USB Control Hub
Introducing the Pegasus Astro USB Control Hub (UCH), thoughtfully engineered to address the void in the astrophotography market for a reliable USB3.1 Hub with individual port ON/OFF switching capability.
SuperSpeed USB3.1 Gen2: Experience lightning-fast data transfers with SuperSpeed USB3.1 Gen2 compatibility, ensuring efficient connectivity for your astrophotography equipment.
Individual Port Control: Enjoy the flexibility of switching each USB port ON or OFF independently, providing precise control over your connected devices and minimizing power consumption when not in use.
USB-IF Compliance: The USB Control Hub is fully compliant with USB-IF’s USB 3.1 Gen2 specification, ensuring seamless compatibility and adherence to industry standards.
Support for Various Speeds: Whether it’s Hi-Speed (HS), Full Speed (FS), or Low Speed (LS) devices, the hub supports multiple speeds to accommodate a wide range of astrophotography peripherals.
Built-in Protections: Safety is paramount with the UCH, boasting a suite of protections including input reverse polarity, undervoltage, and overvoltage safeguards. Your devices are shielded from potential damage, allowing you to connect with confidence and peace of mind.
Multi Transaction Operation: The innovative design allows SuperSpeed hubs to operate concurrently with USB 2.0 controllers, ensuring that 5 Gbps SuperSpeed data transfers remain unaffected by slower USB 2.0 traffic.
Power, protect and remotelly switch on or off your astrophotography equipment with the USB Control Hub.
USB Control Hub – Success Story
The UCH has earned its reputation for unwavering reliability even in the harshest conditions, setting the benchmark for performance in the most demanding environments. Its exceptional transfer rates surpass those of comparable products, ensuring lightning-fast connectivity when it matters most.
Among other industries (automotive, industrial robots, astronomy), Pegasus Astro USB Control Hubs are used for developing an ISS experimental payload financed by Spanish National Research plan, where thermocapillary (Marangoni) convection effects in phase change materials under microgravity conditions are tested.
This experiment is being designed and operated by E-USOC (https://www.eusoc.upm.es/), which is a centre of Polytechnic University of Madrid (http://www.upm.es/) designated by ESA to offer assistance for the preparation, execution and analysis of space experiments to the scientific community. We have been operating experiments at the ISS for the last 15 years. Also, we have other side projects as HRE Science Data Centre https://www.sdc.upm.es/about-
6 x USB 3.1
Powered Ports
Industrial Grade
Temperature support
Switchable
USB Ports
6 x USB3.1 Active Ports – Delivers 2.5A each
Behold the Pegasus Astro USB Control Hub (UCH), boasting 6 x USB 3.1 Ports designed to revolutionize your astrophotography experience:
Versatile Compatibility: All ports seamlessly support USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 devices, ensuring compatibility with a wide array of equipment.
Enhanced Power Delivery: Each port is equipped to deliver up to 2.5Amps of current, empowering your devices with ample power for optimal performance.
Intelligent Current Management: With smart current limit sensors in every port, the hub automatically regulates power, safeguarding against short-circuits and excessive power consumption.
Proactive Monitoring: The USB Controller diligently monitors each port, promptly alerting users through an intuitive pop-up warning in the operating system in the event of a current limit breach.
Extended temperature support (industrial grade)
Most USB Hubs in the market (well…nearly all of them) operate under room temperatures as they were design to work inside your cosy warm room. This is one of the reasons why you experience USB disconnects and instability during a cold night.
Step into a new realm of reliability with our USB Control Hub, engineered to excel where others falter. While conventional hubs succumb to the chill of a cold night, ours defies the elements with confidence:
Unparalleled Endurance: Certified to operate flawlessly across extreme temperatures ranging from a bone-chilling −40°C to a scorching +85°C, (-40°F to +185°F) our hub ensures uninterrupted performance even in the harshest environments.
Industrial-Grade Components: Every aspect of our USB Hub electronics is chosen to withstand industrial-grade temperature ranges, guaranteeing resilience and longevity in the face of adversity.
Other Key Features
Aluminium Enclosure
A high quality robust, blue anodised 6061 aluminium enclosure houses the electronics of the USB Hub. The metal enclosure designed and tested to survive ±5kV ESD strikes
Switchable USB Ports
Each USB port can be controlled and switched ON/OFF by our standalone software. No more pull out and re-plug USB cables of your equipment.
12V DC Operation
The 12V DC operation was our first design requirement. As most of your astro-equipment requires 12V DC why to use something different? Hub accepts 12-14V of operation. This means that you can plug unregulated 12V power from a battery.
Expansion Port (EXT)
A RJ12 external ports allows future device expansion
Supported By
ASCOM 6
Device fully supports ASCOM switch. This means that you can switch ON/OFF each USB port via ASCOM supported software.
INDI
USB Control Hub is fully supported by Indilib framework
Standalone Software
Switch ON/OFF USB Ports on demand. Monitor USB Voltage levels. Easily name each USB port based on the device that is attached on it
* STANDALONE SOFTWARE IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR WINDOWS AND OSX OPERATING SYSTEMS.
Unity Platform Support
Pegasus Astro Unity Platform is our new all around application. Our goal is to provide a robust and modern application that is going to support current and future products under one roof.
In the Box
Technical Specification
| USB Ports | Six downstream USB3.1 Gen2/2.0 ports |
| USB Switchable Ports | USB1-6. Switch ON/OFF Power & Data (each port can be switched individually) |
| DC Input | 12-14V DC |
| Amperage on individual port | 2.5 Amps each |
| Maximum Total Amperage: | 8 Amps |
| Operating Temperature | Industrial grade temperature support (−40°C to +85°C) |
| Size | 100mm x 72mm x 24mm / 3.9” x 2.8” x 0.94” |
| Weight | 200g / 7 oz |
| Power requirements | 2-10Amps (depends on the devices you are going to plug into USB ports and their power consumption) |
Documentation & Software
USB Control Hub for OSX (v1.2 / Mar/21)
Obsolete software (please use Unity)
Python3 script for USB Control Hub
Another Python Control Script for the USB Control hub
(Many thanks to Pete Ingram for the development of this script)
FAQ
A good question so please pay attention to below bullet points: to fully understand what our USB Hub can offer.
- Each port delivers up to 2.5Amps of current. Other hubs cannot support that.
- Switchable USB Ports. Each USB port can be controlled and switched ON/OFF by our standalone software. (power + data). Other hubs cannot do that.
- UCH supports ASCOM switches. You can control the Hub from your imaging software.
- Industrial grade temperature support. You will not find a hub that can operate below 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).Check specifications of each hub and you will see that operating temperature is between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius. All of these hubs are designed to work inside your cosy room and not on a mountain / outside where temperature can quickly drop especially during winter nights. If your hub works below this temperature it is by pure luck.
Most people will experience random USB disconnects or USB bandwidth throttling during the night. These temperatures are out of operating specs for these hubs.
- UCH can achieve very high speeds to all USB ports (simultaneously) by using multiTT (Transaction translators). Cheap hubs will reduce speed when you try to simultaneously transfer data from more than 2 ports.Most hubs out there have 2 or 3 similar USB chips inside (each chip is for 4 USB ports). They use one USB port to daisy chain the chip together and you have 7 or 10 ports available.
This means that your actual speed is limited by the uplink connection between the chips. Our hub is a real 7 port branded / automotive grade USB chip (6 ports are available / 1 is used for internal communication.
- Similar Hubs costs around 500$. You can google it if you search “USB industrial programmable hub”
