Andrew, I bought those wootoff lights as well, and have them connected to a hub on my mythtv system so I can activate them with a remote. I use the hub-ctrl.c utility from this page with this simple wrapper script that searches for the hub:
#!/bin/sh
bus=$(lsusb | grep TUSB2046 | cut -d' ' -f2)
dev=$(lsusb | grep TUSB2046 | cut -d' ' -f4 | sed 's/:$//')
port=4
hubctrl=/home/dannf/hub-ctrl
if $hubctrl -b "$bus" -d "$dev" -v | grep "Port ${port}:" | grep -q power; then
toggle=0
else
toggle=1
fi
$hub-ctrl -b "$bus" -d "$dev" -P "$port" -p "$toggle"
Note that not all hubs implement the port power feature - but luckily I had an unused one laying around that does.
Unfortunately, one of my lights won't spin unless the physical power switch on the light is toggled - hopefully that's not true for yours.
posted at: 21:10 | path: /tech | permanent link to this entry