I2c-USB-hub: An i2C Controllable USB 2.0 Hub

https://github.com/JimHeaney/i2c-usb-hub

by zdw • 3 years ago

79 59 3 years ago

github.com

fodkodrasz• 3 years ago

I think an USB controllable USB hub might be more handy.

riedel• 3 years ago

There are already off the shelf hubs that support power control: https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl

dividedbyzero• 3 years ago

I tried to get one (USB3, 4ports, not too pricey) earlier this year, but all the qualifying ones on the list there were either discontinued or had been updated and weren't individually switchable anymore. It's a pity because this would be so handy.

puzzlingcaptcha• 3 years ago

You'd only need to use something like a MCP2221a breakout [1] with the linked project.

Although it would be more convenient to integrate it directly on board.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4471

m_eiman• 3 years ago

This one works fine for me:

https://www.yepkit.com/product/300110/YKUSH3

hglee• 3 years ago

I used Acroname USB hub: https://acroname.com/store/programmable-industrial-hub-s79-u...

It was very expensive but works reliable. You can use API to control it.

seba_dos112• 3 years ago

USB hubs are controllable via USB, so I guess this is for cases where your hub is connected to a device you don't control.

rickdeckard• 3 years ago

No need to guess. First sentence on the page: "Have you ever wanted to control USB devices using an Arduino, ESP32, or Raspberry Pi? with the i2C USB Hub, you can!"

seba_dos112• 3 years ago

But you can control USB devices using an Arduino, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi via USB just fine :P

gsich9• 3 years ago

Not all.

seba_dos112• 3 years ago

All.

The available features vary though.

boffinAudio5• 3 years ago

This is very, very handy for development purposes - those of us building firmware and drivers for USB devices are very familiar with the need to reset (unplug/replug) devices during development, and being able to do this with I2C and automatable software procedures is a GODSEND .. I've already started the process of getting a couple PCB's made from this project, and have subscribed for futher updates as the devs get their revision made... this project is very valuable for us in the embedded industry, and I for one would like to see software-controllable USB ports become a very standard thing, personally.

So many issues with USB during development can be resolved if you can just get the device reset during the dev process. Being able to hard-reset a device during compile/debug phases is going to save me huge amounts of time and effort ...

Goz3rr• 3 years ago

Software controllable USB ports already are a thing, Per-port power switching can be found in the USB 2.0 spec and there's a bunch of hubs out there that implement it, controllable via USB instead of I2C. Since USB 3.2 any device that has downstream type C ports is required to implement PPPS.

A DIY hub that uses a chip with PPPS support can be found here for example: https://oshwlab.com/iamseer/ch335-hub

crote• 3 years ago

It is extremely rare for USB hubs to support remote power switching of individual USB ports. As someone who develops USB devices, this kind of i2c-controllable hub would save me a lot of cable unplugging.

ilyt• 3 years ago

Get USB hub with buttons ? I-tec makes one, there is even 16 port version

alufers• 3 years ago

I've tried a few Amazon Basics ones, and on all of them power switching per-port worked. Uhubctl's compatibility list. seems to confirm my experience. The only problem is that the 7 port ones are in fact two 4-port hubs in a trenchcoat, which makes port numbering a bit weird. Nothing a couple of stickers can't fix, though.

https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl

rx_tx• 3 years ago

Unfortunately, this is not an ideal design.

- Most USB hub chips can be strapped/hard wired configured, or controllable by i2c already directly. Funnily enough this chip isn't, but is extremely cheap (less than 24 cents!).

- The "port enable" feature on this design only controls VBUS (power pin of each connector), not the hub itself, so on a self-powered device it may not actually disconnect the device if it doesn't need VBUS to operate.

[1] https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/USB-ICs_CoreChips-SL2-1A...

boffinAudio5• 3 years ago

Very good points - have you made an Issue on their repo to report these points? As they are currently doing a new revision, it would be good to see these sticking points submitted and get addressed by the devs, if they're not aware of them already.

I do a lot of firmware development and am constantly having to unplug/replug devices during the process .. for this reason I have an I-Tec 16-port Charging Hub, which has individual switches for each port - and this works fine, as long as I get the druthers to launch out of my chair and turn things off and on again... however being able to do all of this remotely, with software, would mean I could a) automate the hell out of a lot of things that requires monkey-tapping, and b) put the whole mess in a closet where it belongs, away from my coffee cup.

So I'm quite eager to see this project proceed - especially if there is a way the port capacities can be expanded (16-port would be ideal) .. so please consider officially reporting any issues in the design that you see!

codazoda• 3 years ago

I wonder if it supports software control? I haven’t messed with this in a long long time, but here’s a C program for controlling USB port power via software.

It works on a pretty limited set of hubs, because most cheap out on including the switches.

https://github.com/codazoda/hub-ctrl.c

ddlsmurf• 3 years ago

I don't really see those as issues... The hub chip is cheap and doesn't directly do i2c, but, so ? Controlling VBus seems to be by design, exactly for devices that are separately powered to still work: see author's other project https://github.com/JimHeaney/usb-toggle . There should be a way to block further communication at the software level if that matters to one's use case. You can expand this, just plug a bunch of them into another hub...

GrumpyYoungMan• 3 years ago

Don't commercially available software controlled USB hubs exist already? The Yepkit YKUSH 3 came to mind immediately (https://www.yepkit.com/product/300110/YKUSH3) and is the only device I've seen that explicitly says that it disconnects both the data lines and power lines when switching. A casual search also finds https://www.usbgear.com/managed-hubs.html

fellowmartian• 3 years ago

Hub chips often already have pins for per port VBUS control, and you just need to wire P-channel mosfets to them (hub manufacturers often cheap out on this). You can then control port power through sysfs.

mikepurvis• 3 years ago

In my experience this support was rare. I had an issue a few years ago with multiple USB 3 cameras (Intel Realsense) on a mobile robot that would periodically freeze up and need to be hard-reset, and a power-controllable hub seemed like the least-bad way to hack around it. I found my way to this tool, with its convenient list of compatible hardware:

https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl

Of the USB 3 options on the list, several were EOL or impossible to find, and when I ordered one each of the remainder, there was only one I could get working, and it wasn't reliable about being able to reset a device that had frozen to the point where Linux no longer had sysfs entries for it.

We ended up instead using a hub with an internal jumper to disable bus power, and then putting the self power line through a separately-controllable relay.

brunorsini• 3 years ago

Last year I bought a second computer for my music studio. I wanted to use the same set of 2 monitors and wired keyboard + trackpad on both machines.

I wrote simple scripts to switch my monitor inputs with keyboard shortcuts (even simpler with Lunar, amazing new Mac app — https://lunar.fyi), which saved me from having to press annoying input-source buttons.

But I couldn't for the life of me find a simple, suitable software controllable KVM switch. That still requires the hardware button to be controlled, so frustrating.

boffinAudio5• 3 years ago

I am constantly on the lookout for a monitor that has a USB port/KVM switch built in - it seems like such a no-brainer, but alas there are very few options like this available out there .. I do recall someone making an open-source KVM switcher design some time ago, will have to try and dig it out of the archives ..

Hendrikto• 3 years ago

I am constantly on the lookout for a monitor that has a USB port/KVM switch built in

Dough (formerly Eve) Spectrum monitors have this feature. They are also great all-round monitors.

the_pwner224• 3 years ago

Lots of Dell monitors support this - probably every single currently-in-production Ultrasharp supports it, and I think some of the lower tier non-Ultrasharps may support it as well.

Dell monitors all support DDC, I'm not sure if KVM switching can be controlled over DDC but it's likely.

Somewhat unrelated, but some of the Dell monitors also have USB-C support, where a single USB-C cable connects to your laptop and: charges it (Power Delivery from the monitor), hooks up the display (DP alt mode), and connects to the USB hub on the monitor. So if you use a wireless kb/mouse with receivers plugged into the monitor, you'll have literally just 2 cables on your desk - a power cable for your monitor, and a USB-C cable between the monitor and laptop.

edualm• 3 years ago

Some exist. I have the Philip 279M1RV, which is 4K 144Hz with a built-in KVM. It's not a perfect monitor, but was the best one I could find for my needs, spec-wise.

kjs3• 3 years ago

I have a pair of Gigabyte M32U monitors that have an integrated KVM, which I confess I don't use (they're on a discrete KVM). Nice monitors.

rft• 3 years ago

If you are up for some hardware tinkering, you might be able to modify an existing KVM switch to add remote control.

I had a KVM switch with a wired button (place KVM out of the way, put small button on your desk). The button was connected via a 3.5mm "audio" jack. I never measured the interface, but I bet it just connected two rings of the jack.

Using a switch like that, you can build your own control for it without opening the KVM. Either with an ESP for wifi control (MQTT would be my choice) or a smaller board for USB/serial control (Cortex-M dev board). Short the proper rings via an optocoupler controlled by the MCU and it will behave as if you pressed the button.

ARob109• 3 years ago

For full software no hardware kvm solution, there is Microsoft Garage Mouse Without Borders. Wish it was open source. Mostly useful for multi monitor setup where you don’t need to change sources just change keyboard and mouse. For soft switching source I use a script to send DDC commands to the monitor

thetoon• 3 years ago

Isn't that functionnaly the same as Synergy (which was opensource but isn't anymore), and it's opensource fork Barrier (https://github.com/debauchee/barrier) ?

alanbernstein• 3 years ago

What monitor model do you have? I want the same thing, and the Samsung monitor I bought previously doesn't support very much.

Like sibling comment, I have a 4-port USB switch with a remote that connects via micro-usb, it was quite easy to hack a custom remote that I keep next to my keyboard.

liminalsunset• 3 years ago

If you or anyone else is still looking for a programmable or controllable USB KVM, though this also comes with a HDMI 2.0 4K 60hz switcher and is accordingly more expensive,

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005149590635.html

is probably what you need. It has a USB port linked to a USB serial internally that you send strings to switch. It was designed to be used with the Pi KVM/BLIKVM KVM over IP solution but works for other things as well.

TheLoafOfBread• 3 years ago

I think adding USB to I2C chip and connecting it to USB hub would make device self-contained and great candidate for automated testing of USB hardware - i.e. 3 different hardware revisions which needs to be tested after release of new firmware by test software to verify that all 3 are working the same.

dementik• 3 years ago

There is also wifi-connected Sinilink XY-WFUSB: https://devices.esphome.io/devices/Sinilink-XY-WFUSB-USB-Swi...

Not opensource hardware, but available immediately for order and ESPHome/Tasmota can be used as a firmwre.

I2c-USB-hub: An i2C Controllable USB 2.0 Hub

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