USB cable extension length 15 foot plus 1.5 foot to a powered hub

[UsernameIssues]

Might work better to forget hub and pass three individual GOOD quality cables. With hub all have to use a single line.
Art,

I'm not sure if your question below was meant to addressed Wandering one's comment (quoted above).

Why have a 7 port hub if they don't work that well?

USB hubs can work well, but you are missing the point:
If you use the hub the way that it was designed to be used (with a short cable between the hub and the computer), then things will be fine. If you add a long cable between the hub and the computer, then things will not be as good. You would definitely be better off running three separate, long, good quality, USB cables.

If you don't have room for three separate USB cables, then use a hub on the end of one long USB cable for the keyboard and mouse ---- but put the GPS on its own long USB cable.

 

[sdowney717]

Might work better to forget hub and pass three individual GOOD quality cables. With hub all have to use a single line.
Art,

I'm not sure if your question below was meant to addressed Wandering one's comment (quoted above).

Why have a 7 port hub if they don't work that well?

USB hubs can work well, but you are missing the point:
If you use the hub the way that it was designed to be used (with a short cable between the hub and the computer), then things will be fine. If you add a long cable between the hub and the computer, then things will not be as good. You would definitely be better off running three separate, long, good quality, USB cables.

If you don't have room for three separate USB cables, then use a hub on the end of one long USB cable for the keyboard and mouse ---- but put the GPS on its own long USB cable.

Sure I can get another long cable.
How to tell if something is not working right using a hub with the gps, mouse, keyboard all plugged in together? What would be the symptoms?
How about an overload test, will plugging in a fourth device, usb hard drive drive and playing a movie help prove the hub is ok?
I though about copying files from the drive to a thumb drive, but it might just slow down and keep working ok.

 

[UsernameIssues]

I'm not sure what a good test might be. The software that makes use of the GPS info might be tolerant of gaps in the data stream. Give it a try and see how it goes. You can always add a dedicated USB cable to the GPS unit later. I cannot predict what might happen if the data from the GPS unit is not up to spec.

As you suggested - just as a test:
...add a USB hard drive
...move* the mouse while you copy a large from that drive
If the mouse moves smoothly (and I think that it will), then your setup is okay for the mouse. But that "mouse test" does not tell us much about the GPS unit. You can also type stuff and see how tolerant the keyboard is to your setup.

*move the mouse diagonally...
...from the lower left corner of the desktop to the upper right corner of the desktop
...or move the mouse rapidly in a large circle

Maybe you can think of a test for the GPS unit while the boat is moving quickly and while copying a large file. Just don't crash the boat while testing with this setup.

 

[sdowney717]

Updating this, the single usb cable to 3.0 hub and three devices, keyboard, mouse, gps all work fine together, not a single issue.
Everything is smooth flowing.

I have not added a usb hard drive, I will try it and report back later.