Head unit help. One USB input - but need 2?

[ButteryNipples]

It's not running to anything. I guess he thought I'd rather have one or the other, and not both.

 

[Milk Mayne 10+ year member]

So he just cut your dash to install a plug that doesn't run to anything? Seems like a totally incompetent ******* to me. Add a splitter then. Heck, do it yourself, I wouldn't allow someone like that to touch my vehicle.

 

[NIHL8ION]

I've got a non powered 4 port usb hub somewhere around here... I will try using it on my Pioneer HU's USB input with my phone and a few different thumb drives & see what happens... I'll post the results as soon as I get done testing this later on...

 

[ButteryNipples]

Yea I was a little upset. I understand it's a limitation on the head unit itself, but you'd think he'd tell me that I can only use one or the other rather than just pick himself. Honestly, I'd use my USB filled with music over the iPhone.

Thanks NIHL8ION - very curious to see what you come up with on that. I am still shocked that I appear to be the only one that ran into this issue lol.

I went ahead and bought this -

Amazon.com: Tek Republic TUH-300 USB 3.0 4 Port Portable Hub: Computers & Accessories

But if it doesn't work - oh well - USB hubs never go to waste //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

one or the other, either way you can only listen to one at a time.......... also you would take your iphone with you when you left the car. i'd ask him to just run a usb extension, so you can have your ipod or usb plugged in without having to rewire or anything

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

Should have just had him leave the female end available and not hook up the adapter behind the dash. But now you have to take it out and do that yourself.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

I agree the installer should do what you need and you should have bought a HU with dual ports.

here is the issue I see with a hub - i don't think the HU OS/software is able to assign drives the way a PC can. And it will vary with each specific head unit, and if you draw too much current you can damage the HU (depending on how it was designed). ideally, a DC powered hub would resolve the power requirement issue.

 

[ButteryNipples]

I just want to use either or. I am shocked no one has ran into this before. There are times that I want to listen to music from my iPhone 5 (along with using the Waze app etc on the screen) - and there are times I want to use USB. But with only 1 USB input on the back of the Pioneer deck, it's not possible. The USB flush mount obviously uses a USB input, as does the iPhone cable kit. There is no way to use both. You can use one or the other. If the Pioneer had 2 USB inputs - it wouldn't be an issue.

My installer surprisingly never ran into this issue - which I don't understand. I'd think if a head unit advertises iPhone capability, AND playing music from a USB drive - that I would have the option of using either or, not just one. He suggested using a DC powered USB hub behind the dash. Where other people said a basic self powered hub will work. So, I went ahead and bought a USB hub on Amazon that has 0 negative reviews and will try it when I get it.

I am so frustrated over this. You'd think 2 USB's would be pretty common on the back of this head unit being they advertise the deck as doing both.

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

We mostly all do our own installs and make it such that we wouldn't run into this problem because everything we need to swap out is accessible.

 

[NIHL8ION]

OK - Well I've got the Pioneer DEH-80PRS which DOES have 2 USB inputs, but I went ahead and plugged my cheap little D-Link Non-powered usb hub into it and I was still able to access what I had plugged into it - Tried my GS3 Android phone & a few different thumb drives and they all functioned OK when plugged into the hub connected to one of my USB ports as long as only one of the devices was plugged in at a time so YES - you more than likely can have it setup to where your other dash mounted usb extension would function, but only if your phone is unplugged when using it as long as your Pioneer reacts the same way as mine does //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Hope this helps...

 

[ButteryNipples]

OK - Well I've got the Pioneer DEH-80PRS which DOES have 2 USB inputs, but I went ahead and plugged my cheap little D-Link Non-powered usb hub into it and I was still able to access what I had plugged into it - Tried my GS3 Android phone & a few different thumb drives and they all functioned OK when plugged into the hub connected to one of my USB ports as long as only one of the devices was plugged in at a time so YES - you more than likely can have it setup to where your other dash mounted usb extension would function, but only if your phone is unplugged when using it as long as your Pioneer reacts the same way as mine does //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Hope this helps...

Thank you so much!! That is very promising!!!