GRgregsadetsky·Jul 21, 2026Submission
Uhubctl – Control USB power per-port on smart USB hubs
69 points · Open discussionmvp
uhubctl
C2019–2026
mvp / uhubctl
uhubctl
uhubctl - USB hub per-port power control
13Distinct people
14Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2.9KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
uhubctl - USB hub per-port power control
GitHub
Where it is used
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What people are saying
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year14 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2019-09-03 01:08:55 UTC to 2026-07-21 17:09:37 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
14 sourcesI think it’s useful to see how this is possible using only consumer products and software!
An alternative solution that’s less roundabout could be to use a uhubctl (https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl) compatible USB hub and directly switch the power of the usb port.
In Daily Automated Testing for Milk-V Duo S RISC-V SBC (IKEA Tretakt, Apache NuttX)Also listed elsewhere, this repo has a much more up to date list. Maybe I should make an edit to the repo after all these years!
I also had trouble finding the original author online when I created the GitHub repo, but the other repo links him. I’m sure this didn’t exist back in the day. I did reach out to Niibe Yutaka way back and get his permission to post on GitHub.
https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl
In Control USB power on a port by port basis on some USB hubsIs this just a less polished/active version of https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl?
In Control USB power on a port by port basis on some USB hubsIn 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.
In I2c-USB-hub: An i2C Controllable USB 2.0 HubI'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
In I2c-USB-hub: An i2C Controllable USB 2.0 HubThere are already off the shelf hubs that support power control: https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl
In I2c-USB-hub: An i2C Controllable USB 2.0 HubI notice this forum post: https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl/issues/12
In A blue connector does not USB 3.0 makeFrom the readme (https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl#what-is-usb-per-port-power-sw...):
sudo lsusb -v | grep wHubCharacteristic -A 3
If you see "Ganged power switching" or "Per-port power switching" it has a chance of working.
In Uhubctl – control USB power per-port on smart USB hubsUhubctl – control USB power per-port on smart USB hubs
83 points · Open discussionIn the opensource space, https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl/. Commercially($++), Acroname or Cambrionix hubs have a lot of features.
In USB drives with no phantom load (2018)It’s a difficult thing to find in general. Best list I’ve seen is https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl#compatible-usb-hubs
In USB drives with no phantom load (2018)HI’m doing exactly the same now using the M50, and (no surprise) it has the same problems!
I’ve found that libusb has some useful tools for working around this kind of problem. There is a useful CLI tool for resetting individual ports on some hubs (https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl) which makes good use of this feature. May not fix everything but works for most use cases.
In Libgphoto2 Controls Digital Cameras