Hey Guys, sorry for the late response. I've been really busy with work. I checked out the specs on that chip. Thanks btw. It's good that it supports "self-powered" mode. Knowing that makes this mod that much more feasible. However, just because an IC supports a certain feature doesn't necessarily mean that it is used in the product that it's implemented in.
Ok, so in my mind/experience a powered hub is one that uses a external power source. This is probably due to the fact that passive hubs have to share the max current output from the host USB port from the computer. I'd say that most standard USB ports supply around 500mA. This is way too low for most devices, trying plugging in power hungry devices into a raspberry pi.
I had been waiting on someone to do something similar on a generic passive usb hub before considering how I'd approach the problem, and it looks like someone has:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Adding-an-external-power-supply-to-a-cheap-USB-hub/It looks really easy, maybe too easy. Pretty much you just sever the connection to the VCC (5V power line) from the host port and route it to a battery or power supply that can supply 5V ~1A. What to you guys think?
