Raspberry Pi

A Raspberry Pi makes a quiet, low-power hub you can leave on. This guide starts from a blank microSD card; allow about 30 minutes.

What you need

• A Raspberry Pi 5 or 4, with its official power supply (27 W for the Pi 5, 15 W for the Pi 4) and a case that cools it, such as the Pi 5’s Active Cooler.
• A microSD card of 32 GB or more, and a computer with a card reader to write it.
• An Ethernet cable to your router (Wi-Fi works, but Ethernet is steadier).
• A powered USB hub for the phones, and data cables. The Pi’s own ports can’t charge phones during long rentals: see Choose your hardware.

1. Write Raspberry Pi OS

1. Install Raspberry Pi Imager on your computer and open it.

2. Choose your Pi model, then Raspberry Pi OS (other) › Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit), then your microSD card. The 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS isn’t supported.

3. In Imager’s customisation settings, set:

   • a hostname, for example pocketshare-hub;
   • a user name and password;
   • your Wi-Fi network, only if you won’t use Ethernet;
   • your time zone;
   • SSH turned on, so you can log in from your computer.

4. Write the card, put it in the Pi, connect Ethernet, and plug in the power supply.

2. Log in and update

After a minute or two, log in from your computer with the user and hostname you chose:

ssh [email protected]

If .local names don’t work on your network, use the Pi’s address from your router’s list of devices. Then bring the system up to date and restart:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

3. Get a pairing code

On pocketshare.io, open Hosting › Hubs, choose Add hub, then Create pairing code. The code looks like K7QM-2XRP-9TDA-HV4N. It works once and expires after 24 hours. It isn’t a password: once enrolled, the hub proves who it is with a key it creates for itself, which never leaves the Pi.

4. Install the hub

Log in again and run, with your code:

curl -fsSL https://getpocketshare.com/install.sh | sh -s -- --code K7QM-2XRP-9TDA-HV4N

The installer says what it is about to do and asks before changing anything. It checks the download against PocketShare’s signed release, installs Android’s adb and the hub, starts the hub as a service that comes back after every restart, and enrolls it with your code. Within a minute the Pi appears under Hosting › Hubs as Online.

To read the script before running it, or to install without it, see Debian and Ubuntu: the Pi uses the same installer.

5. Plug in your phones

Plug the powered USB hub into one of the Pi’s blue USB 3 ports and the phones into the hub, after preparing each phone. Check what the Pi sees:

pocketshare-hub devices

Keep it healthy

• Power: vcgencmd get_throttled should print throttled=0x0. Anything else means the Pi’s power supply is too weak or its cable too thin: use the official supply.
• Heat: vcgencmd measure_temp shows the Pi’s temperature. Under 70 °C is comfortable; much higher means it needs a better case or cooler.
• Updates: the hub installs its own signed updates. Run sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade now and then for the system itself.

The rest, including logs and what to do when a phone goes offline, is in Run your hub.

Caution

Don’t plug phones straight into the Pi for hosting. The Pi 4 shares about 1.2 A across all its ports, and the Pi 5 600 mA unless it runs from its 27 W supply, so the phones slowly run down during rentals. The Pi’s ports also switch their power all together, so the hub can’t power-cycle one stuck phone without cutting the others.

Remove the hub

curl -fsSL https://getpocketshare.com/install.sh | sh -s -- --uninstall

This removes the hub and keeps its identity, so installing again reconnects the same hub. Add --purge to delete its identity and settings too, then remove the hub in your dashboard.