I have two small children that on long road trips sometimes need a little entertainment. I had previously purchased (via Amazon) a makerspot kit for my Pi Zero that came with a micro USB 4 port hub, which was great for plugging in USB wireless and an external hard drive, however became too many wires for my comfort level.



I purchased this item so that I could have a solid chassis for the child entertainer that would have the breakdown characteristics of that micro USB plug or its wire while also reducing the number of loose wires.



When this item arrived it did exactly as expected and a slight bit extra. Thanks to the product I have a solid computer chassis (the size of a couple of packs of Trident gum stacked on top of each other), 4 standard USB A ports and a micro USB port in addition to the Pi Zero's single micro USB port.



Five stars, before we subtract two stars for issues I have about this.



In total I have three issues, since only two are hardware those are the reason I subtracted two stars. Here are the three issues in order of which they occurred.



First; I'd ordered this hub prior to Christmas from MakerSpot.com in hopes that I'd get it early enough to put it to service for my families 2016 Christmas Trip. My kids would be in the vehicle for just over 3 hours during the trip and I'd planned on showing then movies via this small form computer. While their entertainment went of unhitch, thanks to my previous Makerspot purchase via Amazon, this purchase was not thru Amazon and instead arrived from Hong Kong a week after Christmas. Seeing as this was not an issue with hardware I did not subtract any stars for this, though if I did subtract a star it would be from Makerspot.



Second; In researching this hardware add-on I looked at different sites, it came down to this one and the similar hardware from Adafruit.com, I chose this one because the pictures did not show cheap nylon part to attached it where Adafrui did. Much to my surprise the screws, stand-offs and nuts it came with were all cheap nylon parts. That is hardware, goodbye star.



Third; My previous Makerspot purchase included a slick case to protect my Pi Zero with a couple of acrylic shields that came with metal screws and nuts. Unfortunately, probably due to any inconsistencies at Makerspot, there was no reasonable way to re-attach my acrylic shields. The screws from the shield assembly were a different thickness than the nylon stand-offs. More importantly, the soldering that had been done on the bottom side of this part actually made it virtually impossible to attach the bottom shield onto the computer chassis as the gobs.of unsightly solder stuck too far to use the compatible screws and stand-offs. Goodbye second star.



In the end the hardware functions beautifully in spite of its minor hardware flaws. I recommend this hardware to anyone wishing to expand their Raspberry Pi Zero's basic capabilities. As for me however, the issues of travel from Hong Kong combined with gobs of solder is more than I'd asked for and I'd order a similar hardware or this hardware again thru Amazon instead. Christopher Jackiewicz on 9th Jan 2017