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1. Believing you can plug the Pi into any random port on the hub with a microUSB cable. You can, and power the pi that way, but it will then be a slave device, meaning it won't have access to other devices on the hub.

Instead, you must connect the hub's data line to the Pi. Unless they are specially designed, hubs have only one of those. This makes the Pi the master. There may be many slaves, but only one master.

2. Believing you can power the Pi via the hub's data line. You cannot do that because the data line from the hub is intended to connect to a normal USB master, and masters provide power, they do not draw it. In other words, you can connect a normal hub via its data line and power the hub from the Pi, but not vice versa.

This means with a normal USB hub, no matter what, you will have to connect both ports on the Zero to something, as shown below.

1. Believing you can plug the Pi into any random port on the hub with a microUSB cable. You can, and power the pi that way, but it will then be a slave device, meaning it won't have access to other devices on the hub.

   Instead, you must connect the hub's data line to the Pi. Unless they are specially designed, hubs have only one of those. This makes the Pi the master. There may be many slaves, but only one master.

2. Believing you can power the Pi via the hub's data line. You cannot do that because the data line from the hub is intended to connect to a normal USB master, and masters provide power, they do not draw it. In other words, you can connect a normal hub via its data line and power the hub from the Pi, but not vice versa.

   This means with a normal USB hub, no matter what, you will have to connect both ports on the Zero to something, as shown below.

I already have an OTG hub that works fine either powered or not as described here, but note when the hub is powered, it must be used to provide power to the Pi, since otherwise there would be two competing power sources and that is a bad thing.

But I decided to try this with an ordinary (optionally powered) USB hub, and ended up with a similar answer to this one from a similar question. People who are having a problem may want to look at both.

I already have an OTG hub that works fine either powered or not as described here, but note when the hub is powered, it must be used to provide power to the Pi, since otherwise there would be two competing power sources and that is a bad thing.

But I decided to try this with an ordinary (optionally powered) USB hub, and ended up with a similar answer to this one from a similar question. People who are having a problem may want to look at both.

But I decided to try this with an ordinary powered USB USB hub, and ended up with a similar answer to this one from a similar question. People who are having a problem may want to look at both.

Instead, you must connect the data line to the Pi. Unless they are specially designed, hubs have only one of those. This makes the Pi the master. There may be many slaves, but only one master.

2. Believing you can power the pi via the data line. You cannot do that because the data line is intended to connect to a master, and masters provide power, they do not draw it. In other words, you can connect a hub and power the hub from the pi, but not vice versa.

• If you want to use a normal USB hub as a hub with the Zero, you must connect the data line to it.
• A normal hub does not provide power on the data line, so it cannot power the Pi that way.
• You can power a hub this way from the Pi.

If you want a hub that you can both power the pi from and use as a hub, you need an OTG hub, not just a normal hub with an OTG adapter; see the first link up above.

But I decided to try this with an ordinary (optionally powered) USB hub, and ended up with a similar answer to this one from a similar question. People who are having a problem may want to look at both.

Instead, you must connect the hub's data line to the Pi. Unless they are specially designed, hubs have only one of those. This makes the Pi the master. There may be many slaves, but only one master.

2. Believing you can power the Pi via the hub's data line. You cannot do that because the data line from the hub is intended to connect to a normal USB master, and masters provide power, they do not draw it. In other words, you can connect a normal hub via its data line and power the hub from the Pi, but not vice versa.

• If you want to use a normal USB hub as a hub with the Zero, you must connect the hub data line to it.
• A normal hub does not provide power on the data line, so it cannot power the Pi that way.
• You can power a hub this way from the Pi.

If you want a hub that you can both power the pi from and use as a hub, you need an OTG hub, not just a normal hub with an OTG adapter; see the first link above.