Interesting…I would be REAL CAUTIOUS on one thing:
How are these switches ‘turned off and on’?
There is a thing called ‘switch debounce’ which you most likely have seen before. Where is like when you turn off a light at its switch and you see a spark behind the face plate. This is switch debounce.
It can BLOW UP YOUR COMPUTER! You NEED electronic switches - NOT MECHANICAL ONES!
“…This means that the act of closing the switch will result in a surge current of 5V / 0.2Ω = 25 amps (eeek)…”
You need to either read the specs or contact the manufacture and ask them what type of switches they are using.
All it will take is one time to fry everything you have.
And so you can understand, it takes only .1 amp to kill a human - In the above article, he got 25 amps!
Amps are what kill, not volts. You can equate volts to a person height and amps to how strong they are. A tall person with no muscles is not much of a threat unlike a short person with a lot of muscles…
The Sabrent is NOT listing what they use, you need to inquire.
The wording typically used is SOFT SWITCH. This is what most TV and PC’s use today to turn them off or on.
Thanks for your post! Edit: That explains why my computer monitor never goes to sleep anymore either! (I’ve been making the monitor sleep manually since Aug. 18th!). I thought it was something about changing computer settings to run the sim or the sim itself!
A number of the Amazon reviewers of the device said that they got it so they won’t wear out their USB ports and plugs by constantly plugging and unplugging USB devices that they don’t want to have connected (never done it yet to a computer port but I’ve done it to a charging port on a Samsung phone!).
Thanks for the warning. I looked at the product literature on Amazon. It doesn’t say anything about the nature of the switch but I’d think that the switches are electronic. They are certainly not toggle switches but rather squishy push button ones for which there is no clicking or discernible contact flipping, just the bouncy feeling of increasing resistance as you push against a spring and they have LED lights to inform you of on/off status-electronics associated with an electronic switch???
The product has 3,632 product reviews with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5, it’s been on Amazon since February, 2015, and is an “Amazon Choice” item - so given that, I don’t think it’s too likely that it’s got the type of switches that will damage a computer. Sabrent, while not a Logitech, has been around for quite a while, too, as an electronics device supplier for computers. The main type of negative review is from people who had the device break at some point, e.g., a switch stopped working.
A previous claim that I made about the Sabrent hub is in error. It’s powered only to supply current to connected devices up to a 900 mAh total current limit. It cannot charge connected devices. See correction section at bottom of post.
If you unplug your controllers, with any luck, you’ll be able to validate your sleep issue in no time at all! Let me know how it goes!
FYI, I’ve also got an (unpowered) Sabrent hub. On Amazon, it has over 44000 ratings, almost exclusively 5 stars, since 2014. On that basis, I think any risk associated with the product is going to be pretty ■■■■ small.
Thanks for the nudge! Yes, I am definitely lazy! With my game controllers unplugged, the computer monitor goes to sleep within 1 minute of none use > 5 of 5 times, as it’s supposed to. With either my Thrustmaster TFRP rudder pedals or my joystick plugged in through a USB port, the monitor never goes to sleep with 5 min observed for each (and will never sleep, based on past experience).
It’s a long-standing issue with Windows 10, used to work fine with Windows 7 but Microsoft has ignored the problem for at least 5 years.
A number of users have gone to Device Manager, Human Interface Devices, and just disabled all HID-compliant game controllers after the controller features have been remapped for their games (I haven’t tried it myself and there is a warning that you could lose controller features if you do this). Getting a (safe) switchable USB hub sounds like a better option. Dell has a Windows Store app for power management and I’m going to check it out to see if it restores control over Windows power management vs. game controllers being plugged in. I notice under Properties for HID-compliant game controllers that there is no power management tab for any game controller that I have.
Glad that’s verified. I wasted countless hours doing all the usual power configuration nonsense before narrowing it down to the game controllers. Nice one, finding that thread!
Interestingly, having game controllers connected is also known to crash Doom Eternal! Bethesda recommend disconnecting before playing. Clearly, something is really messed up with how Windows is managing these devices.
I was brash enough to create a Wishlist item on better power management for controllers and the Sleep problems when not playing a game and I referenced your first post in this thread on the matter(!).
Perhaps there is hope Microsoft will get around once again to give the matter some more attention at the Windows level of device management vs. gaming.
That is weird. I never heard of your computer not going to ‘sleep’ with joysticks plugged in. I do not use sleep so I have no idea if mine does this or not.
One thing that might work for you and it is easier than plugging/unplugging things is to use a batch file to ‘turn on/turn off’ the HID device. This MIGHT work. Create it and place it on your desktop.
Google: disable human interface device batch file
That would be a good starting point.
And the switches? Because you can not hear/feel anything does not make it a ‘smart switch’.
The likelihood of it blowing up something is very low. You needed to be aware of it though…
