Features
- USB 2.0 graphics adapter bundled with matching USB 2.0 high speed bus-powered 4-port hub)
- The combination is designed to power USB keyboard, video, and mouse for a simple docking solution
- One USB cable to connect several USB devices and monitor (VGA, DVI, or HDMI) to any brand laptop
- DisplayLink DL-125 chip, tops out at 1440×900 / 1400×1050 / 1280×1024 on higher-res monitors
- Windows 7/Vista/XP drivers installed automatically via Windows Update. Mac, Linux details below
Product Description
The Plugable UGA-125-HUB provides a simple docking station solution with separate but matching USB 2.0 graphics adapter and USB 2.0 high speed 4-port hub.
The hub is designed to power the UGA-125 and a full-sized keyboard, mouse, and other devices back to your computer with a single, standard USB cable for easy dock/undock.
Beyond the bundled UGA-125 adapter, only lower power or self-powered devices may be used, as the hub draws all power from the USB bus. The separate devices allow the flexibility of placing the hub in any location or distance from the graphics adapter, again attached by a standard USB cable.
The included star hub is a 4-port high speed USB 2.0 hub, without A/C adapter (powered by the USB bus itself). It has LEDs for each of the 4 ports, indicating device present and powered.
This included UGA-125 adapter itself allows a standard VGA, DVI, or HDMI monitor to be connected via a standard USB 2.0 connection. Up to six adapters supported per PC. The virtual USB graphics driver extends or mirrors your desktop. Displays are configured using the standard Windows display control panel.
Included in the package
UGA-125
UGA-125-HUB star hub
DVI to VGA Adapter
DVI to HDMI Rotating Adapter
USB 2.0 mini-B to A cable (2)
The package includes a the UGA-125, the star hub, two USB 2.0 mini-B to A cables, DVI->VGA and DVI->HDMI passive hardware adapters, and driver disk and manul.
No AC power adapter is needed – makes use of the 500mA bus power provided by USB. The UGA adapter has an LED indicator light to indicate power and graphics processing activity. No fan – solution is very low power and completely silent.
The DL-125 chip inside is capable of modes up to 1440×900 / 1400×1050 / 1280×1024. On higher resolution monitors, the drivers will select the best mode that fits within capability of both.
Multiple Displays
Combine several Plugable USB graphics adapters with matching multi-monitor stands like this Ergotron to create the ultimate multiple monitor desktop.
The Plugable UGA-125 fully supports rotation — turn one or both screens to show documents in gorgeous full-page layout.
With your laptop LCD, create a beautifully symmetric yet flexible 3 display desktop — all with as little as one USB cable to plug/unplug when you take your laptop and go.
Hardware Requirements and Recommendations
- CPU: Dual-core or 2GHz processor or better recommended on Windows Vista, Win7, and Mac (Single core ULV or Intel Atom class processors or better are recommended for Windows XP and Linux)
- GPU: Used for 2D/3D rendering on Windows Vista and Win7, requiring a single Intel, nVidia, or ATI primary WDDM driver.
Driver and OS Version details
WINDOWS VERSION COMPATIBILITY:
Drivers are provided automatically via Microsoft’s Windows Update mechanism with approved drivers across all of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. 64-bit and full Aero support on Vista and Windows 7. Windows XP 64-bit or Windows Server not supported. Note that Microsoft limits multiple display support in Windows 7 “Home Basic” to mirroring screens.
MAC VERSION COMPATIBILITY:
DisplayLink provides beta-level drivers for Intel OS X 10.4 or later, 32 bit and 64-bit kernels. Up to 4 DisplayLink devices per system. There are limitations in Quartz Extreme support:
- No 3D (OpenGL) acceleration – some features of Mac OS X applications that require hardware OpenGL acceleration, such as Keynote presentations and iPhoto slideshows, will not function properly with the USB attached screen.
See http://displaylink.com/mac for more info.
LINUX COMPATIBILITY:
As of Linux kernel 2.6.31, this adapter has open source drivers in the official kernel staging tree. Configuration of X Windows for USB displays is still distribution and scenario dependent, however, and only for very adventurous users. Plugable is involved with Linux development work, see http://plugable.com/category/platform/linux/ for details.
Using the star hub as a simple docking station solution
The UGA-125 can be used with or without the included hub. Connect your new Plugable USB to DVI adapter to your monitor as usual — with included DVI->VGA or DVI->HDMI adapters as needed. Then optionally connect it and your other USB devices to the star hub. Now with a single USB cable to your laptop (plus the laptop’s own power cable for charging), you can quickly and simply dock and undock on the go.
The star hub can flexibly sit in either a horizontal or vertical position.
Bus-powered limits of the included 4-port USB 2.0 star hub
The hub is able to draw USB bus power for itself, the companion UGA-125, plus keyboard and mouse. You may find that other devices work, but higher-power devices such as USB hard disks will not. If there are device errors when a new device is connected: move the high-power device from the hub to a USB port directly on your PC, and replug the hub.
But can I connect two UGA-125 adapters to the included hub?
A basic bus powered hub like the star hub, without an AC adapter, may draw 500mA total from the USB bus. With two UGA-125 adapters in use, that limit is likely to be exceeded as mentioned above.
Because the USB ports on many laptops and PCs can actually deliver more power than specified (often up to 1000mA or more), you may find this still works on some systems. However, there is no reliable way to determine which systems have this capability ahead of time (and it will not work with most hubs), so it is not a recommended configuration.
What does the DisplayLink DL-125 do on higher-resolution monitors?
The DL-125 can set modes up to 1440×900 (widescreen) or 1280×1024 (standard). On higher-resolution monitors, the driver will pick the best matching mode between the monitor and the adapter.
Resolutions Supported
The hardware is capable of supporting nearly arbitrary resolutions, up to its limit of 1440×900 / 1400×1050 / 1280×1024. VESA standard and widescreen resolutions are supported by most software, including:
1440×900, 1400×1050, 1280×1024, 1280×768, 1152×864, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480
For all resolutions, the display is refreshed at 60Hz, and the hardware is capable of 8, 16, and 32bpp color depths. Some operating systems require specific depths, like 32bpp for Windows Aero support.
HDMI
The HDMI standard is built on DVI. This enables conversion with a simple, physical, passive adapter like the one included with the UGA-125. HDMI routed through DVI does not include audio signals, and does not support HDMI content protection. It is suitable for displaying applications on a HDMI monitor or TV, not for DVD or Blu-Ray quality video playback.
Performance tuning
A USB graphics adapter is a “virtual” device that uses your machine’s CPU and memory to render graphics. It then transfers just the pixels that change over the USB 2.0 cable to the device. The screen itself (connected via DVI, VGA, or HDMI) is refreshed continually (60 times a second) by hardware, from memory on the device.
- When nothing on a USB screen is changing, the PC is doing little or no work and nothing is going over USB. Meanwhile, the screen continues to refresh (60Hz) directly from the device.
- However, when most pixels on the screen is changing, your CPU is doing the heavy lifting, and also the (480Mbs) USB 2.0 bus can become a bottleneck. You may start to notice lags in mouse or window movements.
If you’re experiencing slowness or latency on your USB display:
- Reduce your screen resolution with the operating system display control panel.
- Play 3D games and videos on your primary (non-USB) screen.
By reducing the amount of data that needs to be compressed and sent over USB, you’ll increase responsiveness.
