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


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Hi , i bought two sets of pineapples , one for me and the other for a friend. We got the elite package because we expected all the hardware would work well together. But we have both found that when using the Pineapple with the juice battery pack there isn't enough power to keep the SanDisk USB working.

After looking around on the forums we have found many people complaining about this and recommending the Anker instead. If i had known there was a problem I would have just bought the basic unit and put the extra towards an Anker.

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I hear ya airman_dopey

At one point during testing it was working for a few mins and then during a write to the USB drive the USB disconnected itself and then locked up. The thumb drive is now 'protected' and it's impossible to format , even at the Sandisk forums they say once this happens it can't be fixed and has to be returned. So all in all not a very productive day lol

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Welcome to one of the biggest complaints. And yet they STILL won't let people know on the store that they do not work together.

Thinking about it logically, running everything off of battery probably isn't a good idea as it is. Also running it off a 5V source when it is spec'd for 12V 1A should give the clue that the battery/USB power is hardly enough to power the pineapple. USB ports run at roughly 5V as it is, the pineapple doesn't "make" power. It also comes with an AC adapter. I feel the elite bundle is to have maximum flexibility with a single purchase versus making everything fully functional and jacking up the price even more.

I hear ya airman_dopey

At one point during testing it was working for a few mins and then during a write to the USB drive the USB disconnected itself and then locked up. The thumb drive is now 'protected' and it's impossible to format , even at the Sandisk forums they say once this happens it can't be fixed and has to be returned. So all in all not a very productive day lol

I'm sure it can be fixed if you plug it into a linux system and just wipe it with dd. I could be wrong, never had such thing happen before.

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Thinking about it logically, running everything off of battery probably isn't a good idea as it is. Also running it off a 5V source when it is spec'd for 12V 1A should give the clue that the battery/USB power is hardly enough to power the pineapple. USB ports run at roughly 5V as it is, the pineapple doesn't "make" power. It also comes with an AC adapter. I feel the elite bundle is to have maximum flexibility with a single purchase versus making everything fully functional and jacking up the price even more.

And yet, from a business standpoint you should ethically tell people that pieces do NOT work together. I even emailed the hakshop after finding this out only to receive the following from Shannon:

Sorry to hear about the issue!
From what I recall, the USB Battery Pack can indeed supply enough power to power any popular device, be that the Wifi Pineapple, and smartphone, or a USB drive.

Please email shop@hak5.org and we'll get you sorted out.
Thanks!

Shannon

This tells me that no one is interested in rectifying this problem as it is all over the forums and countless people are complaining about it after they've already purchased it. So logically or not, it is a well documented problem that no one is doing a thing about. Even a simple warning on the store would be enough to alert people before they make the purchase (which I have suggested before)

EDIT: Oh, and nowhere on either the holiday bundle or the pineapple itself does it specify that it is rated for 12v.

Edited by airman_dopey
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And yet, from a business standpoint you should ethically tell people that pieces do NOT work together. I even emailed the hakshop after finding this out only to receive the following from Shannon:

Sorry to hear about the issue!
From what I recall, the USB Battery Pack can indeed supply enough power to power any popular device, be that the Wifi Pineapple, and smartphone, or a USB drive.

Please email shop@hak5.org and we'll get you sorted out.
Thanks!

Shannon

This tells me that no one is interested in rectifying this problem as it is all over the forums and countless people are complaining about it after they've already purchased it. So logically or not, it is a well documented problem that no one is doing a thing about. Even a simple warning on the store would be enough to alert people before they make the purchase (which I have suggested before)

EDIT: Oh, and nowhere on either the holiday bundle or the pineapple itself does it specify that it is rated for 12v.

Scroll down on this page.

http://hakshop.myshopify.com/pages/item-faq

Look at the AC Power adapter.

Look up the specs on Alfa's website for the AP121U.

http://www.alfa.com.tw/products_show.php?pc=34&ps=97

That being said, I have brought it up for discussion.

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Thanks for posting this topic, WideEyedAndClueless. I've emailed my coworker to determine a fix for this issue. I've gotten a few emails in the past year regarding the problem, but not to the point that it would be considered a known issue. We also don't check the forums daily, so the best place to contact us regarding problems is shop@hak5.org.

airman_dopey, based on my email to you, it looks like you emailed one of our contacts outside of shop@hak5.org since I referred you to that email address. Unfortunately we can't track orders outside of that account, so we prefer that all issues and correspondence are made through the HakShop email address. Also, if an email is sent to one of our hak5 accounts or a personal account we aren't able to pull up your order information, so it does help to email shop@hak5.org instead. Through here, we should be able to rectify a solution! :)

Problems aren't considered common if we aren't notified of the problem!! So please do email us, because we want you to be happy. :) With my two full time jobs and work keeping the Hak5 podcast going, checking the forum isn't something I do daily (though I wish I had enough time to be on here more often and a part of the community!)

We keep this page (https://hakshop.myshopify.com/pages/item-faq) updated daily with information when it becomes a common problem, so information regarding voltage and known issues can be found here.

This (https://hakshop.myshopify.com/pages/refund-and-return-policy) is our return policy for exchanges and refunds.

I'll update more later once I hear back from my team.

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Thanks for posting this topic, WideEyedAndClueless. I've emailed my coworker to determine a fix for this issue. I've gotten a few emails in the past year regarding the problem, but not to the point that it would be considered a known issue. We also don't check the forums daily, so the best place to contact us regarding problems is shop@hak5.org.

I'll update more later once I hear back from my team.

Thanks for a quick response Shanon, i will stay tuned for more info.

@ Mr Protocol :

Thanks for the reply this is the reply i got from sandisk :

Thank you . This write protection error is because the flash drive has detected a potential fault and became write-protected to prevent data loss. There is no method to fix this. We recommend that you back up your data. SanDisk will replace the drive if it is within warranty. We do apologize for this inconvenience.

The trouble is i have to send it to the Czech Republic to get a replacement. Probably going to cost me as much as a new one.

Edited by WideEyedAndClueless
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Hello, I Have also just buy two pineapples, We also got the elite package because we expected all the hardware would work together. I'm very happy to see this forum as I have just been trying to work the device for two days now thinking i was doing something wrong but now I see that other people have the same problem with the pineapple juice pack and sandisk I feel like I have buy items that are useless to me and the pineapple device how disappointing cant use it now so is everyone going to get a refund or upgrade send out on the juice pack????? :(


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Thanks for the heads up guys and again our sincere apologies. When the elite kit was introduced it was done so after thoroughly testing with both the 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit and the Pineapple Juice 3200 battery pack. While the 8, 16 and above capacity SanDisk drives are convenient in our testing we found them to draw too much power, hence the smaller capacity in the bundle.

Obviously something has changed either with the latest batch of USB drives or the batteries. I'm on a short layover during Hack Across America back at the studio now so I'll do some testing and figure out what went wrong.

As you guys know we're a small passionate team here dedicated to customer satisfaction. I ask that you please let us know by email to shop@hak5.org if you're experiencing this problem. We'll come up with a solution be it a refund, replacement battery, usb drive or otherwise.

Thanks for your patience and continued support of Hak5.

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I tested with the 2.7.0 through current firmware. Same issue every time. Don't think it was firmware related

Also, thanks to everyone looking into it. I had the issue from January (the pineapple was a Christmas present) and to fit everything in the box my wife removed the packaging. So I was unable to return it from the start. After seeing the number of people commenting on it through different threads and seeing no one acknowledging that it was a problem was more frustrating than anything else. Glad to see it's being resolved.

Edited by airman_dopey
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Same problem here, The pineapple and 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit works ok when running it on the house mains power supply but it don't work on the juice pack to be able to take it outside when its all set up in the box that all comes with the elite package, I would say its only on the edge of powering up the 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit and not which in time could maybe cause the Sandisk 4GB Cruzer Fit to fail. Thanks for the quick reply from the team it will be nice to see how we can resolve this issue kind regards jase

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I got my Pineapple around 6/29/2013

I've got the same problem with both a 4gb and a 16gb SANDISK drive - the 4gb drive I purchased with the Elite package. The 16 GB drive I purchased two days after I received the Elite package.

That said, I've used two non-SANDISK drives (Kingston 8gb and PNY 16gb drives) and have not had a problem since.

The problem is not the battery pack. I had the same issue when the Pineapple was plugged into the AC adapter that came with the Elite package.

I

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I got my Pineapple around 6/29/2013

I've got the same problem with both a 4gb and a 16gb SANDISK drive - the 4gb drive I purchased with the Elite package. The 16 GB drive I purchased two days after I received the Elite package.

That said, I've used two non-SANDISK drives (Kingston 8gb and PNY 16gb drives) and have not had a problem since.

The problem is not the battery pack. I had the same issue when the Pineapple was plugged into the AC adapter that came with the Elite package.

I

Thanks for the feedback.

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I'll have a full report in the morning but I figured I'd post my findings asap.



Bad news: The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit doesn't work with a MK4 powered by a Pineapple Juice.


Good news: The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit does works with a MK4 powered by a Pineapple Juice.


Best news: There's a solution. While I'm still testing this I can say with confidence we'll make things right for anyone experiencing this issue.


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I'll have a full report in the morning but I figured I'd post my findings asap.

Bad news: The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit doesn't work with a MK4 powered by a Pineapple Juice.

Good news: The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit does works with a MK4 powered by a Pineapple Juice.

Best news: There's a solution. While I'm still testing this I can say with confidence we'll make things right for anyone experiencing this issue.

Thank you SOOO much for finally addressing this. I am eagerly looking forward to the full report. Kudos to you

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Let me also chime in - Anyone that has this issue, could you report your current firmware version?

While I doubt it is firmware related, we want to make sure to cover all angles here.

Best Regards,

Sebkinne

Current 2.8.1

I'll have a full report in the morning but I figured I'd post my findings asap.

Bad news: The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit doesn't work with a MK4 powered by a Pineapple Juice.

Good news: The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit does works with a MK4 powered by a Pineapple Juice.

Best news: There's a solution. While I'm still testing this I can say with confidence we'll make things right for anyone experiencing this issue.

Cant wait.

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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:

KDf1axu.jpg

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

7LoRUcgl.jpg

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

qJBOU4bl.jpg

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

st79tjPl.jpg

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.

qydWNTgl.jpg

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.

J5M6wf1l.jpg

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

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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.

GLOcKoKl.jpg

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