Using Powered USB Hub Doesn't show device

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I was having power issues running both a 1090 and 978 dongle plugged directly into my Pi. I added a powered USB hub to the mix and when I started it all back up, both the dongle plugged into the Pi and the dongle on the USB hub worked fine. Overnight, the stick on the USB hub (orange SDR) disappeared from the system. However, it does show up in an lsusb output under Port1: Dev 3 (I think).

/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/5p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=smsc95xx, 480M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
            |__ Port 4: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=usbfs, 480M

This device kept disappearing while plugged directly into the Pi and I assumed it was a power issue as I would get undervolt messages all the time. Powering the Pi with a different power supply fixed the undervolt issues.

Do I have a bad SDR? Should the USB device be recognized without any special addressing due to it being on the hub? I haven’t power cycled the hub yet as I am remote and can’t get to it.

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Port 1 dev 3 is (internal Pi hardware) Ethernet.
Port 3 dev 5 is your powered hub. (I would guess it’s something like a 7-port hub constructed from two chained 4-port hubs internally)
Port 4 dev 4 is probably the directly-connected dongle

I don’t see a second rtlsdr dongle in that tree.

No special addressing required.

Look at dmesg, you’ll probably see USB bus complaints as the dongle fell off the USB bus.

You may be able to remotely power-cycle the hub ports using uhubctl (GitHub - mvp/uhubctl: uhubctl - USB hub per-port power control) which may bring it back.

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After my initial post I realized it’s not listed. You are correct on the rest of the USB ports. I’ll try to power cycle it. Is this just the USB dongle dying? It’s been having this issue for some time and I always thought it was the power issue the Pi had.

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Hard to say, eliminate the other variables (bad Pi power, powered hub, other dongle) and see how it behaves.

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