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Since I will be attending a seminar in the coming days and cannot bring my Raspberry Pi 4, which runs all my Docker containers (including Home Assistant), I needed to find a solution to connect my Zigbee Sonoff USB 3.0 Plus Dongle to my notebook via USB and forward it to the Raspberry Pi 4 over TCP. The goal is for the Raspberry Pi 4 to recognize it as a local USB device.
On my Windows 11 notebook, I installed the following tool (msi file; via Admin PowerShell):
usbipd-win
Afterward, you can list all connected USB devices using the command usbipd list:
Connected:
BUSID VID:PID DEVICE STATE
1-3 046d:0893 Logitech StreamCam, Logitech StreamCam WinUSB, USB Input... Not shared
2-1 10c4:ea60 Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM10) Not shared
2-2 04f2:b6bf HP HD Camera, HP IR Camera Not shared
2-7 06cb:00f0 Synaptics FS7605 Touch Fingerprint Sensor with PurePrint(TM) Not shared
2-10 8087:0026 Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) Not shared
3-1 8087:0af1 HP GNSS Sensor Not shared
3-2 8087:0aca Serial USB Device (COM3), Serial USB Device (COM4), M... Not shared
3-3 8087:0ac9 Intel(R) XMM(TM) 7360 LTE-A Not shared
4-3 0bda:8153 Realtek USB GbE Family Controller #4 Not shared
From this output, you can see that the dongle (Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge) is accessible on the BUS ID 2-1.
Using the command usbipd bind --busid 2-1, you can enable the USB device for sharing over TCP:
Connected:
BUSID VID:PID DEVICE STATE
1-3 046d:0893 Logitech StreamCam, Logitech StreamCam WinUSB, USB Input... Not shared
2-1 10c4:ea60 Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM10) Shared
2-2 04f2:b6bf HP HD Camera, HP IR Camera Not shared
2-7 06cb:00f0 Synaptics FS7605 Touch Fingerprint Sensor with PurePrint(TM) Not shared
2-10 8087:0026 Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) Not shared
3-1 8087:0af1 HP GNSS Sensor Not shared
3-2 8087:0aca Serial USB Device (COM3), Serial USB Device (COM4), M... Not shared
3-3 8087:0ac9 Intel(R) XMM(TM) 7360 LTE-A Not shared
4-3 0bda:8153 Realtek USB GbE Family Controller #4 Not shared
The dongle (Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge) is now in the Shared state.
Since my notebook does not have a direct connection to my homelab network - I use the Twingate client on my notebook to connect - I need to establish a TCP tunnel directly to my Raspberry Pi.
I accomplish this using Remote Port Forwarding - see the following command:
ssh -R 3240:localhost:3240 pi-04.local
On my Raspberry Pi 4, I need to install the client using the following commands:
sudo apt install usbip
sudo modprobe vhci-hcd
After that, I can attach the USB dongle on the Raspberry Pi:
sudo usbip attach -r localhost -b 2-1
When I now run usbipd list on the Windows computer, I should see the status Attached for my USB dongle:
Connected:
BUSID VID:PID DEVICE STATE
1-3 046d:0893 Logitech StreamCam, Logitech StreamCam WinUSB, USB Input... Not shared
2-1 10c4:ea60 Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM10) Attached
2-2 04f2:b6bf HP HD Camera, HP IR Camera Not shared
2-7 06cb:00f0 Synaptics FS7605 Touch Fingerprint Sensor with PurePrint(TM) Not shared
2-10 8087:0026 Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) Not shared
3-1 8087:0af1 HP GNSS Sensor Not shared
3-2 8087:0aca Serial USB Device (COM3), Serial USB Device (COM4), M... Not shared
3-3 8087:0ac9 Intel(R) XMM(TM) 7360 LTE-A Not shared
4-3 0bda:8153 Realtek USB GbE Family Controller #4 Not shared
On the Raspberry Pi, I can now see the USB dongle when executing the following command:
sudo usbip list -r localhost
Exportable USB devices
======================
- localhost
2-1: Silicon Labs : CP210x UART Bridge (10c4:ea60)
: USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA60\0001
: (Defined at Interface level) (00/00/00)
: 0 - Vendor Specific Class / unknown subclass / unknown protocol (ff/00/00)