Are USB Cables Active Circuits? – Understanding USB Cable Functionality

That is super terrible design... but will it break anything? Good question..

If you try to backfeed a voltage into a supplied voltage, the difference in the two will determine the amount of current that flows. So if the supplied current is 5.1V and the applied voltage is 5.2V, 0.1V will cause current to flow into the 5.1V supply, unless it's specifically designed to prevent current from flowing backward. (this would depend on how the switching converter is designed)

So say you have a long cable, and 0.1V of mismatch... that might be around 5 ohms... That is 0.020A, or 20mA. That is enough current to run an LED, but usually not enough to do damage to a power circuit. A much worse condition (as Russell points out) is when the computer is OFF and there is power being backfed.

Most USB power systems are going to have a resettable fuse somewhere around 500mA to 1.5A, so that would protect things in an extreme case, but the real answer is that it depends on the computer, and it depends on the design.

My best advice is to stay away from USB hubs that are of mindblowingly poor design.

It will work, if that's what you're asking. And there is no law saying you must buy a VID from the USB-IF in order to use USB - you only get in trouble if you use the name and logo without permission. Some things to consider:

• If you do want to insert a computer, to do debugging or something, life will be easier if you have a unique VID/PID combo and can write drivers accordingly.
• At some point one of your customers will take the product apart and, if they see a USB port inside, plug it into a computer. They shouldn't have any drivers for that VID, but they might. You'll want to make sure that can't damage anything, or just stick a "warranty void if opened" sticker on it.
• The same is true if the user can plug random hardware into the USB host within the device. They shouldn't have any hardware with that VID, but they might. And you don't want the host to brick that hardware by accident. If there are no external USB ports, then the warranty void sticker works here too.
• Some dodgy USB sticks and other cheap clone devices use VID=6666 and PID=8888, and maybe others. It's probably worth checking and avoiding those PIDs.
• You can buy single PIDs from MCS electronics for about $15. The USB-IF do not approve, but legally it seems they cannot stop it. Some manufacturers of USB hardware also give out PIDs from their VID.

That said, I'd probably just do what you propose, and use VID=6666 with some random (i.e. not 1111 or BEEF etc) PID which doesn't have any google hits.