Progress report on SATA to Molex/USB adapter

This great adapter I've been hoarding, along with a USB plug to Molex adapter is the good news for today. This is what will take care of Pogplug 3's SATA based on how well it works in Windows on a Hitachi 2.5" hard drive. Long term-reliability won't be evident until the long term however, unless it has a blow out in the near-term.

There's more to it than that, however. You know those SATA adapter kits with power supply including 5v and 12v for 3.5" hard drives? I've been using old 3.5" hard drives on my thin client with one of those adapters feeding 5v and 12v - either it's Seagates, because I went through 4 old Seagates in the last month, or they're getting fed bad electricity from the power supply. Two of the Seagates acted squirrel-y from the main computer as well, so I don't think it was entirely the power supply. Also that single-unit power supply takes up at least 10 watts off the wall all the time.

So, just a reminder, when you've got your OS drive, or swap, the fastest drive will be SATA, and that's why I'll be focused a couple months this winter on 2.5" hard drives with smaller capacity (my Pogo 3s will still probably run on USB 2 though [unless Bodhi specifies otherwise with updated kernel]), and leave storage to USB 3.0 and whatever.

So yes, 5v off the USB jack is well enough for a 2.5" SATA II and is magnitudes faster than if it were plugged into a USB adapter.

Habibie you remember that link to your USB to Molex adapter? I'd made one but never tested it until this afternoon.
* thanks for letting me ramble :-)

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-= Cloud 9 =-

JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> Habibie you remember that link to your USB to
> Molex adapter? I'd made one but never tested it
> until this afternoon.
> * thanks for letting me ramble :-)
>
I think so and I believe you are talking about this USB-2-Molex post, right?

habibie Wrote:
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> I think so and I believe you are talking about
> this
> USB-
> 2-Molex post, right?

Yes sir, your USB to 4-pin Molex goes with the 7 Pin SATA Serial ATA to SAS 29 Pin & 4 Pin Cable Male Connector like peanut butter and chocolate make Reeses'.

That's my nomination for cost-effective problem-solver 2016 - solves more problems per $ than anything else I can think of.
Runner-up is a USB 3.0 meter like we bought Habibie.

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-= Cloud 9 =-

Hey Joey,

Checking out your setup and how it works out. I'm running my v3 off an old spare 3.5" drive with a separate, really long sata cable. It's power is coming from my desktop power supply. Been thinking how to do this cleanly. Have you had poor results using enclosures for 3.5" drives?

Do all the internal sata 2.5" and 3.5" hdd use the same connector? I've heard the internal 2.5" hdd only need 5vDC. I've wondered if the hdd wasn't getting enough amps @ 5v, or voltage drop to run properly, how it may effect the read write speeds? Or you think they would not run at all in a low power situation?

My v4 mobile is running off a new USB3 portable Seagate [thanks early Santa] for both the OS and storage. I haven't got into checking everything out yet, but I'd guess the pogo power supply is marginal in this situation, although it was designed to do just what I'm doing.

My initial testing for r/w speeds look slow compared to what others are posting. Not sure I'm doing the same testing procedure though. I'm doing testing via moving large media files across my network, using iotop as the speed measuring tool. I see some of the test results are done using scripts, testing internal disk io speed only.

Well first of all, the 3.5" hard drives I'd had plugged into the ThinClient (one at a time because there's only one SATA jack) used a power supply same or similar to this one. It's been valuable getting me out of various jams temporarily, but it's been powering the 3.5" hard drive for almost a year now. In the last month or two I think 4 hard drives finally bit the dust. It's okay to assume the power supply is whacko, but by the time they got to the ThinClient they'd been used and abused and all of them are 10 years old at least, and punished for many years.

Usually I have a flowchart for hard drives, if they're old or repurposed out of a bad computer, and have ANY problems they go into the hobbiest pile, for experiments. That's where I play with Linux code I know nothing about LOL

I don't know the answer how to best power one or two hard drives that are 3.5" and need 5v and 12v. The 5v is taken care of with USB power but I'm not sure how to get a nice, efficient 12v to the other two molex pins. But then again, look at Seagate's home NAS's that reply on a 12v adapter: I think those are 2 Amps, so maybe the way to power 3.5" hard drives for Pogoplug is to adjust to the way they're already having success.

For now I'm happy with less worries using a 2.5" that was new 2 years ago and fairly unused.

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-= Cloud 9 =-

12v for 3.5" HDD is a must. Running out of laptop USB is 5v. So a step up coverter is needed.

-bodhi
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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote: " used a power supply same or similar to this one "

OK, that power supply and looks perfect for what I have in mind. I've never ventured far from conventional desktop builds. Some of the hardware you guys are using and talking about, it's all new to me.

Like Bodhi says :-)

Here's a "revelation". It's garbage night and I'm here sorting recyclables, so there's three random 3.5" hard drives and the front panel label:

Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA II

5v: 0.72 A
12v: 0.52 A

WD Caviar SE old IDE drive

5v: 0.65 A
12v: 0.90 A

Seagate 7200 RPM old IDE

5v: 0.72 A
12v: 0.35 A


The IDEs I'm keeping by the way. There's nothing wrong with them except they're not SATA so they'll go into the experiment stash.

In conclusion, I for one need to re-calibrate my assumptions that it takes a lot of power to read and write on hard drives. The specs we looked at are minuscule and easy except I suppose peak usage. USB 2.0 is fine outputting 500ma and with a dual USB 2.0 plug harness any 5v should be met whether the whole 2.5" or the 5v part of a 3.5".

Check your label and see if it's high or what.

I'm still all ears on the best way to power a 3.5" on a Pogoplug though. The dual adapter I used is probably inefficient and no good for long-term.

Don't be shy; you're making sense :-)

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/2016 10:57PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

USB step up coverter to 12V cost $US 2 on eBay! I got one but have not tried it out yet (the idea is to power a Dockstar 2/ Pogo V4 by a laptop port while on the road).

-bodhi
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bodhi Wrote:
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> USB step up coverter to 12V cost $US 2 on eBay! I
> got one but have not tried it out yet (the idea is
> to power a Dockstar 2/ Pogo V4 by a laptop port
> while on the road).

If you're trying a 3.5" off a laptop's juice including a 12v step-up adapter along with the 5v... that might be a good time to review insurance :-)

Wait, I've got two laptop stands officially called: HP xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base
Inside they hold a 3.5" hard drive and there's a tiny jack for a 12 volt adapter, much like the Seagate 12v roughly 2A wall warts. This too might be a case where the 5v is provided through the laptop and 12 from external.

Wow, my first migraine headache! I'll get some sleep; see what happens.

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-= Cloud 9 =-

Agreed, I would have guessed a 3.5" hdd would require way more power than what they actually need.
I came up with some info to add to this.


Pogo v4 mobile AC adaptor 12v 1A = 12 watts


Power drawn from USB port specs:

USB 2.0 max = [500mA @ 5.0 volts] = 2.5 watts

USB 3.0 max = [900mA @ 5.0 volts] = 4.5 watts


There was mention of ~ 5 amp capacity for the USB port hardware.
The current control of USB is on the device rather than on the delivery side.
The manufacturers of USB equipment are to "stay within specifications".
USB 3.1 has a different connector along with very different power specs.

There is way more to the USB power specs than I was able to read. Most of what I found was related to battery charging.


Here are the hdd's broke down into watts to give a meaningful comparison with the above.
I did not double check these numbers so there could be errors.

Seagate Barracuda SATA II
3.6
6.24
-------
9.84 watts


WD Caviar IDE
3.25
10.8
-------
14.05 watts


Seagate IDE
3.6
4.2
--------
7.8 watts

I'd say the power supply you gave the link to would be a great and inexpensive way to power a 3.5hdd. Now if the power supply is delivering dirty, out of spec power, well, one decent hdd taken out would offset the inexpensive part. Before now, I've never had a need for external hdd enclosures. After looking at the prices for one with an AC adaptor and sata III, I'd probably try the cheap power supply on my used hdd.

How about getting, say a 2 amp 12vDC AC adaptor and using the USB to step down to 5 volt .... OK now were almost right back to where you started.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2016 01:39AM by JeffS.

Joey,

> If you're trying a 3.5" off a laptop's juice
> including a 12v step-up adapter along with the
> 5v... that might be a good time to review
> insurance :-)
>

No HDD :)

> Wait, I've got two laptop stands officially
> called: HP xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base
> Inside they hold a 3.5" hard drive and there's a
> tiny jack for a 12 volt adapter, much like the
> Seagate 12v roughly 2A wall warts. This too
> might be a case where the 5v is provided
> through the laptop and 12 from external.
>

That's what I am talking about. I don't think the Dockstar even draw anywhere near 2A. The Dockstar/Seagate GoflexNet/PogoV4 has a 12V 2A wallwart power supply which has a barrel power jack. So would this work:

Laptop USB port --> 5v-12v stepup converter --> USB-to-barrel-jack cable --> Dockstar/GoFlex/PopgoV4 plug.

Opinion on this? I wonder: would the above draw lots too much jiuce that could cause the laptop battery to warm up? I would run a temperature-fan monitoring app on the laptop.

-bodhi
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JeffS Wrote:
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* watts

that's so cool and makes more sense to see watts so big thanks from me.


bodhi Wrote:
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> Opinion on this?

-update- ahh I see... just the Dockstar. Below isn't focused but another train of thought- one sec.

Laptop batteries are cheap and highly rechargable. If there's a product or DIY that has an interface that goes to a standard laptop battery and has same output scheme as molex, that would change everything. It's within reach!

I've got to do some digging for my watt-meter results but I think the laptop with screen took up 20 or 30 watts with the screen on. Which means that battery alone has a powerful potential. An interface like that is SO overdue it's a crying shame we all don't have several. Just a plug that goes to battery, has outputs, a place to charge up or charge in the laptop. Good for anything 5v and 12v DC.

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2016 01:07PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

In the meantime I've asked at an electrical engineering forum. It doesn't fully answer Bodhi's question but it's better to risk an $8 battery than the laptop too!

-update- a bit hard-nosed to the rules than I can handle I'm afraid. Oh well...

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2016 03:08PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey,

> In the meantime I've asked at an electrical
> engineering forum.[/url] It doesn't fully answer
> Bodhi's question but it's better to risk an $8
> battery than the laptop too!

That's my 2nd thought too. Battery is cheap.

-bodhi
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