Is there a port switching USB hub currently available.

[Robin]

The weewx wiki article

What to do when your Fine Offset station locks up

says

Hubs that are known to work:

LINKSYS USB2HUB4 (NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub)
D-Link Corp. DUB-H7 7-port USB 2.0 hub [grey]

However neither of these hubs seem to be currently available.

Can anybody suggest a suitable hub that is currently in production or do you have any suggestions or further ideas?

[Gazza]

If you use a Raspberry Pi then this Kickstarter is looking very promising:   http://kck.st/1pLLU4R

I have asked the guy making them if it supports port power switching and he has told me that the hub chip used (Microchip USB2514B ) supports it and he has implemented it according to the Microchip spec. I have backed it as want it for something other than Weewx but won't get it until sometime in September to really test the capability.


Gary

[Robin]

Hi Gary,

I have exchanged a few emails with Chris Kaschner. He says:

Raspiado will not be able to switch off power to a USB port via a software command sent from your Raspberry Pi.

the chip I'm using supports is power per port, but it's based on sensing an attached USB compliant device and applying power. 

I'm still looking, so if anybody knows of a suitable hub??? 

[Andrew Milner]

I only seem to have an issue with my RPi and WH1080 once or twice a year just using a good powered hub and doing a manual reset on the very rare occasions it is required.  You really do not have to hunt high and low to do it automatically unless you have a very good reason for having to.  I lose contact with the remote sensors far more often!!  One thing I also do - do not know if it helps or hinders though - is have a cron task to do a reboot of the RPi once a week - and I also set the RPi into Turbo mode because I have a feeling (nothing more) that the RPi suffers from sharing network and USB traffic over common bus, so if network is busy am more likely to start getting more unstable reads - but not USB lockups requiring resets - these are very rare in my setup.

[Robin]

Andrew,

The 3080 seems to be more prone to USB lockup. The reason is frequently attributed to the station writing UV and radiation data at a different frequency to the other measurements.

I had one lock after two weeks. I read a lot of advice about quality of cables so used better quality cables. Result was 4 lockups in the following 2 weeks. Yesterday I read comments about the USB providing too much power and that long but well shielded cables would be better. So yesterday (07:30 23 July 2014) I returned to the supplied USB cable + a high quality 3 metre extension that I just happened to have in a box.

I have no idea who is right. I have no idea why the USB locks up. I might be wasting my time with the cable, only time will tell.

I know it's not as exciting as "Game of Thrones" but I will post details of my next lockup here. Watch this space.

[Andrew Milner]

Hehe - yes, we all get the dreaded lockups and maybe indeed the 3080 is more prone.  I also use a long USB extension cable (with a booster of some kind built into it I believe) and I make sure all sources of RPi/USB interference are kept well clear - I even tried to make sure the USB cable run avoided as much as possible going near mains cable runs in the wall.  Like you, I do not know what or even if I affected anything - but the result is a pretty stable setup.  I very rarely access the RPI or even open the drawer in which it is housed..... and as I said in last post I rarely have to unplug/reset the 1080 (which gets its power over USB by the way rather than through separate power supply or battery).

Don't worry - I'm not holding my breath waiting for the next installment of your saga ....  The one thing I have never tried yet is ferrite cores though .......

[Gazza]

Hi Robin,

I have read the datasheets of the hub chip that Chris is using and it seems to indicate that it should work but their definition of "per port power control" may be different to what we want. Do you know if Chris has actually tested the switching capability ??


Gary

[Robin]

Hi Gary,

I asked if they would be testing this feature and the reply was "Raspiado will not be able to switch off power to a USB port via a software command sent from your Raspberry Pi."

So I guess the answer is no they won't.

Robin

[Andrew Milner]

This link may explain why/how chips may be capable of PPPS but not necessarily implemented in reality ......

http://befinitiv.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/hacking-per-port-power-switching-to-an-usb-hub-2/

[Fraoch]

Just a follow-up to anyone looking for a hub - pay special attention to the wiki!  There are at least two versions of the D-Link DUB-H7 - the old grey/silver version and the new, currently available DUB-H7BL, which is black.

The DUB-H7BL will not work.  It does not support per-port switching.  I guess it uses a different chip than the older DUB-H7.

I have edited the wiki to make this more clear.

I'm using all the suggested settings in the wiki to avoid a lockup and still got my first lockup a few weeks ago.  Of course it was at the start of a long business trip so I couldn't get my weather station working for a while!

Ah well, it's a good hub anyway, although I didn't need one.  But this means that yes, there are no hubs currently available which support per-port switching.

[Gazza]

Does any one have a B+ Pi ??

I noticed a comment on the Pi forums that stated that the B+ model has a Diodes Inc AP255x load switch in the USB circuit and it is connected to the power control pins of the hub chip.

So it is possible that the B+ Pi may support the PPPS out of the box, as the full circuit diagram of the B+ has not been released I can't confirm this info and I don't have one to test.


Gary

[Gazza]

 I have got hold of a B+ version of the Pi to test the PPPS and have tried to trace the circuit from the hub chip to the load switch and to the USB ports and there seems to be connectivity from the PRTCTL2 pin. The only possible downside is that the load switch output controls the power to all 4 ports.

I have tried to do some testing with Mathew's usb_control.py but with a fresh Raspbian install I can't get usb_control-0.6.py to run with out errors.

What other stuff do I have to have installed to get it to work ??



Gary

[Rod Grames]

This hub seems to do what you're looking for. It gives you the ability to turn on/off each port individually with a simple C++ and Python API. It seems like there's also a way to do it by writing software that runs inside the hub, but I haven't looked at that API. https://acroname.com/products/s77-usbhub-2x4-0

[NikTheFix]

Try this:

https://www.yepkit.com/products/ykush

It works for me.

[pon...@gmail.com]

Well, it's certainly a lot cheaper than the last suggested one.

Some questions:

Do you use this with a Fine Offset WH108x? When you say it works for you do you mean that you have incorporated some code that automatically resets the USB port and that afterwards the lock up issue is resolved? If yes, can you elaborate some more on how that's done (or do you mean that you can remotely connect and do this manually?).

My main concern about lockups, which are infrequent, is the (as far as I know) unavoidable loss of data -- from having to reset my WH1080. Are you able to avoid this? 

[pon...@gmail.com]

Did you confirm that there is no back power to the Pi?

What did you do to get WeeWX to control the ports on the YKUSH? I'm not clear on how to relate the instructions here https://github.com/weewx/weewx/wiki/FineOffset%20USB%20lockup to those in the YKUSH docs available online. Maybe you could add something to the wiki?

[Andrew Milner]

..... and after reading all the wiki entry - be aware of random factory resets that can occur when switching the usb port off and on ........

seems to me one is just better off doing the batteries out reset anyway rather than worrying about whether or not the power cycle has worked correctly!!

[pon...@gmail.com]

Pls ignore. I've confirmed that there is no back power and also realised on rereading that the instructions are clear enough. At least I think they are.

[Aldo Bord]

At this link there are a couple more listed, beside the Dlink and Linksys we already know of:

https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl

[Joachim Rummler]

Am Mittwoch, 21. September 2016 18:37:14 UTC+2 schrieb NikTheFix:

Try this:

https://www.yepkit.com/products/ykush

It works for me.

Hi

I have the same problem with the wh1080. How did you the ykush to work? Did you change the driver fousb.py? As you see I need some help.

Thnaks in advance

Joachim 

[Greg from Oz]

This is how I get around it:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/weewx-user/home$20automation|sort:date/weewx-user/WETchOWLPsE/oa4xsgVLCQAJ

[Rich Altmaier]

A completely different approach, when you get tired of the Raspberry Pi locking up, is to e-waste it and go with the Intel NUC.   I've measured my NUC at 10x the speed of the Pi, and it is rock solid.   Just saying...

Rich

[Joachim Rummler]

Am Freitag, 10. August 2018 10:19:08 UTC+2 schrieb Greg from Oz:

This is how I get around it:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/weewx-user/home$20automation|sort:date/weewx-user/WETchOWLPsE/oa4xsgVLCQAJ

Hi Greg,

thanks for the link. Because I have an Raspi 3b+ I found a script to switch off and on the USB-port. So I will try both. Your solution would be perfect because you watch the connection.

Joachim 

[Joachim Rummler]

Am Freitag, 10. August 2018 19:41:12 UTC+2 schrieb Rich Altmaier:

A completely different approach, when you get tired of the Raspberry Pi locking up, is to e-waste it and go with the Intel NUC.   I've measured my NUC at 10x the speed of the Pi, and it is rock solid.   Just saying...

Rich

Hi Rich,

I think it's a problem of the PWS not of the RPi. They RPis work fine for me, no trouble (Smarthome etc.)

Joachim 

[Paul O'Nolan]

It isn't the Pi that locks up, it's the Fine Offset. As the Pi can handle the data collection just fine and uses v little power I don't see much point in using a NUC for this. At some point I may use a NUC for running LibreElec but it would be overkill imo for WeeWX.

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