multi device usb support for beaglebone black

Question

I m using a beagle bone black in my project which controls a USB charger. My BBB is connected to another board which also powers the BBB through the header pins. The BBB's USB is expanded to connect multiple devices and also external power is supplied. so when i connect 2 or more devices even though the devices gets charged, the USB connection is not possible.

I also tried connecting a external powered hub to by beagle bone and connected a mouse and keyboard but still only one device gets detected. No multi USB support. Is this a problem with my kernel. i m using latest Debian image and my kernel is 3.8.13. Please help

Answer 1

I have tried supplying power through external hub by connecting BBB's data pins and ground only. i think both devices get enough power but BBB doesnt support multiple usb devices.only one device works at a time

The BBB does support multiple devices using a usb hub and multiple users have reported success with of the shelf solutions. It would seem to be more an issue that you are not using a hub that knows it is externally powered. During enumeration, all USB devices report how much power they need and if they are self powered. If a controller sees a load greater than what it can supply, It won't activate some devices. Before giving up on the BBB, try it with an off the shelf powered USB hub. The hub's firmware has to know it is self powered, simply cutting to Vdd line is not enough.