New USB hubs - Taptes USB Hub Pro/Basenor USB Hub

[The_Observer]

Was wondering around their websites, and saw the new USB hubs:

Taptes: TAPTES Model 3 USB Hub Pro

Basenor: BASENOR Tesla Model 3 USB Hub 6-in-1 Center Console Adapter Accessories

Looks like both is about the same except the Basenor has 2 USB type C ports + 4 type A vs. all type A on Taptes. Both won't work with June 2020 car builds or later of course.

Has anyone tried them yet? What do you all think?

 

[sduck]

I did a teardown of the old version of the taptes hub, only to discover that it wasn't actually a hub - it shared power to all ports, and only did a data pass through on two ports. I would hope this new version is more hub-like, although I wouldn't hold my breath at that price point.

Don't know about the Basenor, this is the first i've heard of it.

 

[phioschaos]

I just got the Basenor yesterday. The material is not as good as the first gen Taptes USB hub. Taptes has a softer touch plastic feel and was fit better. The Basenor is a hard smooth plastic. The door does not have the faux fabric pattern as the first product photo shows. Also the door's edges are rough in some places - either a bad mold or poor handling. There are nine T6 screws that hold it together.

The inside compartment is smaller than the Taptes first gen I had. Taptes I measured a height of 77mm. Basenor is 62mm and is a much tighter fit for my stuff. This due to TapTes using a two board design so they can push the circuit up.
Taptes Model 3 USB Hub

For the electronics, it has two USB 2.0 hub chips (FE1.1s). This is the same that Jeda uses. Each half (2x USB-A and 1x USB-C) are connected to one of the car's USB ports. Using a USB power meter, my phone was getting ~1.4A per USB-A port but only 0.4A on the USB-C. I did not test what happens if two devices are trying to pull more power. My phone got data on the USB-A ports but not USB-C. Probing shows that USB-C data lines seem to be connected to the USB hub chip. I tried rotating my USB-C cable in case it was a matter of only one side being connected but the behavior is the same. I've ordered a USB-C to USB-A adapter to see if this helps.

Also, the inside has a ring shaped area that probably is meant to hold a magnet. I measured 19.8mm diameter if someone want to install their own.


If Taptes uses a similar circuit for their USB Hub Pro but is all USB-A, has the build quality and compartment design of their first gen, and basically the same price then Taptes is a better option than the Basenor. In fact, Basenor is on par if not better than the Jeda as it uses the same USB hub/power controller but has two of them for each car USB port while being less than half the cost. I feel bad for Jeda as the others are clones but they have iterated improvements to the design while Jeda seems to have only updated for the Model Y USB-C ports.

 

[The_Observer]

I just got the Basenor yesterday. The material is not as good as the first gen Taptes USB hub. Taptes has a softer touch plastic feel and was fit better. The Basenor is a hard smooth plastic. The door does not have the faux fabric pattern as the first product photo shows. Also the door's edges are rough in some places - either a bad mold or poor handling. There are nine T6 screws that hold it together.
View attachment 568803
The inside compartment is smaller than the Taptes first gen I had. Taptes I measured a height of 77mm. Basenor is 62mm and is a much tighter fit for my stuff. This due to TapTes using a two board design so they can push the circuit up.
Taptes Model 3 USB Hub

For the electronics, it has two USB 2.0 hub chips (FE1.1s). This is the same that Jeda uses. Each half (2x USB-A and 1x USB-C) are connected to one of the car's USB ports. Using a USB power meter, my phone was getting ~1.4A per USB-A port but only 0.4A on the USB-C. I did not test what happens if two devices are trying to pull more power. My phone got data on the USB-A ports but not USB-C. Probing shows that USB-C data lines seem to be connected to the USB hub chip. I tried rotating my USB-C cable in case it was a matter of only one side being connected but the behavior is the same. I've ordered a USB-C to USB-A adapter to see if this helps.
View attachment 568805
Also, the inside has a ring shaped area that probably is meant to hold a magnet. I measured 19.8mm diameter if someone want to install their own.
View attachment 568806

If Taptes uses a similar circuit for their USB Hub Pro but is all USB-A, has the build quality and compartment design of their first gen, and basically the same price then Taptes is a better option than the Basenor. In fact, Basenor is on par if not better than the Jeda as it uses the same USB hub/power controller but has two of them for each car USB port while being less than half the cost. I feel bad for Jeda as the others are clones but they have iterated improvements to the design while Jeda seems to have only updated for the Model Y USB-C ports.

I have noticed some random ebay listings that looks very similar to Basenor's, so it's probably a generic hub that Basenor decided to sell for themselves.

Thanks for the in-depth review. I just ordered my Taptes USB Hub Pro ordered on Amazon as well, and I will do a review when it arrives.

 

[sa012]

I would be interested to know how many amps each usb-A port pulls for the taptes usb hub pro.

 

[The_Observer]

I would be interested to know how many amps each usb-A port pulls for the taptes usb hub pro.

Will also that when it arrives, might take 2-3 weeks.

 

[dmurphy]

I installed one of these instead:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0779D7DFG/
With the longer 5 foot cable:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y999KXR/

I had to remove the left trim on the center console (5 or 6 screws - very easy!) and drill a small hole to pass the wire through.

Beyond thrilled - great way to get plenty of charging power up front; this is what my Nomad wireless pad plugs into. That also frees up the 2 USB ports on the car. One has a Navak USB splitter (version 2 with SD card!). The other is empty altogether.

highly recommended setup!

 

[Zigway]

I received my Taptes USB Hub Pro yesterday (ordered 6 July, so 3 weeks in total, not bad). It's got a nice soft-touch front finish, I've not taken it apart, but reading the instruction sheet that comes with it suggests that there are two USB hubs split left/right across the two external and one internal USB-A ports.

So far power and data are OK on all ports. I've also got the 'Taptes wireless charger for Tesla Model 3 15W' and this works OK connected alongside USB storage and game controller in the Hub Pro; charging speed is obviously limited by the hub input, my iPhone XS Max just about maintains charge when using Google Maps, and charges OK when not using phone nav. I've considered the mod as mentioned by @dmurphy above but as it's a new leased car I'm a bit nervous about doing it...

I don't have a widget to measure output current but attach some photos for info. Overall very pleased for the price.

(I've removed the 'press here' sticker on the front now I'm happy it all works as expected!)

 

[dmurphy]

I've considered the mod as mentioned by @dmurphy above but as it's a new leased car I'm a bit nervous about doing it...

Very nice! It looks good in there - glad it's working well for you.

That said, I agree with you 100% - if mine were leased, I wouldn't have drilled a hole either. But I purchased this one - it's mine so if I break it, it's wholly my problem! haha.

Enjoy!

 

[sa012]

So it sounds like you get 2 amps for the 3 left side usbs and another 2 amps for 3 right side usbs. Not the greatest if you are plugging in a bunch of stuff

 

[phioschaos]

Follow up to my Basenor testing:

I got some USB-C to USB-A adapters and the USB-C ports do have data and charge faster. My guess is Basenor didn't properly implement the USB-C port spec and my phone (and other smarter devices) fall back to the safest settings.

With the USB-C adapters, the port charges as fast as the others.

Also, I noticed that the USB-A ports are upside down.

As the USB-C is not properly working without USB-A adapters, it would have been better to just been USB-A ports. As such, I give Taptes USB Hub Pro the win.

Just wanting on when it will be available on Amazon.

 

[seadog]

Received the Taptes Pro Hub today as my first accessory. Very happy with the product, it looks well made for the price, perfect fit just a few seconds to slide it into place and it looks OEM anyone who didn't know the car would think it was factory fit. Using an Integral Micro SD card reader on one of the USB's inside the compartment and an endurance SD card appears to be working fine. It isn't going to charge multiple devices quickly if you use all the sockets at the same time but I wasn't expecting it to, it's 10W shared across the 3 USB's on the left and the same on the right. I have a high power USB charger for the 12V cigarette socket for anything that needs a high speed charge.

 

[Gasaraki]

The Taptes 'hub' is really a USB port spliter.

 

[seadog]

The standard "hub" is a USB splitter, the Pro hub appears to be a proper USB hub, all 6 ports have data + power.

 

[XLR82XS]

The Taptes 'hub' is really a USB port spliter.

I bought these and they work flawlessly.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PH2WXKT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[AdamVIP]

Someone needs to make a powered hub. That is the limiting factor in all this. The existing ports dont pump out enough to fast charge any of the newer phone options and lacks PD and QC certs. Then you can also go all out as well with 6 to 8 ports so you never run out.

 

[phioschaos]

I ended up returning the Basenor and got the Taptes USB Hub Pro. Like with the prior version, there is a stacked board design. This gives the internal compartment more room - about 68.5mm tall. Not as much as the first gen (77mm) but more than Basenor (62mm). Build quality is much better than Basenor - not just the soft feel plastic front but even the plain plastic in the back is just better. Just showing inside pics since Zigway showed the outside. Taptes uses VIA VL817 USB controller that seems to support up to 2.4A charging per the vendor website. There are two - one per half of the hub. So we get power and data on all ports.
威鋒電子

 

[Knightshade]

Someone needs to make a powered hub. That is the limiting factor in all this. The existing ports dont pump out enough to fast charge any of the newer phone options and lacks PD and QC certs. Then you can also go all out as well with 6 to 8 ports so you never run out.

...powered by what?

The ports themselves (the USB-A ones anyway) can't give you more than about 2.5a each if doing nothing but giving power.

Navaks gen1 intelligent splitter can offer you 2.1a of that, or ~10 watts, of charging power on one of its ports with the other available for data and ~.4a to power the data device plugged in there- all plugged into a single USB-A port in the car and taking up very little room.

If you want/need faster than that you'll need to plug into the 12v in the center console (or wire something yourself into a 12v line) and which point there's already tons of stuff that'll give you all the fast charging ports you want and you can use the front USB ports just for data.

 

[ranova]

I ended up returning the Basenor and got the Taptes USB Hub Pro. Like with the prior version, there is a stacked board design. This gives the internal compartment more room - about 68.5mm tall. Not as much as the first gen (77mm) but more than Basenor (62mm). Build quality is much better than Basenor - not just the soft feel plastic front but even the plain plastic in the back is just better. Just showing inside pics since Zigway showed the outside. Taptes uses VIA VL817 USB controller that seems to support up to 2.4A charging per the vendor website. There are two - one per half of the hub. So we get power and data on all ports.
威鋒電子

View attachment 579430

View attachment 579432

So can anyone confirm that the Taptes Hub Pro is a proper USB hub now vs a splitter like the previous version? I have the previous version but I hate that only selected ports have data and usb-c port is useless

 

[anandoc]

So can anyone confirm that the Taptes Hub Pro is a proper USB hub now vs a splitter like the previous version? I have the previous version but I hate that only selected ports have data and usb-c port is useless

Looks like it from @phioschaos post above - "So we get power and data on all ports."