Plugging
a photo scanner into your computer ought to be as easy as plugging a toaster into a wall
socket.
HOW IT WORKS
Let's say you have a new USB-compatible scanner. With Windows, you can
take your new scanner
out of the box and plug it into the computer - you don't even have to turn off the PC.
Your computer recognizes that a new device has been plugged in and pops up a dialog box
letting you know it's making the necessary adjustments. Within a minute you see another
dialog box telling you the scanner is ready to use. You press the button on the scanner,
it opens up the appropriate application automatically, you feed your favorite photo into
the device, and a moment later a digitized image of the photo begins to appear on your
computer screen.
What's new about
this picture. Not having to shut off your computer and start it up again. No need to take
the cover off your computer to add a card. And no having to futz with special software
drivers, IRQ settings, and other inner workings of your PC or operating system that you
probably never wanted to know about in the first place.
USB All you need
to make hardware this hassle-free is a PC that's equipped with USB ports, which
most computers already have. (To see if your PC is USB-compliant, look at the back. If it has a connector
like the one shown at right, you're already set, if you don't, most of the computers
can be updated. Once you have a USB-compliant computer, you just need to
make sure that any computer peripherals you purchase have USB connectors. If you don't see
the USB logo on the box, ask your retailer before you buy that new add-on.
USB devices are available for just about any computer hardware add-on you can think of: video conferencing
cameras, scanners, digital cameras, speakers, joysticks, mice, keyboards, and more.
ONE CONNECTOR FITS ALL
Another area where the "universal" in USB is good news for consumers regards the
connector itself. Now you only have one type to deal with. In the past, computer users
have had to deal with a bewildering assortment of serial, parallel, SCSI and game port
connectors. Each had a different number of pins, and on some, the male-female
configurations of the plugs and jacks were reversed from others.
This confusion, combined with aforementioned IRQ settings and
drivers, made the entire process of adding peripherals such an ordeal that many people
decided it wasn't worth the hassle. That prompted many of the computer industry's major
players - including Microsoft, and Intel to cooperate in developing USB. One
of the goals was to come up with a computer connection that could be as universal as the
standard wall socket.
HOT SWAP
Probably the biggest bragging point about USB is that now you can plug in a product
without having to restart your computer. Beyond being easier
in general, it also means your PC becomes much more flexible. With USB, you can "hot
swap" devices. Let's say you're building a photo collage: now you can scan older
photos for a while, and then swap out the scanner for a digital camera so you can download
new photos without having to shut down your computer and all the applications you were
using to build the collage.
HUBS LET YOU KEEP ON PLUGGING
That's where hubs come in. They get you around the fact that most USB-equipped
laptop PCs come
with just two connector ports. Hubs have additional ports that you use to add more
devices, similar to the way a power strip gives you more electrical outlets. Using hubs you
can run up to 127 USB products on a single computer. Some USB devices will also have
additional connectors on the device itself, for instance a keyboard might have a USB port,
allowing an easy way to add a mouse. This type of connection, one device into another, is
called "daisy chaining."
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
By finally nailing the plug and play target, USB goes a long way toward helping people
make the PC an integral part of their daily routines. Plug your digital camera into the PC
when you get home from a picnic and fire off photos of the kids to relatives. Plug in your
telephone and fax machine to establish a phone center that screens and forwards calls
depending on who's trying to reach you. Like the simple wall socket, the possibilities are
endless once you have a simple connection that works for everybody.
How to upgrade a non USB computer
To upgrade a non USB computer to a USB one is not really hard and it doesn't cost a whole
lot. You simply buy the PCI USB
card, and plug it in.
With a 7 port hub and the card, you can connect up to 10 USB devices. The hub is a snap to
install. Simply plug the hub in to one of the ports of the card, attach the power adapter
to the hub and plug it in. Each port is power managed
individually. If a peripheral fails or shorts-out, automatic overcurrent protection shuts
the port down. Recovery is automatic. Each port can provide up to 500mA of power per port.
This is the maximum allowed by the USB standard. You can also stack the hubs as they
interlock.
When you install a printer driver, Windows will install a special USB printer port and then
assigns the printer to that port. It is simple, quick and much less trouble than those old
switch boxes. Best part of all is the print speed increase which is much
faster than Parallel port.
USB cables are in several lengths, including 19", 3.3', 6.6' and 16.4'. The
connectors are gold plated and they are rated to carry the maximum amount of power to the
USB device (500mA).
One last thing. If you see USB cables longer than 5 meters (16.4') don't buy them. The USB
specification says no cable shall be longer than 5 meters or 16.4'. If you go longer than
that you will have problems and you could even damage your USB device.
Hi-Speed USB 2.0
How can you tell if you have USB 2.0?
Right-click My Computer
Click on Properties
Click on the Hardware tab
Click on the device Manager button
Scroll down as needed until you see Universal Serial Bus Controllers
Expand that by clicking on the boxed plus sign in front of Universal Serial Bus Controllers
At this point you should if you see something like, "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller". While the exact text may vary, the key is the word "Enhanced".
If it's "Enhanced", it's USB 2.0. If it's not, then it's USB 1.x.
Like the original USB
spec, USB 2.0 lets you easily connect PCs and notebooks to
peripherals, but this iteration transfers data at 480 Mbps, about 40
times faster as its predecessor (1.1 at 12MBps). Competes with and exceeds Firewire's
speed of 400Mbps.
There are internal USB 2.0 PCI cards, that adds USB 2.0 functionality
to your old USB 1.1 PC, that are backwards compatible to 1.1. Then you
can add an external or internal device like the one pictured below.
Manhattan makes a great
internal hub that takes up one front 3.5" or 5.25"
bay. Very convenient.
Intel announced that
USB 3.0 will transfer data 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 technology. USB 3.0 uses both copper and optical connections and likely will arrive in devices in 2009 or 2010
All you need
to make hardware this hassle-free is a PC that's equipped with USB ports, which
most computers already have. (To see if your PC is USB-compliant, look at the back. If it has a connector
like the one shown at right, you're already set, if you don't, most of the computers
can be updated. Once you have a USB-compliant computer, you just need to
make sure that any computer peripherals you purchase have USB connectors. If you don't see
the USB logo on the box, ask your retailer before you buy that new add-on.
