From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed Apr  4 01:16:53 2012
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A71461065673
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Wed,  4 Apr 2012 01:16:53 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from rcm@fuzzwad.org)
Received: from mail.volente.us (unknown [IPv6:2001:470:7:d47::2])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 449A68FC12
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Wed,  4 Apr 2012 01:16:53 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from shiny-w0.fuzzwad.net (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by mail.volente.us (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q341GpmZ036065
	for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Tue, 3 Apr 2012 20:16:51 -0500 (CDT)
	(envelope-from rcm@fuzzwad.org)
Message-ID: <4F7BA105.9010502@fuzzwad.org>
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:16:53 -0500
From: Ron McDowell <rcm@fuzzwad.org>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6;
	rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120216 Thunderbird/10.0.2
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
References: <4F7B761B.4030104@fuzzwad.org>
	<1333491971.1090.51.camel@revolution.hippie.lan>
In-Reply-To: <1333491971.1090.51.camel@revolution.hippie.lan>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: Re: Switching on/off 5V power to a USB port
X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current
	<freebsd-current.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>,
	<mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 01:16:53 -0000

On 4/3/12 5:26 PM, Ian Lepore wrote:
> On Tue, 2012-04-03 at 17:13 -0500, Ron McDowell wrote:
>> I just got a little USB powered fan and it sure would be nice if I could
>> have cron on my FreeBSD box turn it on or off at certain times by
>> switching off the 5V line on a USB port.  Anyone know how I can do
>> that?  Thanks.
>>
>> BTW this is a pretty decent fan for the money. :)
>> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033WSDOM/
>>
>
> The usbconfig(8) command has power_on and power_off commands.  I've
> never used them so I can't say for sure they'll do what you want.
>
> -- Ian

The good news is that "usbconfig -u 4 -a 5 power_off|power_on" works fine.

Hardware is a Dell Latitude D-430 notebook running:
FreeBSD d430 10.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 10.0-CURRENT #0 r232714M: Fri Mar  9 
12:41:34 CST 2012     rcm@d430:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64

When booting up, the fan powers up just as:
uhub7: <vendor 0x413c product 0xa005, class 9/0, rev 2.00/25.07, addr 5> 
on usbus4
shows up, which was a pretty good clue to what device it is.

Automatically turning it on is pure laziness on my part... turning it 
off is more about forgetfulness though. :)

On 4/3/12 5:45 PM, Devin Teske wrote:
> Alternatively, you could just plug your USB fan into your monitor. A 
> fellow engineer and I discovered that most monitors power-down the USB 
> ports when entering power-save mode (with Dell, HP, and Viewsonic, 
> this is whenever the screen blanks due to inactivity; are you using 
> DPMS and/or greensaver?). Walking away from the PC will cause the fan 
> to [eventually] turn off, while waggling the mouse brings it back to 
> life. 

Devin, sorry, my monitor is too old to have USB ports on it...if it did 
that would be even a better solution.

Thanks for the help everyone!


-- 
Ron McDowell
San Antonio TX