Need reliable USB hub for MSP
Korg NanoKey abd NanoKontrol are perfect in size for a project I'm doing in MSP. I've bought three powered USB hubs, and they're all flaky carrying the Nanos. This may be the Nanos themselves, of course.
Is anybody having good luck with any particular powered hub in sending Korg Nano devices to MSP?
On a Mac Pro with Leopard.
Thanks!
Blue Fire
I bought a lovely, small 4-USB hub with an unobtrusive wall wart psu, by Belkin, and then found I have the same issues as you - it's not happy with one Korg Nano, let alone 2.
So I dragged out my larger, uglier Interex 4 hub, which has a bigger psu (though I don't know for sure if that's what made the difference). 2 nanos working fine on that.
I'm guessing that the thing to do is look for a hub with a big, ugly psu, rather than a wall wart.
David
I'm running a nanopad, nanocontrol and 2 wacoms through this Belkin hub:http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5U218-MOB-Hi-Speed-USB-Thumb/dp/B0001H28NY
seems to work fine --though without the power supply atm
I also use a NanoKontrol and NanoPad. I had to send the pad back for repair because it didn't work, the NanoKontrol, I find the Nano Kontrol Editor software will only work when Max is not open, however when you open Max it thinks the device is not connected. Yet despite this, it still sends MIDI so its okay.
The hub I have is a 7 port plexus:http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130519
No major problems with this except you need to keep the devices in the same port or it forgets you ever installed them. This may just be USB and not the hub though. I use a PC.
These USB midi controllers seem abit flakey to me, I think if I hadn't already bought 3 at once based on the price I'd have got something with a proper MIDI out and midi through. I also got a novation nocturn and it won't send any midi data unless you run the Automap software (which you have to remember to open before max or once again it thinks the device isn't connected and won't work). I also had problems with the nocturn and korgs sending cc# data on the same channel even though they had seperate abbreviation letters and different drivers (not sure what is to blame for this). That said I'm generally pretty happy with the NanoKontrol.
All these midi controllers don't need much current, I had no problem using a cheap old hub without PSU (try to not power it....
On a Mac there is a problem with ctlin though, a combination of a bug from apple and no attempt to fix the issue from cycling. The workaround is using midiin instead of ctlin. The "flakiness" might just be that.
Though I must admit the NanoKey is physically flaky and falls apart all the time, but there is no smaller and cheaper keyboard than that in the world as far as I know...
Stefan