the USB devices attached to my work laptop.
Ok that was legit.
Do you had recommendations for powered USB 2 and 3 hubs that are decent quality? I’m so sick of plugging things in and they don’t have enough power.
Sabrent. Bit more money, but I like the ones with built in power switches per port (handy for testing disconnection events), and the build quality is solid. Power supplies they provide can be a bit bulky, but I mount them in my rack so its not really a problem for me.
Anker I like for their slimmer powered hubs, but those mostly sit in my laptop backpack, not the daily driver on my home office desk.
Thank you!
I see that getting one with a power adapter increases the price a decent amount. Do the models without an adapter at least have a connector so I can provide my own?
Depends on the model, so you’ll have to take a look at each. The really big ones usually have a port rather than a captive cable, the smaller ones it varies wildly.
Are you an apple dev?
I am just asking what they are doing to need that as I cannot think of anything off the top of my head
Music production, which apple pretends to be superior at.
I mean, it’s pretty easy to imagine needing 10 USB ports. I think I’m using around that many myself on my desktop. Then just add a couple more for things that may be things needed temporarily.
I can hardly imagine needing 15 ports at the same time.
Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in your imagination.
Well I am currently using about 5-6 ports on my PC and 2 of those are not really needed. I can imagine using a couple more but certainly not 15.
I could fill them up but I don’t have a scenario where I actually need that many things plugged in at the same time in the first place.
The thing is though, every situation is different. I’m glad the designers of USB did not think like you do. Having the ability to use a lot of devices might be rare but it’s definitely been needed before, whether or not others can imagine it.
Fuck’s sake I was just asking what they were using it for that they filled out 15 ports and everyone is attacking me for thinking 15 is too much or something.even though I never stated that
meanwhile I’m overhere with…
keyboard, mouse, camera, 4x flash drive, game controller, ebook reader, external storage disk, printer, VR headset, multimedia card reader, LED controller, my monitor (USBc display + hub + KVM) and my phone…
ofcourse not all at the same time. but I have a mess of USB extensions and hubs as I don’t have enough root Ports lol
(Linux not hacintosh) I apparently couldn’t run it if I wanted to.
Yeah that was my main thing. It can be done but most people don’t need all of those plugged in constantly
My kids gaming pc tower has a set of usb ports on the back and a set on the front. It’s great to have options, but he’s not going to use them all. Ie he has ten usb ports for the five he uses
Fair enough, but not everyone is your kid. Needing to have things plugged in at once shouldn’t need defending. I would prefer to leave things plugged in if I can. USB supports that, so why wouldn’t I?
I mean the point is there’s a convenience factor where you might have twice as many ports as you’re willing to use
It’s not just that you might have more devices or want to leave them plugged in, but you may find some ports undesirable to use
When I worked for Apple, I do remember the iOS devs having racks of iOS devices all being flashed at the same time off a single Mac. But I don’t remember the count and this was years ago—like Snow Leopard to El Cap era.
I was just kind of data analytics, but the labs were near my area, so can’t really give much more info, but mildly interesting, I guess?
Well, from an Apple pov, there’s no reason to change that limit (which is probably there because of some legacy limitation) until they release a device with more usb ports, which they probably won’t. macOS isn’t supposed to run on your pc motherboard after all.
But I agree that it’s annoying. I was daily driving a hackintosh with catalina for two years. Wasn’t the easiest setup.
Yeah, but from Apple’s perspective, a lot of shitty things make more sense but I still ain’t okay with them :)
I was thinking of trying to do hackintosh before I switched to Linux. I think I dodged a bullet.
Yeah, and from an Apple POV it makes sense to take away common ports just to make the phone .01mm thinner and sell you a shitty peripheral to replace the hardware port.
Doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or something that people would accept from a company they didn’t have cult like devotion towards.
I‘d argue though, there is a difference between a technical limitation apple just doesn’t care about resolving because it just doesn’t matter for any device their software is officially available on and them intentionally removing features.
Like, I don’t think the port limit was an executive decision but some random programmer’s who wrote that code like 25 years ago when he decided that one byte must suffice for the total count of usb ports.
One byte is much larger than 15.
Yea, you’re right, my math wasn’t quite mathing, I’ve had a long day. I meant 4 bit.
Anyone who produces music with hardware and hasn’t spent the extra money to buy a dedicated MIDI interface.
It’s not actually that hard to get up there. Mechanical keyboard, wired mouse, external drives, headset, webcam, other peripherals, etc. And if you are trying to do anything more involved like music production, you end up needing way more (audio interfaces, midi controllers, etc.).
Off the top of my head: Sensors. E.g. in some underfunded university lab.
That would make sense. Didn’t think of it.
one physical USB-A socket on the machine can read as two USB ports virtually due to that physical socket supporting USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 at the same time, I believe its a backwards compat thing. I think there might also be internal (virtual) USB ports as well but don’t quote me on that. On mobos with 8+ physical USB A sockets it can easily get past the 16 limit unless you specifically disable the USB 2.0 port, which then might break older devices relying on that and it becomes a whole headache. this person explains it better than I can
Ah I see. So it’s more like plugging in 5-10 things exceeds the limit.
I helped run a Kickstarter where one of our rewards was Mac and PC software on custom USB sticks.
We had a couple hubs set up and cloned the drives 20 at a time.
I’m probably past that.
With what though? Just curious
Hard drives, DVD/BD-ROM drives, game controllers, a floppy drive, webcam, charging cable, a scanner, there’s more i’m probably forgetting.
And you have all those constantly plugged in? I’ probably hate the cable mess
More realistic option is 15 other Logitech wireless device receivers, and you don’t know which one goes to your current mouse and keyboard, so you just leave them all plugged in.
At least, that is my experience working in IT. Personal record was 6.
A lot of that can be easily cable managed, most people just don’t bother with the effort of making it look nice.
It’s all behind my desk. It’ll be fine.