USB Hub Vertical Caddy

thingiverse

Small request: If anyone has the 7-way version of this hub, I would like to have the measurements so I can draft a 7-way version too. Thanks, Cargy. I've got one of those budget 4-way Chinese USB hubs, with switching for individual ports. Although it can be temperamental at times, and the supplied wall wart died pretty rapidly, it's not a terrible piece of kit. It's small and ergonomic, providing a means to switch off cameras and mics that could be hijacked by naughty folks in our civilization. One of my biggest bugbears with it was the fact that power and USB-in ports are located on one end of the case (in my case, the wrong end!). This meant that no matter how I tried to position it on my desk, it would always rotate around, and end up falling off the back of my desk under the weight of leads attached to it. This wasn't helped by the fact that I have my desk a few inches from the wall, to prevent the desk marking the wall (and vice-versa). So I sat down with the intention of making a simple caddy that would prevent it performing its lemming-like leap. My initial plan was to have it flat on the table (as it was designed to be), but to add a small bracing foot that would rest against the wall and hopefully this would brace it. But my first design didn't work; The caddy did stop the thing sliding towards the wall, but I had the same issue of the weight of cables drawing it down, so the front would just pop up at a jaunty angle. Whilst I was playing about with the mark one version, it suddenly dawned on me that placing the caddy on its end was very effective at overcoming the tendency to slide away under the weight of cables, and consequently there was no longer any need for the wall brace. On redesigning it to act as a vertical stand, I hit a problem: It was now a very awkward shape for printing. I tried printing it at an angle, which worked quite well, but it left lots of droopy filament strands at the rear of the caddy, which I was unable to live with. Splitting the print into two interlocking pieces sorted that, and I ended up with (what I hope is) the final design, which seems to have worked perfectly for a few days. The only thing I might do is add a piece of old mouse mat covering the whole base. This would aid its stability, but more importantly it will prevent it scratching the polished surface of my desk. I can now see the hub's status clearly, I can reach and operate the switches with one hand from my chair, and all the cables are nicely routed instead looking like black spaghetti. Job's a good 'un!