USB Power Cable Not Enough for USB (SanDisk)

[airman_dopey]

Same issue. Also does not work when using the pineapple juice (which really frustrated me). I feel for you. Very frustrating when you purchasing things from a store expecting them to work with one another and no mention through the store that they do not. The hakshop still doesn't say anything about this issue and it has been reported numerous times in the forums. The lack of communication (or lack of caring, but I am attempting to give the benefit of the doubt) is atrocious.

[TylerCPU]

Same issue. Also does not work when using the pineapple juice (which really frustrated me). I feel for you. Very frustrating when you purchasing things from a store expecting them to work with one another and no mention through the store that they do not. The hakshop still doesn't say anything about this issue and it has been reported numerous times in the forums. The lack of communication (or lack of caring, but I am attempting to give the benefit of the doubt) is atrocious.

I bought mine off of amazon, but it's the same as hak5s I think. Sandisk Cruzer Fit 4GB.The weird thing is mine doesn't automatically power on anymore. The drive looks dead until I reinsert the USB drive back in(sometimes more than once) using the 2.8.1 firmware.

Mine works fine using my pineapple juice(mostly). Everything works fine for me. I have to idea why, but it does. So the drive is completely dead for you on the pineapple?

[hackley]

Also having same problem but with a homemade USB POE cable and an 8gb cruzer. Works fine when plugged into wall wart but doesn't even show up when on USB POE.

[hfam]

I've had exactly the same issue, however, it's *NOT* the fault of the pineapple, the version #, etc.

The issue is that all USB ports on any machine don't appear to necessarily put out enough juice to run the setup along with powering a USB thumb drive.

Someone here earlier said it, and that's the MKIV really wants 12v, but can run in a quite large range of voltage (5v - 12v).

So, the juice you get from a USB port is dependent on the hardware hosting that USB port. That's why you're seeing a wide variance of answers here in this thread. Some it works, some it doesn't.

I was also bummed about it, but there really isn't anything one can do about it, save for trying some other USB drives which *may* have very slight requirements and, again, depending on the hardware hosting that USB port, it may make the difference. Just know that you're operating it on the very edge of required voltage if that's the case.

In the past we've discussed trying to draw power from 2 USB ports using a "Y" adapter, etc, and all those threads are still there for the perusing.

I can attest that after all is said and done, I scrapped running it from a USB port altogether and now run my MKIV's exclusively with an Anker 10K mAh, 5/9/12v battery:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NGKR54

This thing seemingly lasts forever on a single charge and there is NEVER an issue with power, etc. It's just easier this way. The native output cable for the battery is exactly what is required for the barrel connector on the MKIV.

I run it on 9V and it's rock solid. The 12v is always there if you require it.

If there is 110 available, I use the wall wart, but otherwise, the Anker is my choice. I own 3 of these and use them for all sorts of things. They're a fantastic buy and now less than $50 on Amazon.

Do yourself a solid favor and purchase one of these, you'll have plenty of juice to run the MKIV happily for a very long time, your USB will always power up dependably, and you'll have remote juice to drop one of these MKIVs in place remotely without worrying about where you'll get juice.

[Geoff0ne]

In response to the above post, has anyone purchased a more powerful juice battery pack and had success with powering the USB drive?

[thesugarat]

tone,

hfam's post states explicitly that he uses a more powerfull battery pack... Are you just looking for confirmation from others that the same device has solved their problems with using USB drives?

[airman_dopey]

In response to the above post, has anyone purchased a more powerful juice battery pack and had success with powering the USB drive?

A friend of mine bought the Anker3 and powers the pineapple, powered hub with a USB drive and Alfa NHA card, and a RasPI, and gets approx. 13 hours running off that setup. So yeah, it'll power the USB drive

[RChadwick]

This is definitely a hardware issue. In most cases, it's not a matter of more 'power'. All USB devices are designed to run from 5V. Some might happen to work at less. If you're lucky, it might work. However, you could buy 100 USB drives from the same manufacturer, and 60 might work fine at a lower voltage, 30 might work sometimes, and 10 might not work at all. From an Electronic point of view, picking a drive that works is a real half-ass solution that may stop working at any time. So, USB drives expect a full 5V. The problem is that the Pineapple will not be able to supply a full 5V to USB drives unless if it's getting at least 7-8V in. If you power the Pineapple from a USB port, it's getting 5.5V at MOST. If you do this, your USB Flash drives are running on 3 or 4 volts, and as low as that is, it will fluctuate under load, temperature, etc. That means that, even if it works today, it can corrupt data under load, or reset the device.It's a problem waiting to happen.

The solution? If you want your Pineapple to actually work with USB drives or other USB devices in any kind of consistent way:

1) Run the Pineapple from 7-12V

2) Run the Pineapple from 5V, but use a powered USB Hub for any devices plugged into the Pineapple.

Firmware is not a fix. Picking the right USB drive is not a real fix (Even if it seems like it works)

[Geoff0ne]

This is definitely a hardware issue. In most cases, it's not a matter of more 'power'. All USB devices are designed to run from 5V. Some might happen to work at less. If you're lucky, it might work. However, you could buy 100 USB drives from the same manufacturer, and 60 might work fine at a lower voltage, 30 might work sometimes, and 10 might not work at all. From an Electronic point of view, picking a drive that works is a real half-ass solution that may stop working at any time. So, USB drives expect a full 5V. The problem is that the Pineapple will not be able to supply a full 5V to USB drives unless if it's getting at least 7-8V in. If you power the Pineapple from a USB port, it's getting 5.5V at MOST. If you do this, your USB Flash drives are running on 3 or 4 volts, and as low as that is, it will fluctuate under load, temperature, etc. That means that, even if it works today, it can corrupt data under load, or reset the device.It's a problem waiting to happen.

The solution? If you want your Pineapple to actually work with USB drives or other USB devices in any kind of consistent way:

1) Run the Pineapple from 7-12V

2) Run the Pineapple from 5V, but use a powered USB Hub for any devices plugged into the Pineapple.

Firmware is not a fix. Picking the right USB drive is not a real fix (Even if it seems like it works)

Interesting.

Whats the return policy? As i bought the elite pineapple bundle expecting it all to work together in a portable solution.

Edited July 3, 2013 by tone

[Wiik]

I think my question comes under this thread, not trying to do thread takeover, just a simple question.
I tried setting up my swap usb stick

I fiddled around. and now. when i put the usb stick in. the MarkIV, resets and looses connections, i formated the usb stick again, and reset the MarkIV, any idea what happend to my stick?