.. _mega4:

UUGear MEGA4 USB Hub
====================

MaasPower has been tested with this device. It can power and control 
4 Raspberry Pi 4's. Other USB powered SBCs should also work.

.. image:: ../images/mega4.png
  :width: 600
  :alt: Alternative text

This board is designed to be mounted on top of a Raspberry Pi and controlled
by it. However I used a USB extension cable with type A socket to connect it
to the back of my NAS.

A suitable power supply is required to be plugged into the USB C port (J5).
For details of power supply choice 
[see here](https://github.com/gilesknap/IaC-at-home/blob/main/nas/03-maas/PowerSupply.md)

The usb hub control utility here works well https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl.
See the github repo for details on compiling this utility.

On linux you need to enable permissions using the device's vendor ID. The 
following steps will enable access:

.. code-block:: bash

    sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/52-usb.rules 
    # add the following line 
    # SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2109", MODE="0666"

    sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
    sudo udevadm trigger --attr-match=subsystem=usb

The commands you will need are as follows:

.. code-block:: bash

    # turn on port 3
    uhubctl -a 1 -p 3

    # turn off port 3
    uhubctl -a 0 -p 3

    # get status for port 3
    uhubctl -p 3

    # for query use this regex for 'on'
    # .* power
    # for query use this regex for 'off'
    # .* off