04-04-2017, 01:13 AM
(04-03-2017, 07:11 PM)dkryder Wrote: one of the spec sheets i read said it uses ~ 2 watts for read/writes. 2.5 watts for startup. that's roughly .400 - .500 amps. that is not an insignificant number considering it is using the ~.4 amps at the same time the board itself has reached peak states for current consumption. there have been several reports in the forum that powered hubs improve performance of hard disks. it's not really all that far fetched to consider using a power hub although it is by no means a sure bet to help in all situations.
Agreed. The power usage is significant but with 2A from the power adapter, we can theoretically get up to 10w. To provide a safety margin, I'd target 8w as the max. According to the wiki, the board uses 2.5w (500mA). That leaves plenty for the SSD As this is a minimal, console installation, I'd expect the power draw to be the lowest possible. If there are any optimizations to disable unused hardware, or reduce the draw, please let me know.
I say that a powered hub is "stretching it", not because I doubt its effectiveness. I just think it puts the Pine in a bad light; my problem is that a 2A power supply ought to sufficiently accommodate the board and a single SSD. Keep in mind that I've tried another SSD without any issues *and* I've tried the Kingston SSD on another SBC (also a quad-core ARM, with a 2A input) and it had no trouble with the drive.
If this is an issue with power draw, then I think the 2.5w spec is inaccurate or the power supply isn't really capable of drawing 2A. Even if the SSD draws a full 1A, the total power draw would still be under 8w.