Bought 2 pineapples, both have power issues with USB sandisk & juice pack.

[JaseWBB]

Awesome thanks for your time to fix this Darren A++

[airman_dopey]

Background:

One of our goals with the MK4 was to take advantage of the USB expandable storage aspects of the Pineapple with modules and the like -- which I'll say has been a huge success. During initial testing we were looking for a drive that offered good performance, size (both physical and virtual) and cost.

The Cruzer Fit seemed good in all areas, however it wasn't without issue. We found in testing that the larger capacity drives came with larger power requirements that the MK4, under typical 1A battery power, could not provide. We did however find that the 4GB version was less demanding of power and cost less to boot. I'll admit I was taken in by the teeny tiny size of the unit and that's why it became part of the bundles.

On some occasions the drive experienced faults which would cause it to become read-only -- an issue SanDisk addressed with a new version of the drive. We offered replacements to anyone experiencing the issue and continued ordering the part. What we did not realize at the time was that the new version which fixed the read-only bug introduced a heavier power requirement.

Testing:

Pictured above: 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit version 1.22 as initially bundles with the MK4

Pictured above: MK4 being powered by Pineapple Juice with 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit version 1.22. See /usb reported.

Pictured above: 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit version 1.26 which requires more current to operate.

Pictured above: MK4 being powered by Pineapple Juice with 4GB "Halo" drive. See /usb reported.

Solution:

These drives work great and look good. They aren't as physically small as the Cruzer Fit however they do fit nicely inside the travel case.

Pictured above: 4GB "Halo" Drive with Domain.com branding.

I happen to have a bunch of these left over from Hack Across America meetups. Props go to our awesome sponsor Domain.com for the hookup - it's weird how that just happened to work out. I tried a few others from Super Talent and the like and these seem the most reliable. I'm having a some done up with Hak5 graphics now.

Pictured above: MK4 and Pineapple Juice with 4GB "Halo" Drive in Travel Case.

Options:

I feel terrible that we shipped units with nonfunctional USB drives. We had no idea the firmware on the SanDisk Cruzer Fit changed and I'm bummed it took me so long to realize there was a problem. We've pulled all of the Cruzer Fits from the shop and are contacting customers who purchased the bundle since our last SanDisk re-order.

If you are experiencing this issue I'd like to offer the following solutions:

1. Email shop@hak5.org with your order number and we will send you free of charge a compatible replacement 4GB drive along with a travel case full of stickers and our gratitude TODAY. Note: the drive may be branded with domain.com (thanks guys).

2. Email shop@hak5.org with your order number and we will send you free of charge a HAK5 Branded compatible replacement 4GB drive along with a travel case full of stickers and our gratitude IN A FEW WEEKS when the drives have been printed.

3. Email shop@hak5.org with your order number and we will satisfy a complete return and refund at no cost no matter how long you have owned the unit.

4. Something else? Email us.

I want to make sure everyone is happy. We're putting in new QA procedures to ensure this doesn't happen again and we'll be looking into ways to satisfy the need for reliable expandable storage on the WiFi Pineapple going forward.

Thanks,

Darren

Mad props to you Darren. Thank you for listening to the customers.

Is there a channel to report problems like this (something that is affecting a sizable portion of the customer base) that we can use to rectify any further issues that come up? I now see that posting on the forums is not a sufficient way of handling this.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Mr-Protocol
Deleted pictures for the sake of redundancy.

[Sebkinne]

Mad props to you Darren. Thank you for listening to the customers.

Is there a channel to report problems like this (something that is affecting a sizable portion of the customer base) that we can use to rectify any further issues that come up? I now see that posting on the forums is not a sufficient way of handling this.

Yes there is, either you contact the shop or report these issues using the bug reporter on our pineapple website.

[Darren Kitchen]

Yeah part of the issue is that I don't have nearly the amount of time I wish I had to regularly be on the forums, IRC, etc.

I wish I had a perfect solution for this but there isn't enough of me to go around and the team is rather small -- just Paul, Shannon, Sebastian, Sara and I.

Email is best but even then I'm getting nearly 1000/day so filtering is key. shop@hak5.org is really the best for anything customer related or the form on http://hakshop.myshopify.com/pages/contact which gets you right into our customer support database. I prefer the database as it runs on a Podio backend where Sara and Shannon can collaborate and bring me in where needed (this being an obvious case).

Worst case if things are on fire CALL ME. My cell is +1 (510) 948 9861

[airman_dopey]

Yeah part of the issue is that I don't have nearly the amount of time I wish I had to regularly be on the forums, IRC, etc.

I wish I had a perfect solution for this but there isn't enough of me to go around and the team is rather small -- just Paul, Shannon, Sebastian, Sara and I.

Email is best but even then I'm getting nearly 1000/day so filtering is key. shop@hak5.org is really the best for anything customer related or the form on http://hakshop.myshopify.com/pages/contact which gets you right into our customer support database. I prefer the database as it runs on a Podio backend where Sara and Shannon can collaborate and bring me in where needed (this being an obvious case).

Worst case if things are on fire CALL ME. My cell is +1 (510) 948 9861

Brave soul posting your cell phone on a public forum. lol now instead of 1k emails you'll be getting 1k calls!

[deathdealerxx]

http://hak5.org/haa

Its been on the Hack Across America page for quite some time. I wonder how many txt he actually has time to respond too.

[Darren Kitchen]

I respond to all the texts - just in batches when I make time. Few people call without good reason but when they do it's always fun to talk to a new friend. Hackers are the best people.

Uhhh, so ya know how I said I was crazy about how small the SanDisk Cruzer Fit is and how this new drive, the Halo, works great albeit slightly larger. Well, that was before modding. Look:

That pigtail is an LED and I don't think it's even necessary. Will test it without. This is actually even lower profile than the Cruzer Fit.

[deathdealerxx]

I respond to all the texts - just in batches when I make time. Few people call without good reason but when they do it's always fun to talk to a new friend. Hackers are the best people.

Uhhh, so ya know how I said I was crazy about how small the SanDisk Cruzer Fit is and how this new drive, the Halo, works great albeit slightly larger. Well, that was before modding. Look:

That pigtail is an LED and I don't think it's even necessary. Will test it without. This is actually even lower profile than the Cruzer Fit.

I totally want one! Are you going to be selling them in the hakshop when they are ready? Thank for testing all this!!

[TylerCPU]

2 quick things.

Technical tid-bit:

With the 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit version 1.26 the MK4 (version 2.7.0 - 2.8.1) will report the USB device as available from lsusb and mounted on /usb from df -h, however the drive is not functional. What happens is the drive is initialized on boot when the MK4 has ample power, before the radio comes up. Once the radio comes online it "steals" power from the bus and the USB drive, while reported, is nonfunctional.

Upcoming replacement drive:

I just spoke with our vendor and we'll have replacements in 2 weeks laser engraved with the Hak5 logo. Here's a sample. If you can't wait we're more than happy to send you the Domain.com printed drive or if you can wait we'll get you one of these. They look fantastic but either way it's the same hardware underneath. R/W performance is comparable to the SanDisk.

That explains so much. Thank you. I got my sandisk from amazon and it's the 1.26 firmware. It was awfully flaky the drive. It would work for me and then mostly quit. When can I get the new drive? I think it's cooler than the sandisk.

[Darren Kitchen]

We will have them in 2 weeks and I'll put 'em up in the HakShop for cheap. Also seems that ripping off the red LED from the pigtail doesn't break the drive. It's nearly flush with the pineapple now. Film at 11.

[Darren Kitchen]

Remember how I said film at 11? I meant 9 :)

http://youtu.be/-C0q0XslFZ4

[airman_dopey]

Is the pigtail sturdy enough to leave part of it on as a pull-tab for removal of the drive or is it still easy enough to pull out on its own?

[WideEyedAndClueless]

Great job on getting to the bottom of this problem and coming up with a fix Darren. Ive got my email saying the new USB's and cases have been sent out.

Really great service

[Matt666]

Er.. I got delivered the old gear Today. Are you telling me that you are planning on asking money to solve a problem that you where aware of before selling my the gear ?

this is a joke right ??

[thesugarat]

That's not what he said Matt666....

Pick an option and they'll send you a new drive for free.

Options:

I feel terrible that we shipped units with nonfunctional USB drives. We had no idea the firmware on the SanDisk Cruzer Fit changed and I'm bummed it took me so long to realize there was a problem. We've pulled all of the Cruzer Fits from the shop and are contacting customers who purchased the bundle since our last SanDisk re-order.

If you are experiencing this issue I'd like to offer the following solutions:

1. Email shop@hak5.org with your order number and we will send you free of charge a compatible replacement 4GB drive along with a travel case full of stickers and our gratitude TODAY. Note: the drive may be branded with domain.com (thanks guys).

2. Email shop@hak5.org with your order number and we will send you free of charge a HAK5 Branded compatible replacement 4GB drive along with a travel case full of stickers and our gratitude IN A FEW WEEKS when the drives have been printed.

3. Email shop@hak5.org with your order number and we will satisfy a complete return and refund at no cost no matter how long you have owned the unit.

4. Something else? Email us.

I want to make sure everyone is happy. We're putting in new QA procedures to ensure this doesn't happen again and we'll be looking into ways to satisfy the need for reliable expandable storage on the WiFi Pineapple going forward.

Thanks,

Darren

[deathdealerxx]

Er.. I got delivered the old gear Today. Are you telling me that you are planning on asking money to solve a problem that you where aware of before selling my the gear ?

this is a joke right ??

If so then you should send an email to shop@hak5.org and they will get you sorted out. They've only recently seen this problem and are doing everything they can to fix the situation.

[airman_dopey]

More than I was expecting, too! Darren seems genuinely concerned with making right this issue.

[Matt666]

That's not what he said Matt666....

Pick an option and they'll send you a new drive for free.

Oops, My bad, I did not see this post. Apologies. :)

[Sebkinne]

Er.. I got delivered the old gear Today. Are you telling me that you are planning on asking money to solve a problem that you where aware of before selling my the gear ?

this is a joke right ??

From what other have said, I would like to add that you ordered the gear before we knew about this properly. At least this is my assumption if you received it today.

[Matt666]

Not sure, Ordered the gear 10 days ago. Looks like the problem has been floating around since a while now. Nerveless, If I get an exchange I guess this is just perfect.

[Skipper]

Thank you so much for addressing this Darren, I received my order yesterday with the Cruzer Fit and I have the same problem, and it's not often you see people people concerned about a product issue and give a solution that everyone will be happy with :D

*EDIT* Just received my email about it being sent, thank you :D

-Skipper

Edited July 15, 2013 by Skipper

[deathdealerxx]

Well I received the new replacement drive and I serial flashed my pineapple formated the usb drive with two partitions @ ext4. Setup the drive with swap on the pineapple all while connected to 12v. I am still having issues with drive being un-mounted. !!

I was able to install tcp and reaver before the drive was disconnected. So yeah issue still exists at least for me... what a bummer.

I did un-solder the led pigtail maybe somehow that affected the drive?

I'll be trying other options. I did a slow format with ubuntu 13.04. Ill try on several different Distros to make sure. Reformatting now with just one partition.

Update: Reformatted with only one partition ext4 and was able to install all infusions with no problems so far. Will continue testing.

2nd update: Still working so far. I think there are some problems by using swap and storage on the same drive at least certain drives. (powering via 5v @ 1A, 5v @ 2A & 12v @ 1.5A)

Edited July 15, 2013 by deathdealerxx

[airman_dopey]

Received my drive as well and after reading about your problems I started doing my own tests.

I started by using the drive as received and followed the same formatting procedure as explained by Darren Kitchen. Drive worked as expected.

I then removed the case and when I did that the LED pigtail ripped off. So I plugged in the drive and tested again and it stopped working. However, I did see the USB light on the pineapple blink on and off really fast. I noticed that the drive also seemed much looser than before. So I took the case and hacked off half of it (just behind the plastic piece that held the actual drive in place) and put the case back together. Once I plugged in the drive again it started working flawlessly. So the plastic around the actual connector seems to hold the drive in place so it can make a good connection. I checked it in the travel case and it now fits beautifully and is far easier to plug in and remove. My next step is to test the pineapple under load to make sure the drive remains working

Hope this helps others with their new drives

EDIT: Under full load it still seems the pineapple juice is not powerful enough and still causes reboot. Just an FYI

Edited July 16, 2013 by airman_dopey

[Matt666]

Damn, I am so sorry to have to come back on this topic.

Hakshop promised me a new pineapple after the one I got arrived non-functioning, and despite numerous emails warning them, they did not take care of customs procedure, therefore I had to pay another 50US$ extra to get the stuff. Since I did not want to pay for it, the stuff was not delivered, I have sent maybe 5 warning Emails to the Hakshop telling them about the problem and asking for solution, they are just ignoring me, not one single answer… Look like the only one I got was because I was chatting on this topic... So never know let’s see what happens. :)

Has anyone had such bad experience with the Hakshop? I am wondering because looks like they actually give plenty of cool things here, but once they need to get it done, well not so cool anymore...

If anyone had a contact I would appreciate help, since I am stuck with expensive non-working kit, and I cannot get in touch with them.

Matt.

[Darren Kitchen]

Matt666,

We're not ignoring you, we've been on the phone with UPS yesterday and today trying to figure out why the replacement pineapple we shipped you, which was marked as a gift, required customs. This should not be the case as far as I know gifts do not require duty fees like commercial products. Seeing as we are sending you a free replacement I consider it a gift, no? UPS has assigned the case to a specialist as there seems to be a discrepancy between the gift policy they're claiming (where every line item needs to be marked as gift) and the policy that our local rep. explained to us (where the entire package can be marked as gift).

We were happy to pay to have your broken pineapple returned and to ship you out a new unit for free via UPS Expedited, marked as gift. We were under the assumption that gift meant just that and have not experienced this issue with other countries in the EU. We have not received your return back to us - the tracking info reports it hasn't been shipped.

We're very sorry for the inconvenience and are doing everything we can to make it right. Had you accepted the $50 USD customs we would have been happy to refund that from your original purchase amount as it is becoming increasingly expensive to ship replacements and have them returned.

In the email you sent 8 hours ago you said you would give us 24 hours to resolve the issue before "starting an advertising campaign in the various forums and newsgroups I participate". While I understand your frustration we are working very hard towards making this right and I would appreciate it if you would work with us directly.

Darren