Mini sleep questions - does yours do this?

**Bugbyte** · 08-23-2005, 10:33 AM

I added a powered USB hub to my car yesterday. I plugged it in when the Mini was asleep. The hub is powered by the accessory line and the car was off, thus the hub was not powered.

When I plugged it in to the Mini, the Mini woke up and powered the hub. I guess I wasn't expecting that. The reason I added the powered hub was to put a "break" between my USB devices and the USB ports on the Mini, since the USB bus stays powered when the Mini is asleep.

That sort of defeats the purpose of the powered hub, except for powering devices that need supplemental power.

I guess you all have run into this. Am I going to have to put a relay to break the 5 volt line on the USB cable? What have you Mini owners done?

**DerekICT** · 08-23-2005, 07:29 PM

When I installed the Carnetix P1900, the instruction clearly stated that ANY type of USB activity would wake the mini...which is why when you use the aux on the P1900, the power on the accessory line (USB hub) is actually cut before the Mini is put in sleep mode. Powering down at the same time can cause the mini to restart.

So in your situation, I would assume that the hub still getting power from the aux line of the vehicle may be waking up the mini in some way, even though the power is cut when you turn the key off.

Did any of that make sense to anyone but me?

**Bugbyte** · 08-23-2005, 09:10 PM

Except that the hub wasn't getting any power from the car when I plugged it in. The car was off and so was the hub. After I plugged it in, it woke up the Mini and powered up, presumably getting power from the Mini.

I knew that a change in USB activity would wake the Mini but didn't realize that a hub with nothing plugged into it and with no power could draw from the USB port.

Since I have my secondary output on the P1900 set to 12 volt for the screen, it looks like I'm going to have to wire my powered hub to the secondary line. I've got a 5 volt regulator on it, so it should be okay.

I'd get the 5v POL but it's $25. A little too steep in my book. $19.99 would have been the max for me.

**4thChild** · 10-08-2005, 10:46 PM

Bugbyte - Very new here but I just purchased a Belkin USB 2.0 6-Port hub thats powered by the Mini. Might that solve your issue?

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=199941

**Bugbyte** · 10-09-2005, 09:53 PM

Don't think so. The USB ports on the Mini stay powered even when asleep. I know this because one of the USB extension cables I have has those obnoxious LED lights in and they stay on when the Mini is asleep.

I added the powered hub to try and get around having my USB devices like the Power mate on when the computer is asleep. That seems to have worked. With an unpowered hub, I think it would have left the Power mate on.

**iamgnat** · 10-09-2005, 10:38 PM

Is the USB connection to the hub a 4 or 6 pin port? If it is six, then it can (and apparently is) accepting power from the Mac. If it is a 4, then I have no clue.

If it is a six, you could dig up the standard USB cable diagram and clip the the pos and neg lines to turn it into a 4 pin via a custom cable.

-dave

**godraj** · 01-29-2006, 03:48 PM

you need to get a hub that has a power on/off switch. alot of the new ones don't.

**atl** · 01-31-2006, 02:30 AM

I had the same problem. To resolve I cutted the power from USB at the plug. But this toke the the Mac mini about 1 minute to recognize the attached devices. So this wasn't a solution. And now, I'm also looking for a USB hub with power switch. But I haven't found one yet.

ByE...

**godraj** · 01-31-2006, 09:09 AM

if you guys are worried that it will draw too much power then don't worry. i have a gps receiver, keyboard/mouse plugged in and it's doesn't drain my battery.

**godraj** · 01-31-2006, 09:15 AM

you guys could also hibernat the mac. there is a hack that allows u to do this. if you hibernate it, then the usb devices wont' be powerd. and the only way to wake it up from sleep would be to press the power button - in our case start the car and let the 1900 do it's work.