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49 Port USB Hub, 49 USB cables and 49 Sun SPOTs !!!
Thursday March 22, 2007

We are working towards getting our Handls-On-Lab content ready for JavaOne this year. In order to hold this lab, I have 200 Sun SPOTs at my disposal. One major issue is how to work with so many Sun SPOTs with only 2 ports on my MacBook, or even with the piddly 7 port USB hubs one can get.

Well working at Sun Labs has its advantages. The folks here are not afraid to get down and dirty putting out new software and hardware that is pretty cool. Today, I got to hold this huge behemoth of a 49 port USB hub that they custom built. The guys started with 8 7 port USB hubs, hacked them a little bit, and with a little tape and glue put them all together. The configuration is one 7 port hub going to 7 hubs, and each of these 7 hubs providing 7 ports each. Giving us 7x7 which equals 49. This is not quite 42, the answer to life the universe and everything, but it will do for my needs for now.

I've included a picture of what it looks like with 49 Sun SPOTs actually connected !!!

(2007-03-22 23:14:25.0) Permalink Comments [5]

Trackback URL: http://blogs.sun.com/eric/entry/49_port_usb_hub_49

Comments:

Wow that's a nice SunSPOTs charging station!

Posted by Martin Morissette on March 25, 2007 at 02:01 PM PDT #

wow! That's a Sun SPOT cluster? :-D

Posted by Silveira Neto on January 16, 2008 at 07:26 PM PST #

Man, the SPOT platform looks awesome.

Do you know if they'll be releasing a kit priced for hobbyists? I've been developing for AVR for a while and would _love_ to get my hands on one of these.

Posted by Laen on May 20, 2008 at 08:47 AM PDT #

whoa!

Posted by Mark Vismonte on June 17, 2008 at 10:21 AM PDT #

Check out this 49x port USB2.0 hub - this could tidy things up a bit ;-)

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/05/28/49-port-usb-hub-is-just-plain-practical/

Posted by Steven Tyson on May 29, 2009 at 03:31 AM PDT #