Problem w/ Feeds and/or USB cards

[lowerrollin]

I have 3 feeds I need to run from 1 desktop (XP Sp3). 1st feed uses integrated sound card. No problems. 2nd feed that is recent, uses 1 of the 3 little green USB cards I just bought from eBay. Sound quality dropped some, but no other problems. 3rd feed that i just started today, using yet another green USB card, doesnt work. I have found that while they all are plugged in to a USB splitter (1.1 btw) they all are recognised as different sound cards by both computer and scannercast RR edition. As I set sound card #3 for audio capture in SC for feed 3 and listen in, (card 1 is integrated, card 2 (usb) is feed 2) I find that it is capturing audio from card #2, and not picking up anything from its own mic input. Plugging in the last card I have, (giving me 3 usb connected at once and one inter, the computer and SC see there all different sound cards, and let me choose between them) I get a really bad buzzing, humming noise, from 3 and 4, with no inputs connected. #2 still sounds the same, as well as inter #1 card. Are these cards sharing IP ports somehow? Could they be faulty cards? Thx

 

[gmclam]

Could they be faulty cards?

Yes. I have purchased dozens of these $1 USB sound cards, and put together several installations with scanners feeding them. I've had bad sound cards.

My first purchase was for 20 sound cards. Of that, 3 were bad. I try each one individually first just to make sure it enumerates and I can feed sound through it. Of ALL the cards I've purchased (~50), 3 have failed that test.

The next problem I've run into is one card that works by itself but causes other cards to fail when installed together. This is a goofy condition and not that easy to figure out. But I've always traced it down and found that when a specific card is plugged in, something messes up. It could cause two cards to all of a sudden output the same sound, one card to have no audio, some cards have a hum in their audio and all sorts of things.

I created 3 identical systems. I had already tested all sound cards to be used individually and together on another system. I was using 2 hubs that could each contain 5 USB cards (the hubs can hold 8 USB devices, but only 5 of these cards because of their size). Sure enough I had a problem with one of the new systems. It turned out there was a sound driver loaded that conflicted (that wasn't loaded on the others, even though these were new computers from the same source).

Use a hub. Plug each card in, one at a time. Check the audio as you're going along. I used scanners parked on NOAA weather feeding each card, and an instance of a digital level meter running for each card as I powered it. I could see on the meters when something died or significantly changed level.

After getting a hub full of these cards going, I rebooted the computer with a full power down cycle. I wanted to do that to make sure they re-enumerated as I expected.

 

[lowerrollin]

Use a hub.

Question, does it matter if a hi speed 2.0 hub is used, or a old 1.1 speed hub, or rather, which did you use?

After getting a hub full of these cards going, I rebooted the computer with a full power down cycle. I wanted to do that to make sure they re-enumerated as I expected.

did they? J/W

Thanks for the response, sounds like I prolly need to order a few more USB cards for trial and error

 

[gmclam]

Question, does it matter if a hi speed 2.0 hub is used, or a old 1.1 speed hub, or rather, which did you use?

I used a 2.0 hub. One of the differences between 1.1 and 2.0 is the highest communication speed. Since were talking streaming several channels of audio here, I'd go with the faster hub. Will it make a difference? Well, is your setup working?

did they?

No and yes. I had to figure out which slot on the hub enumerated first. The first time I rebooted, the assignments were scrambled. Once I figured out what was the norm, it repeated that way. This is one of my complaints about how USB works, it is not as well thought out as it should be with so many devices now all connected via that means.

 

[ffexpCP]

What driver did you use? Did it load automatically? I just got one of those USB sound cards and it won't work with any of the computers I've tried it on (with XP pro). They all say 'device not recognized'.

Just trying to figure out if it's a faulty card or something i'm doing wrong.

 

[gmclam]

I just got one of those USB sound cards and it won't work with any of the computers I've tried it on (with XP pro). They all say 'device not recognized'.

Sounds like a defective card to me. I certainly ran into a few of them.