RetroFed Forum
Your home away from modern life.
Powered USB hub hat?
Post Reply
AuthorMessage
nigel piefed.social nigel@piefed.social
Joined: 2025-02-21
Quote

Has anyone found something like a powered USB hub in hat form for a Pi zero 2 w?

The X302 seems like the right idea, although:

  1. It inhibits the use of a header
  2. There isn't enough docs to figure out if I could just trim a few pins and use the header anyway
  3. Will it actually power the pi, or is the power just for the hub and amp

The ultimate goal is a midi synth with USB inputs for the keyboards. It needs a screen and DAC, and for now I'm building with a Pirate Audio headphone amp but the USB needs to power the keyboard too.

9   Original
Iced Raktajino startrek.website IcedRaktajino@startrek.website
Joined: 2025-07-15
#2 · Quote Reply

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K9IVUYM

I bought that earlier this year. Works great. Have two RTL-SDRs hooked into it along with a Meshtastic node. It mounts under the Pi Zero so you still have your headers available for other stuff.

2
nigel piefed.social nigel@piefed.social
Joined: 2025-02-21
#3 · Quote Reply

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K9IVUYM I bought that earlier this year. Works great. Have two RTL-SDRs hooked into it along with a Meshtastic node. It mounts under the Pi Zero so you still have your headers available for other stuff.

Thank you. That looks perfect. I'll give it a shot.

1
Iced Raktajino startrek.website IcedRaktajino@startrek.website
Joined: 2025-07-15
#4 · Quote Reply

Thank you. That looks perfect. I'll give it a shot.

The only tricky bit is forcing the Pi's USB port into host mode by default. I thought the hub was defective but it worked when I put an OTG adapter into the micro USB port. The default auto detect behavior doesn't work with this since it doesn't connect to the OTG pin.

I had to edit /boot/firmware/config.txt and add under the [all] section:

[all]
dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host
1
Post Reply
Back to top