uhubctl

uhubctl is utility to control USB power per-port on smart USB hubs. Smart hub is defined as one that implements per-port power switching.

Original idea for this code was inspired by hub-ctrl.c by Niibe Yutaka: http://www.gniibe.org/development/ac-power-control-by-USB-hub

Compatible USB hubs

Note that very few hubs actually support per-port power switching. Some of them are no longer manufactured and can be hard to find.

This is list of known compatible USB hubs:

Manufacturer	Product	Ports	USB	VID:PID	Release	EOL
AmazonBasics	HU3641V1 (RPi issue)	4	3.0	`2109:2811`	2013
AmazonBasics	HU3770V1 (RPi issue)	7	3.0	`2109:2811`	2013
Apple	Thunderbolt Display 27" (internal USB hub)	6	2.0		2011	2016
Apple	USB Keyboard With Numeric Pad (internal USB hub)	3	2.0		2011
Asus	Z87-PLUS Motherboard (onboard USB hub)	4	3.0		2013	2016
B&B Electronics	UHR204	4	2.0		2013
Belkin	F5U701-BLK	7	2.0		2008	2012
Circuitco	Beagleboard-xM (internal USB hub)	4	2.0	`0424:9514`	2010
CyberPower	CP-H420P	4	2.0	`0409:0059`	2004
Cypress	CY4608 HX2VL development kit	4	2.0	`04B4:6570`	2012
D-Link	DUB-H4 rev D1 (black edition)	4	2.0	`05E3:0608`	2012
D-Link	DUB-H7 rev A (silver edition)	7	2.0	`2001:F103`	2005	2010
D-Link	DUB-H7 rev D1 (black edition)	7	2.0	`05E3:0608`	2012
Delock	87445	4	2.0	`05E3:0608`	2009	2013
Elecom	U2H-G4S	4	2.0		2006	2011
Hawking Technology	UH214	4	2.0		2003	2008
IOI	U3H415E1	4	3.0		2012
j5create	JUH470 (works only in USB2 mode)	3	3.0	`05E3:0610`	2014
Lenovo	ThinkPad EU Ultra Dockingstation (40A20090EU)	6	2.0	`17EF:100F`	2015
Lenovo	ThinkPad X200 Ultrabase 42X4963	3	2.0	`17EF:1005`	2008	2011
Lindy	USB serial converter 4 port	4	1.1	`058F:9254`	2008
Linksys	USB2HUB4	4	2.0		2004	2010
Maplin	A08CQ	7	2.0	`0409:0059`	2008	2011
Microchip	EVB-USB2517	7	2.0		2008
Moxa	Uport-407	4	2.0		2017
Plugable	USB3-HUB7BC	7	3.0	`2109:0813`	2015
Plugable	USB3-HUB7C	7	3.0	`2109:0813`	2015
Plugable	USB3-HUB7-81X	7	3.0	`2109:0813`	2012
Plugable	USB2-HUB10S	10	2.0		2010
Raspberry Pi	Model B+, 2 B, 3 B (port 2 only)	4	2.0		2011
Raspberry Pi	Model 3 B+	6	2.0	`0424:2514`	2018
Renesas	uPD720202 PCIe USB 3.0 host controller	2	3.0		2013
Rosewill	RHUB-210	4	2.0	`0409:005A`	2011	2014
Sanwa Supply	USB-HUB14GPH	4	1.1		2001	2003
StarTech	ST4200USBM	4	2.0	`0409:005A`	2004
Sunix	SHB4200MA	4	2.0	`0409:0058`	2006	2009
Targus	PAUH212U	7	2.0		2004	2009

This table is by no means complete. If your hub works with uhubctl, but is not listed above, please report it by opening new issue at https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl/issues, so we can add it to supported table. In your report, please provide exact product model and add output from uhubctl.

Note that quite a few modern motherboards have built-in root hubs that do support this feature - you may not even need to buy any external hub. WARNING: turning off built-in USB ports may cut off your keyboard or mouse, so be careful what ports you are turning off!

USB 3.0 duality note

If you have USB 3.0 hub connected to USB3 upstream port, it will be detected as 2 independent virtual hubs: USB2 and USB3, and your USB devices will be connected to USB2 or USB3 virtual hub depending on their capabilities and connection speed. To control power for such hubs, it is necessary to turn off/on power on both USB2 and USB3 virtual hubs for power off/on changes to take effect. uhubctl will try to do this automatically (unless you disable this behavior with option -e).

Unfortunately, while most hubs will cut off data USB connection, some may still not cut off VBUS to port, which means connected phone may still continue to charge from port that is powered off by uhubctl.

Compiling

This utility was tested to compile and work on Linux (Ubuntu/Debian, Redhat/Fedora/CentOS, Arch Linux, Gentoo, OpenSUSE, Buildroot), FreeBSD and Mac OS X.

While uhubctl compiles on Windows, USB power switching does not work on Windows because libusb is using winusb.sys driver, which according to Microsoft does not support necessary USB control requests. This may be fixed if libusb starts supporting different driver on Windows.

First, you need to install library libusb-1.0 (version 1.0.12 or later):

Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
Redhat: sudo yum install libusb1-devel
MacOSX: brew install libusb, or sudo port install libusb-devel
FreeBSD: libusb is included by default
Windows: TBD?

To compile, simply run make - this will generate uhubctl binary.

Also, for Mac OS X you can install uhubctl with Homebrew custom tap:

brew tap mvp/uhubctl https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl
brew install --HEAD uhubctl

Usage

You can control the power on a USB port(s) like this:

uhubctl -a off -p 2

This means operate on default smart hub and turn power off (-a off, or -a 0) on port 2 (-p 2). Supported actions are off/on/cycle (or 0/1/2). cycle means turn power off, wait some delay (configurable with -d) and turn it back on.

On Linux, you may need to run it with sudo, or to configure udev USB permissions.

If you have more than one smart USB hub connected, you should choose specific hub to control using -l (location) parameter. To find hub locations, simply run uhubctl without any parameters. Hub locations look like b-x.y.z, where b is USB bus number, and x, y, z... are port numbers for all hubs in chain, starting from root hub for a given USB bus. This address is semi-stable - it will not change if you unplug/replug (or turn off/on) USB device into the same physical USB port (this method is also used in Linux kernel).

Notable projects using uhubctl

Project	Description
Morse code USB light	Flash a message in Morse code with USB light
Webcam USB light	Turn on/off LED when webcam is turned on/off
Cinema Lightbox	Turn on/off Cinema Lightbox from iOS Home app
Build Status Light	Create a build status light in under 10 minutes
Weather Station	Reset Weather Station when it freezes
sysmoQMOD	Reset cellular modems when necessary
Smog Sensor	Raspberry Pi based smog sensor power reset
Terrible Cluster	Power on/off Raspberry Pi cluster nodes as needed
Ideal Music Server	Turn off unused USB ports to improve audio quality
USB drives with no phantom load	Power USB drives only when needed to save power

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2009-2018 Vadim Mikhailov

This file can be distributed under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License version 2.

License

Phelagor/uhubctl

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