USB HDD Power consumption
Posted: 21 Feb 2015, 09:39Hi All,
The B+ rPi is capable of allowing more current to the usb ports but as far as i can tell it is not set by default in rune.
When adding a 2.5 HDD that draws aprox 600mA, the rPi will croak unless you enable more current to the ports. This may be the case with some wifi cards and other devices as well. This is well documented elsewhere but I thought I'd mention it here. This may not be an issue for everyone as all HDDs are different and they have various levels of power consumption. I found with a portable Lacie drive that the networking and various other functions would timeout if the current draw was not set properly. It is also imperitve to have at least 2A for your 5v power supply but that is usually widely understood.
Here's how it is fixed.
SSH/putty into rune as root, enable the current with this command.
Reboot.
There may be other opinions about this so read what others have to say about the matter before you go ahead and try this. This worked for me at least.
mm
The B+ rPi is capable of allowing more current to the usb ports but as far as i can tell it is not set by default in rune.
When adding a 2.5 HDD that draws aprox 600mA, the rPi will croak unless you enable more current to the ports. This may be the case with some wifi cards and other devices as well. This is well documented elsewhere but I thought I'd mention it here. This may not be an issue for everyone as all HDDs are different and they have various levels of power consumption. I found with a portable Lacie drive that the networking and various other functions would timeout if the current draw was not set properly. It is also imperitve to have at least 2A for your 5v power supply but that is usually widely understood.
Here's how it is fixed.
SSH/putty into rune as root, enable the current with this command.
- Code: Select all
[root@runeaudio ~]# echo max_usb_current=1 >> /boot/config.txt
Reboot.
There may be other opinions about this so read what others have to say about the matter before you go ahead and try this. This worked for me at least.
mm