Useful Splendour

Why

I was looking to make a simple USB hub that could be attached to my computer and be as streamlined as possible. I did not want any cables dangling out to deal with, and wanted to make it as low profile as possible. On one side where the hub plugs in there are ports I didn’t want to block and on the the other side there is an heat exhaust fan, so when I designed the PCB and housing I took those into consideration. So the reason the USB hub ports are on the opposite side of the printed circuit board is make sure to not block the fan exhaust when plugged in. This is also why there is a large gap in the enclosure.

Additional

Another thing to note with the enclosure design is the slight overhang that rests on the top of the computer. The main reason for this was allow the weight of the hub to be distributed better. I wanted to make sure the hub (and any cables attached) are not all pulling on the USB A connector in the computer, and cause some future problem. Also the laptop, when open, does lift the back of the keyboard slightly. This means that the base of computer is never level with the surface it’s on when open. And that angle changes depending on how open or close the computer screen is. So if I tried to design the enclosure that was just level with the base of the computer it would be an issue if I opened/closed the screen at a different angles. This was why the mounting could not be set to where the bottom of the computer.