Offtopic? USB HASP

I am not sure if this is offtopic. If it is please delete it.

I was wondering whether anyone here has experience with the HASP USB Dongle. I acquired a couple when they first came out (~1 year or more ago) to see what is the fuss, and to my shock horror *both* of them burnt themselves off when I first put them into my USB port. It just heated up like there was a short or something. The USB port works fine with other devices. I never got around to see how it works internally.

At $50 a pop it wasn't cheap to test, so I didn't try again.

[zEr0]

hmmm it was probably short in electrical circuit.

i have at home some SDK from ALADIN with paralel dongle (memory, time) and of course USB memory HASP and this USB HASP dongle works fine.

but SDK is from ALADIN free of charge so you can order some for test

From what I have read, it seems that the USB key uses the same API as the Parallel port ones. So is there much difference between cracking the USB ones and the Parallel ones? Presuming that it is not using the envelope, but using the API.

Just wondering what sort of things would you look for to breakpoint when looking at the USB keys.

[dedificator]

Hi!

About USB devices hardware. There are some circumstances, when USB device fails (but about burning out i'm hearing first). We are developing some sort of data reading equipment, with USB interface too, and some problems arise with HP notebooks (Omnibook). In general, some cheap USB interface chips doesn't follow full USB specification, particulary in powering scheme, exactly this was our problem with HP. On these notebooks doesn't work some flash drives too.

Maybe you can send me partlist or schematics from these burned out dongles, as i don't have one? This will help ...

Check voltage level on your computer USB lines.

Regards,
Raimonds

I am sorry, but I seemed to have thrown the dongles out after I got disenchanted with them. I am pretty sure it has burnt out since it has got that funny burnt smell, and it certainly did heat up.

I did blame the first burnt out one on USB voltage problems, as I put the key into a very old machine, one of the first ones that came with a USB port. The key toasted the motherboard USB port as well.

So I tried the second one on a new machine, which I have tested other USB devices on. And the same thing happened. However, I did not physically measure the voltage. In any case, I would expect the dongles to be a bit more tolerant than that, given that they are expected to be plugged into different machines.

From the other posts, it seems that some USB keys are at least working. Maybe it's just my batch that's bad. Should have gone for the refund

I have heard about notebook and USB voltage problems, like the Libretto L2 that I have. But it is a case of underpowering rather than overpowering.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but thanks anyway.

[dedificator]

Info for some clarity in USB devices powering scheme. Power management must be done through datalines (connecting some specific load, while power-up the device). By this way USB host (PC) knows device power requirements. This isn't done by USB chip, but using external circuit (often NPN transistor and pair of resistors). This circuit CAN burn-out, if wrong timings or components are used, not USB chip itself .... There is only one possiblity for overpowering - 5.2V or greater voltage from PC power supply. In case of dongles there are big problems with space and component placing on PCB, so many simplifications are used, ignoring full USB specifications ...