USB hub on the RT-N66U

[huotg01]

Someone asked on the RT-N66U forum about the possibility to have more than 2 USB disks. The answer was "no because the RT-N66U doesn't work with a USB hub".

Not that I think that it is a good idea, but what prevents someone to add a hub ? Would it be fairly easy to do it ?

GH, just curious...

 

[Serpent]

I've used some time ago an USB hub to connect an USB drive to the RT-N66U, because otherwise the spin-down feature doesn't worked.

But with Merlin FWs is not needed anymore.

 

[got_milk]

Power limitations would be the biggest limiting factor I would think (the devices drawing more current than the single USB port can provide), but I couldn't see why a powered USB hub wouldn't work, besides any GUI limitations when having more than 2 devices connected, but I wouldn't know about those.

 

[RMerlin]

I haven't looked at this yet, but quite often hub support involves enabling it in the kernel.

Where this could be an issue with Asuswrt however is the fact the firmware only expects two USB devices, as can be seen on the main webui page. I don't know how the firmware would handle having two different devices connected through a hub to one of its port.

That's something I might look at eventually.

 

[Serpent]

I must to admit that was only one USB device connected thru the USB hub, with his own power supply.

 

[huotg01]

I haven't looked at this yet, but quite often hub support involves enabling it in the kernel.

Where this could be an issue with Asuswrt however is the fact the firmware only expects two USB devices, as can be seen on the main webui page. I don't know how the firmware would handle having two different devices connected through a hub to one of its port.

That's something I might look at eventually.

Thanks. I understand that the UI has to be modified to take that into account, but do you know if this requires a module to be added to the kernel, or it is just a matter of enabling a function ? I would see that addition as being interesting on the AC66U with USB3...

GH

 

[Pierino]

I thought only the n65u had usb3

 

[huotg01]

I thought only the n65u had usb3

You are right. I was under that false impression. My fault...
Someone knows how the 65U compares to the 66U ?

GH

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks. I understand that the UI has to be modified to take that into account, but do you know if this requires a module to be added to the kernel, or it is just a matter of enabling a function ?

No idea, I haven't looked into it.

 

[Pierino]

You are right. I was under that false impression. My fault...
Someone knows how the 65U compares to the 66U ?

GH

I believe the rt-n65u is just a n56u with USB 3.0 instead of USB 2.0
My rt-n56u isn't as well performing as my rt-n66u. I have also read tht USB 3.0 plays havoc with the 2.4ghz band.

http://www.usb.org/developers/whitepapers/327216.pdf

 

[ryzhov_al]

I haven't looked at this yet, but quite often hub support involves enabling it in the kernel.

AsusWRT-* already includes all necessary modules.
The problem might be in tomato rc logics: /jffs/scripts/services-start ignores disk partitions behind USB hub.

 

[Nerre]

As far as I understand the support for USB Hub is in the base USB modules so any kernel supporting USB will support a Hub.

 

[burtal]

i had a N65 for one day and then i returned it....it was so damn hot. you could feel how it irradiated heat from 1 cm away ....i could not keep my hand on it more then 10 seconds. Comparing it with N66 now running at 52-53 degrees i estimate that inside the temp was about 80-85 degrees. and note that it does not have radiators like N66 to bring the heat down

The usb 3.0 stick connector after removal from USB was very very hot.

i did not notice any interference in 2,4 GHz band. i was streaming a 720p movie from the Stick and in the same time copy large folders (from my desktop ) with random files at with an average of 4mb. on a intel 4965 N wifi board

copy from stick to desktop via ethernet was at 30mb while over wifi at around 12 mb on 2,4 ghz band and 16 mb on 5ghz . card used intel 6205

 

[huotg01]

What stands out for me is that :

1. the kernel doesn't seem to be an obstacle
2. the firmware (and its UI) has to be adapted to take care of the possibility of having more than two usb devices attached to the router.

Thanks you all for sharing your thoughts about the question of having a usb hub connected to the x66U.

GH

 

[Nerre]

It's really just the web ui I think. The rest of the firmware should handle it. You might have to manual configurations though (outside the web ui).

 

[bird333]

I was asking about this on the linksysinfo tomato site and no one could provide an answer. The powered hub I used on my E3000 doesn't work on this router.

 

[huotg01]

... The powered hub I used on my E3000 doesn't work on this router.

"This" router being the E3000 or the RT-x66U ?

GH

 

[bird333]

"This" router being the E3000 or the RT-x66U ?

GH

Hub works on E3000. It doesn't work on the n66u.

 

[huotg01]

Hub works on E3000. It doesn't work on the n66u.

It might be because of what ryzhov reported earlier ?:

AsusWRT-* already includes all necessary modules.
The problem might be in tomato rc logics: /jffs/scripts/services-start ignores disk partitions behind USB hub.

GH

 

[bird333]

It might be because of what ryzhov reported earlier ?:


GH

But if I remember correctly both were running tomato.