Can motherboard 2 USB port header be increased to 4 or more?

[alkemyst]

you can plug a hub into a USB socket, why can't you modify the pinout and add more to the case? could you tap a powersupply line and make a powered port?

been thinking about how to get 4 case mounted USB ports on my Abit BX6r2

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
you can plug a hub into a USB socket, why can't you modify the pinout and add more to the case? could you tap a powersupply line and make a powered port?

been thinking about how to get 4 case mounted USB ports on my Abit BX6r2

well, there is this product that is a usb hub mounted onto a pci card. what it does is get power from the power supply in the form of that small floppy power plug. otherwise it's a regular hub.

another hub would just mean more money to spend on the motherboard, which translates to more expensive motherboards. of course, newer motherboards have MANY MORE ports, compared to 2.

just get a freaking external usb hub instead of whining about a board that's obsolete.
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this topic does not belong on this forum. it's not "highly technical" at all.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Mday

well, there is this product that is a usb hub mounted onto a pci card. what it does is get power from the power supply in the form of that small floppy power plug. otherwise it's a regular hub.

another hub would just mean more money to spend on the motherboard, which translates to more expensive motherboards. of course, newer motherboards have MANY MORE ports, compared to 2.

just get a freaking external usb hub instead of whining about a board that's obsolete.
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this topic does not belong on this forum. it's not "highly technical" at all.

who pissed in your froot loops?

It is a technicial question and your solutions are not the answer and my setup is not 'obsolete', what do you do buy they latest and greatest at $500 a pop for 20 more MFLOPS or 5 more FPS? I score in the Pentium/Athlon 1.5-1.7GHz range.

There should be a way to rewire for the motherboard header since the ports themselves are what the hub plugs into....this is about as technical as you can get I would say.

I dont want to use a PCI slot up, and I would like to avoid things hanging off my case.

Maybe Hot Deals has a coupon for some new Froot Loops

 

[kylebisme]

seems prety technical to me, at the same time seems rather possable. i know that usb devices are dassy chainable so it seems its realy only a matter of adding the ports and provideing suficent power. unfortnaly im not realy one to awnser the questions as to how but hopefuly someone here can help you out.

 

[Mday]

you can also get an internal 3.5" bay hub, they come in 4+ port varieties, these have a usb cable attached, you'd have to route the cable back to your external ports.

you cant simply solder ports to the existing pinouts cuz that would confuse the controller. what is on the motherboard is a singular controller and a root hub which splits it into 2 ports. any hub you get is an intelligent "splitter" so it's not a matter of just adding more ports. you need a control chip to actively switch\separate signals to\from devices and the controller. it's the same basic concept of a 3 device IDE cable, it just doesnt work that way.

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i apologize for the previous reply, i will leave it as it is though. I miss understood your intent.

as for that pci hub thing, it's not really a pci hub, it just mounts to the expansion slot cover, there are no parts of the pcb that actually inserts itself into a slot. since you dont want to waste a pci slot, you can just waste the ISA slot that's there. OR you can do a little modding to the expansion slot cover that the hub is attached to, and mod your case, and have that hub mounted to a part of your case with rectangular holes for the actual use of the ports.

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
seems prety technical to me, at the same time seems rather possable. i know that usb devices are dassy chainable so it seems its realy only a matter of adding the ports and provideing suficent power. unfortnaly im not realy one to awnser the questions as to how but hopefuly someone here can help you out.

USB devices are not what i would consider "daisy chainable," but you can add more via a hub. and generally usb devices do not offer anything in the means of a daisy chain like some firewire devices do, though it is very well possible by incorporating hub hardware onto the usb device (an extra chip or a new multifunctional chip). this all boils down to what you mean by "daisy chainable." it is possible to have different devices plug through each other, this would be a hub. but it is not possible to have one cable with more than 2 connectors on it (contrary to ATA or SCSI cables).

 

[Mday]

one more comment about "highly techical"

my first thought about this thread pretty much spoke for itself. the actual intent does merit some "highly technical" ideas.

if you look through the locked threads, the solution to the "problem" of getting a hub, is not highly technical.

as with anything concerning a data signal, simply adding a pinout is just not the way to go.

if you want more ports, get a hub or a new controller. hell, you may as well get usb2.0 controller with 4 or 5 ports (with or without an internal port) or a combo usb2.0\firewire controller.