Satechi 12 Port USB Hub with Power Adapter & 2 Control Switches

by Satechi

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.2 x 1 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B0051PGX2I
• Item model number: ST-UH12P
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (445 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #11 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Hubs

Product Description

Satechi UH-12P USB 2.0 Hub with Power adds twelve additional USB 2.0 ports to PC or Mac, allowing you to connect USB devices such as digital cameras, external hard drives, flash drives, and printers. The hub is uniquely designed so that the two switches can control first six or second six usb ports with the blue Led indicators. Providing data rates of up to 480Mbps, this 12-port hub is the ideal solution for transferring data between your computer and external USB storage devices. Equipped with a power supply, the Satechi UH-12P USB 2.0 hub guarantees the electric current stability and the effective operation of connected USB devices. It does not require any software or complicated installation process. With the slim, strip-shape design, it saves your precious desktop space. It's extremely portable and easy to move between systems or take on the road.

Please Note:

For a stable connection, the devices connected to the 12 Port hub must not exceed a combined current of 5 volt 2A. Each USB port on our 12 Port hub, will only provide 5 volts 250 Milliamps. External hard-drives should be connected to an external power source. The Satechi 12 Port hub will not charge an iPad (it will only sync).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

192 of 198 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product August 5, 2011

By J. Fail

Amazon Verified Purchase

I use the Microsoft Flight Simulator with 10 Saitek USB devices. I bought this hub to be able to use all of the devices on one hub. This hub is well designed and durable. The power supply for it was a little under powered for my needs so I added a larger one from [...]. There is nothing wrong with the supplied P.S. just a little less (current wise) than I needed. I am sure that for normal use as opposed to my high current demands the supplied P.S. will be fine for almost any needs.

All works great. I liked it so much I bought a second one for other uses.

Delivery time from Satechi was very prompt.

Later update:

This did not turn out quite as well as I had hoped. I found that if a total of 2.00 or more amps were pulled by all USB devices combined on the 12 port hub that the hub will shut down. The power supply that is supplied with the hub is rated at 5V 2.4 amps. As I pointed out in my earlier review I changed over to my own 10 amp supply which worked well until I added a 11th USB device that exceeded the 2.00 amps. The specs for the hub make no mention whatsoever of a maximum current rating for the hub but of course the rating of their own power supply (2.4 amps) indicates a maximum current that should be assumed. The purchaser could not know that until their power supply was in hand. I had hoped that the unit did not have current limiting built in but it does. Satechi should revise their specs to indicate that there is a maximum current that can be pulled by the hub. There is no mention of the total current capacity of their power supply or the hub on Amazon or on the Satechi web site.

Long and the short of it is don't exceed 2.00 amps with all USB devices combined on a hub or it will shut down. There is nothing wrong with the hub, they work fine, are durable and very space efficient, it just has a current limitation the user should be aware of.

I used my second 12 port hub, made a Y adapter for the 10 amp supply to power both hubs, split the USB device load, 5 devices on one hub and 6 on the other hub to reduce the current being pulled for each hub. They work fine now after very extensive testing.

218 of 237 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe we need to re-examine the word "powered" November 28, 2011

By Peterson

Amazon Verified Purchase

Ok, so here's a little knowledge for you about why there are powered and non-powered USB hubs.

A USB device needs power to operate. No big surprise there. With a non-powered USB hub, there is 'x' amount of power available to support all of the devices that are plugged into it. This means that if you plug a lot of devices into it and try to use them all at the same time, their performance will decrease because that x amount of power is needing to be divided accordingly.

The beauty of a powered USB hub, is that they are supposed to produce the power needed to support your devices, that way there is no degradation in performance.

Here's the catch for this particular device though. Please keep in mind that this is only my experience, perhaps I was tasking it too hard. From my experience, the "powered" feature of this hub is only for the nifty LED lighting that it has. I plugged in an external drive through this hub and it was dead to the world. Everything that requires only tiny amounts of power (like a USB stick, or a keyboard)are fine, but anything bigger than that, you're not going to be too thrilled with this device.

Don't get me wrong, it looks cool and I like the utilitarianism of the design, but I'm a little upset that they are labeling it as "powered" when it's not actually working by that standard.

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Not nearly as much power as it claims. May 8, 2012

By Alan Curtis

Amazon Verified Purchase

Despite other reviews talking about how this product did not produce the full 500ma power per USB port that it should, I still purchased it figuring I had a bunch of flash drives, and only a few USB powered disk drives, so it should be ok.

Turns out, I can't even run all 3 of my drives at the same time. In fact running 2 at a time is iffy.

I thought for a while that the power supply might in fact be broken, since it did not seem to run any more disks with the power supply plugged in than being powered from the computer's USB port, but in fact the lights light up and the plugged in devices do see power even when it is not plugged into the computer, so the power supply must be working.

I'm keeping it to run the disks one at a time and be able to access other low powered things, but it is a shame that it is so very low powered...

UPDATE:
I would avoid Satechi products on Amazon like the plague. In my opinion, they are manipulating the review system to get rid of anything short of excellent reviews by offering refunds that let you keep the product if you remove your 'negative' review. Previously this was a 3 star review and I got the following email:

---cut---
We are very sorry for the inconvenience you've experienced with our 12 Port USB Hub. For safety reasons each port has a 5Volt 250mA output and the total amount of power going to the hub may not surpass 2 Amps (to ensure your computer's usb doesn't burn up.) You are most likely exceeding this limit with your external hard drives. Is it possible to connect any of them to an external power source? Also we would like to offer you a refund and you may keep the hub. All we ask in return is the removal of your review. Once (or if) it is removed we will issue your full refund.

Thank you,

Blake

Satechi Technical Support
---cut---

If you still want a Satechi product, I would give a lot of extra weight to any "negative" review that does survive this process, given that I suspect many reviews would disappear with this offer...

Caveat emptor