I have a high speed USB v2 widget which is a distance from my PC. I also run different O/S (i.e. Linux) which don't like to see my widget and can cause crashes. So I have to constantly plug/unplug my widget depending on what I'm doing. I am concerned about the constant plugging/unplugging and the mechanical wear/stresses on the connection - I have had a few memory sticks fail as a result of this.
What I would like is a little circuit which sits in line with the USB widget and I can turn it on and off via a simple switch. My first thought is something like a tri-state bi-directional buffer with an enable facility - or rough it and use a four-pole relay. Whatever, it must not interfere with the data speed of the widget, so we are talking about something with a high bandwidth.
Any ideas?
Graham