Quote: Originally Posted by
FordNoMore 
You know the various USB vehicle (cigarette lighter) power adapters available for like $10? Any reason one of those couldn't just be hard-wired to a USB hub? Seems straightforward, but I haven't heard of anyone doing that. Are they underpowered?
That's is what I did, with a selectable voltage reducer/regulator I picked up at Radio Shack. It has 12v in (cig lighter plug) and a switch for 1.5v, 3v, 4.5v, 6v, 9v, 12v and was like 10 bucks. I just went to find it on their site, but didn't see it. Bought mine in the store.
I set it to 4.5v and got an adapter that fit the hub. It worked fine, and I know it worked because if I tried to plug my slim USB DVD drive into the hub without it, nothing was recognized. As soon as the hub got power it showed up as an external drive, played he DVD, etc.