Mounted USB Hub for Laptop

by helios5993 in Circuits > USB

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Mounted USB Hub for Laptop

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Hello, Well I got an old useless laptop, nobody wanted it because it was very slow, but I thought it can be useful for me, specially for college works or presentations, but a problem I found is that it only have two USB ports, different from modern laptops, that usually have 4 USB ports and a card reader, and to find a place to put a USB hub was also a problem, so I decided to mount one on my laptop

Gettin Started, Order of the Slots

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What you will need is:

-An USB Hub
-Duct tape
-Hot Glue
-Soldering Iron
-Solder
-Plywood or plastic sheet

First, you will disassemble the USB Hub, I used a card reader-3 USB slots Hub, and separate the card slots form USB slots, and decide which will be their final position. Then cut on the plywood the pieces for the new box and cut the holes for the card and USB slots, and glue them to their respective positions.

Sorry there are no images for the USB Hub disassemble, but I decided to create a instructable for it after I glued the slots.

Making the Box

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With hot glue you will put together all the box pieces and remember to make a hole for the cable that will be connected to the laptop, if you need to put out cables, use the soldering iron, then you can solder them again

Making It Look Good

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Aftet you made the box, you can paint it, but because I was short of material I used duct tape to "paint it" 

Attaching It to the Laptop

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With duct tape you can attach it to your laptop, I put it on the back of the monitor, but you can also use a side of the laptop, but be careful to don't block the cooling vents or your computer will overheat.

Testing It

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Here are some pictures of the Hub working. For these hubs, that only are connected to the USB port, remember to use only pendrives or any other low-energy device, because the USB port only provide 5V 1A, and if, for example, you connect your ipod or phone, there hub or the port could be damaged. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb_hub