In my continuing quest to tidy up and also speed up my setup time I have invested in a one of these mount hubs (second hand). First impressions are that its quite large and alot bigger than I was expecting so my original idea for mounting it was in the bin and I needed to make some alterations to how the guidescope was mounted but it wasnt that much of a headache

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Next up actually getting it working, here is the only real negative I can find with it and thats the order it all needs plugging in, if I had read the instructions before hand it wouldnt have been any bother but come on who does that. Basically the laptop needs to be started first then power up the mount hub and plug it in

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Sounds simple enough I know but I ran into issues because the supplied software didnt work with 64bit OS so had to download a newer version which restarted my laptop and in turn the laptop started up with the mount hub already plugged in and powered up, so the mount hub was showing as a unregonised device some head scratching and fiddling around and I sorted it by unplugging the USB and power lead for the mount hub and started again, not to difficult a thing to remember really

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As for how it works once you have got it all plugged in correctly and also plugged in all the USB's and power leads for imaging cams, guide cams, dew straps, mount power and EQdir adapter etc, you can start the software for the hub itself which allows you to control power to all the devices that are plugged in this part works very well and does exactly what its meant too. You can power each device up one at a time or turn them all on at once and also control the power that goes to the dew heater straps you can even control the focus on you scope if you have a compatable focus motor connected

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Having the hub it allows me to use short USB leads and also I don't need to run power to everything from my leisure battery so I now only have 1 power lead that runs to the mount hub and then short power leads from the mount hub to my camera and the mount with a single USB lead that goes to the laptop. My setup is now alot neater, plus I can leave all the leads etc attached and get everything into my peli case, so when it comes to setting up all I need to do is attach scope to the mount, power the mount hub, plug it into the laptop and i'm ready to go