I have HA running as HAOS on a Raspberry Pi 4B. I am running out of USB ports (partly because the ones on the Pi are too close together to take some of the devices that I am trying to add, which include a SkyConnect Zigbee interface, an SDR dongle etc.). So I am trying to add a Waveshare USB 3.2 Gen1 Hub Hat. The installation instructions for this refer to a normal RPi running RaspOS. How do I adapt these to work under HAOS? Do I have to write an integration? Is there a beginners guide to writing integrations somewhere?
Also the instructions require an SSD to be added. Why do I have to do this? Why can’t I use spare space on my SD card?
Or is there a better USB hub to use with HA (preferably USB3)?
You can’t and you shouldn’t.
The RPi 4B is really strained on the power supply and even just 2 USB devices directly connected to the RPi can cause severe instability, so trying to add more is just madness.
Go for a traditional USB2.0 hub that is powered by its own power supply and mount your radios in that.
This will move the radios away from the USB3 ports on the RPi that is known to cause interference and the power supply for the USB hub will give the RPi some breathing space.
And if you are not using a SSD yet, then I also suggest you get that one installed.
SDCards have a limited number of write operations possible and a system like HA writes a lot, so it is not a question of your SDCard dying, but rather when.
Thank you for your reply. If even 2 directly connected USB devices can cause serious trouble, why do they make the Pi with 4 ports? Is any particular SSD to be recommended? Presumably USB 2, if I’m not recommended to use USB 3. How does this affect the speed of the Pi compared to a micro SD card?.
The SSD should be possible to connect to USB3.
The reason to choose an USB2 hub is to avoid the same problem as with the RPi itself and electronic noise from the USB3 chipset.
The radios you would connect to the USB2 hub would not require USB3 anyway.
Even a USB2 connected SSD would be faster than a SDCard though.
I can’t recommend a SSD solution for RPi, since I decided to upgrade to a Intel/Asus NUC instead, so I skipped that “step”.
