Hi,
I have just noticed this by accident and wanted to make sure this wont harm my device.
My Girlfriend used the Vero4k yersterday and being used to the old htpc she shut down the vero using kodi. Well no harm done just needed to unplug the power lead and it will work again right?
I have a USB DVD/Bluray drive connected to my vero with one of those Y-USB cables, the main plug is in the vero and the secondary plug for additional power is connected with my tv.
I unplugged power to restart the vero but the red led would not turn of (TV on and DVD drive connected as described) only after removing the Y-USB cable the led turned off and the device powered on again.
So i couldnt help myself to test if the vero would work completely powered through the Y-Kabel without power plugged in at all and it did.
Just to make sure… this is not what i intend to do cause the vero would always be forefully shutdown when i turn of the tv but i was wondering having voltage go into the vero over usb in addition to the normal power plug could harm the device?
I have not noticed any problems and this setup with the external drive worked great until now, i just want to make sure this is safe.
is this normal behavior for USB-Y cables? What would be the savest option to power external devices that dont have a seperate power plug as any powered usb hub would show the same behavior with this setup.
There’s circuit protection that will cover this; provided that the hub is in spec. You’d only really get problems with something like a HDD which may accidentally backfeed / spike.
ha sure you are right!
For some reason i was thinking about plugging everything in like i do right now (one lead into the vero and the other one into the hub) but of course you would put everything into the hub instead.
Will need a hub anyway sooner or later, thanks for clearing this up!
Depends. But in short, good, well manufactured hubs won’t cause this problem.
Last year we replaced a couple of Vero 4K units because users had attached cheap, uncertified hubs to their devices and blown the USB circuitry.
can anyone recommend a small (3-6 port) powered USB-Hub that wont cause this problem? I have a higher quality dlink one at the office i could try soon but if someone has a experience with a good not to expensive device already it would save me some time
Just wanted to provide some further clarification about this as I think a different user may have have damaged their device in a similar issue.
Vero 4K will tolerate 500ma via USB when connected to a barrel.
Providing additional power could lead to damage to the device.
If you connected using a port on the hub, and not the input port, the OSMC hub also has individual power control for each port; so you can turn off the port Vero 4K is connected to. This will avoid problems.
OSCMC powered USB Hub powered with its supplied PSU, connected to a Vero 4K USB port with the Blue lead supplied. This powers the Vero 4k and devices plugged into the Hub.
If with that setup I connect the Vero 4k PSU as well what is the likely outcome?
What is the correct way to do this if for instance, a device on the USB hub is a USB Hard Drive?
The OSMC powered USB 3.0 hub won’t pass on any power to the Vero via the blue upstream USB cord (which is meant to connect the hub to the host device). So, powering the OSMC USB hub with its PSU and the Vero with its PSU at the same time is no problem at all… And connecting whatever device to the USB hub won’t be a problem then either. The OSMC USB hub will never pass power to the host device (the Vero in this case).
Just hubs that don’t respect USB specs and deliver power to the host device as well, those are a problem.
With that setup, the Vero won’t have power without its own PSU The likely outcome is that it will come alive only then
@Chillbo
Thanks for the observations, that was exactly what I believed to be the case. @sam_nazarko
However:
My Vero 4k is sitting in front of me with Hub powered with its own PSU and connected to the Vero 4k.
The PSU to the Vero 4K is NOT connected, and yet the Vero 4K is running quite happily.
So clearly the Hub does power the device through the Blue USB connector.
If @JimKnopf is right about the USB specs, then this shouldn’t matter, should it? The USB hub shouldn’t deliver power upstream no matter what USB socket it’s connected to…
@grahamh, @Chillbo
Curious …
The same behavior is exhibited regardless of which USB socket on the Vero 4k is used.
I have left the USB hub to be powered only from the Vero 4K, I have nothing drawing a hie current demand on the USB Hub at present.
The opposite works just as well!
Perhaps, I understood this wrong: You connected the Vero to the upstream port of the hub (and not to the four downstream ports the hub offers) and the Vero gets power?
Perhaps, a quick photo here makes it easier to understand.
The likely outcome is that it will come alive only then 
