Uhubctl – control USB power per-port on smart USB hubs

A little utility called uhubctl does one extremely satisfying thing: it lets you turn power on and off for individual USB ports on certain “smart” hubs. In plain English, that means your computer can tell one specific port, you’re done here, without unplugging anything. The catch—and yes, the community immediately pounced on this—is that supported hubs are a total scavenger hunt. The official compatibility list is massive, weirdly specific, and full of old gadgets, monitors, docks, and random accessories that feel like they were discovered by digital archaeologists.

The comment section, naturally, turned this into a festival of delight, frustration, and very niche home automation flexing. One camp was pure joy: people were giddy about the simple thrill of making real-world stuff blink, spin down, or shut up on command. One user proudly said they use it to toggle an LED strip behind their monitor for a DIY “Ambilight-style” setup, which is exactly the kind of gloriously unnecessary tech behavior the internet lives for. Another loved the idea of finally silencing a constantly spinning lidar sensor. And one 3D-printer owner basically revealed the pettiest power struggle of all: even when the wall socket is off, USB still sneaks power to the board.

But the biggest drama was reliability. One commenter said they bought three supposedly supported hubs from Amazon and still got burned because some didn’t fully cut power. Translation: the dream is amazing, but bargain-bin hardware may still pull a plot twist. The vibe? Brilliant idea, messy reality, endless nerd mischief.