I'm really hoping someone from Yamaha can definitively state whether there's any chance of damaging a Montage (or causing it to become flaky) by using a USB hub.

I'll report back ASAP if my Montage explodes or even flakes out. 🙂

Page 54 of the Owner's Manual

Precautions when using the [USB TO DEVICE] terminal
This instrument features a built-in [USB TO DEVICE] terminal. When connecting a USB device to the terminal, be sure to handle the USB device with care. Follow the important precautions below.

NOTE
The rating of the USB TO DEVICE terminal is a maximum of 5V/ 500mA. Do not connect USB devices having a rating above this, since this can cause damage to the instrument itself.

This also does not state that a USB adapter can be installed although Yamaha used one and some do work. "Compatible USB devices" (assuming this means "as follows") "USB flash drive" is the only bullet point item shown and nothing else is listed. The 500mA hub is working great but this says I can't use it. This hub meets the USB BC 1.2 standard and has it's own 60w power supply. I'll forward this Montage info. to my rep. at Plugable to see what he says about it.

Michael Trigoboff wrote:

I'm really hoping someone from Yamaha can definitively state whether there's any chance of damaging a Montage (or causing it to become flaky) by using a USB hub.

BM said "no" quoting the Yamaha excerpt. This "obviously" works as he stated concerning the remote display when that was in question. Yamaha clearly stated that a remote feature does not work because they stated that only a "USB flash drive" can be installed in the "to device" port. Same difference as stating that it does not work.

So along that same line of BM thinking "obviously" this USB hub works and works well simultaneously reading all the flash drives plus transmitting to the display. The Montage screen displays every device that is attached to the hub just like it was designed to do this. I loaded the Analog Easy Sounds and it worked. You can touch on any of the displayed devices to access them accordingly.

Apparently Yamaha hasn't tested many of these devices and either aren't commenting at all, saying they don't know or saying flat out "it doesn't work" although they do "obviously" work.

I did try a USB mouse and keyboard with no Montage acknowledgement although I didn't expect these to work since those functions are not implemented within the OS. But since everything else works I went ahead and tried it along with a USB hard drive. The Montage did recognize the HD but said that it was not formatted. I didn't attempt to do a format on the HD. This could probably be corrected to communicate with hard drives if they wanted it to.

BM said "no" quoting the Yamaha excerpt.

I did not say "no", I simply quoted the manual. You can do with your Montage whatever you wish. It is my obligation to pass along correct information. If you read the quote from the manual, then you can understand exactly what it recommends and the parameters which it says -exceed them at your own risk. Since you, david, are not going to fix anyone that has an issues and damages their instrument, it becomes my obligation to pass along what is recommended by Yamaha. I hope you understand this.

Again: The rating of the USB TO DEVICE terminal is a maximum of 5V/ 500mA. Do not connect USB devices having a rating above this, since this can cause damage to the instrument itself.

From discussions with the maker of this device I've gathered that something such as a USB splitter without it's own power supply might cause a power draw or demand that exceeds the Montage supply. A mere splitter with dual devices connected or a high draw HD device could cause an overload.

A self-power hub however supplies it's connected devices with adequate power from an external power supply separate from the Montage. Mine supplies 60 watts from an external power supply which probably actually prevents Montage from having to supply it's own power internally. I'm not an expert but perhaps someone can inform us on this. I'll ask our electrical engineer.

This type of "bus powered" 3-way hub could cause an issue. Says it supplies up to 900mA per all (3) ports which would overload the Montage. DO NOT use this type hub with Montage. It does not provide it's own power supply and relies solely on the Montage as a power source. This is what I believe that Yamaha is referring to when it says that a "USB hub will not work".

"USB over-current protection supporting up to 900mA per port (limited to maximum USB bus power available from host computer)". "host computer" In this case meaning the Montage.

Don't use these type hubs although the 2nd one is rated appropriately at 500mA shared.

http://plugable.com/products/usb3-hub3me

http://plugable.com/products/usb2-2port

I got tired of fumbling around in the back of my Montage, so I started using a little 2-slot Radio Shack (remember them?) USB hub I've had around the house forever. Seems to be working well so far. I figure that if I only ever plug one device into the hub, it'll never draw enough power to cause any harm. (At least, I hope so.)

But I think it's ridiculous for Yamaha to have produced a top-of-the-line machine with USB connectivity that doesn't just fail gracefully under too much load, but instead is so fragile that you can cause damage by drawing too much power from it. There are well-known simple engineering solutions to prevent things like this. For the amount they're charging for a Montage, I think they should have included one of those solutions.