External USB drive & B3.

[Ubi]

yes

[johannes]

Ok, I now did some measurements with a 2.5" Freecom 320 GB disk. It works perfectly fine on my setup, even though that it draws just over 600 mA on spin-up (hence breaking the specs). The voltage drop on the B3 USB port is also low enough (~150mV at spinup), well within specs.

It has a Samsung Spinpoint hm321hx inside, 5400 rpm.

The only explanation I can think of is that you have a power-hungry drive that breaks specs heavily. This sometimes works in PC:s since they often can supply a lot of power, but we need to limit current output on B3 not to risk power-failure (heavy voltage drop) when connecting something that breakes USB specs on the ports (such as most cup warmers, a broken usb cable etc etc). If not limiting current we would risk damaging the internal B3 disk.

I'd be happy to do some measurements on your disks though, any possibility of you sending it in?

Thanks,
/Johannes

[mountaindude]

Replying to this old thread for what it's worth...
but as I found a solution to a similar problem I thought I'd post it.

For me it turned out that it was the USB cable that was causing the problem.
I had an extra long cable (ca 3 meters), either it is broken somehow, or too long (signal integrity lost?).
Anyway, after replacing it with a new/shorter cable, the USB device enumerated just fine again.

The weird thing is that it used to work with the old/longer cable too, but suddenly stopped. Maybe I re-arranged other cables and introduced new/additional noise, or something..

[Cheeseboy]

For me it turned out that it was the USB cable that was causing the problem.

This could very well be the case.
I used to see messages like these in the log:

Code: Select all

USB port nn disabled by hub (EMI?), re-enabling

I thought "bollocks - that must be the catch-all/no other answer message", but I eventually changed the USB cable that connects my printer to a properly shielded one, and hey presto - the messages were gone!

I have also noticed that these messages sometimes re-appear, and every time they did I had moved or re-arranged something with all the bloody power cables that have to co-exist with the USB cables.

As for the capability of a WiFi B3 to power an external usb disk, here is my test:
(first line was to disable the UPS service that relies on the UPS that normally is connected to the USB port I used for testing)

Code: Select all

niklas@b3:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/apcupsd stop
niklas@b3:~$ sudo tail -n 22 /var/log/syslog
Apr 30 17:01:21 b3 apcupsd[1766]: apcupsd exiting, signal 15
Apr 30 17:01:21 b3 apcupsd[1766]: apcupsd shutdown succeeded
Apr 30 17:01:27 b3 kernel: [147854.228130] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 3
Apr 30 17:01:42 b3 kernel: [147869.563842] usb 1-1.1: new high speed USB device number 9 using orion-ehci
Apr 30 17:01:42 b3 kernel: [147869.718475] scsi9 : usb-storage 1-1.1:1.0
Apr 30 17:01:42 b3 mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 9: "/sys/devices/platform/orion-ehci.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.1"
Apr 30 17:01:42 b3 mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 9 was not an MTP device
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.724339] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Seagate  Backup+ BK       0409 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.733090] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.741812] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] 1953525167 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.756816] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.761720] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 4f 00 00 00
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.761730] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.778280] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.814957]  sde: sde1 sde2
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.822537] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
Apr 30 17:01:43 b3 kernel: [147870.828759] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI disk
Apr 30 17:01:44 b3 kernel: [147871.080757] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde]  Sense Key : 0x1 [current] [descriptor]
Apr 30 17:01:44 b3 kernel: [147871.087317] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
Apr 30 17:01:44 b3 kernel: [147871.093580]         72 01 04 1d 00 00 00 0e 09 0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 
Apr 30 17:01:44 b3 kernel: [147871.100129]         00 00 00 00 00 50 
Apr 30 17:01:44 b3 kernel: [147871.104011] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde]  ASC=0x4 ASCQ=0x1d

niklas@b3:~$ mkdir -p mnt/usb_fat && mkdir -p mnt/usb_ext4
niklas@b3:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sde1 mnt/usb_fat
niklas@b3:~$ sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sde2 mnt/usb_ext4
niklas@b3:~$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1              11G  4.7G  5.7G  46% /
tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M  276K  9.8M   3% /dev
tmpfs                 252M  4.0K  252M   1% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/bubba-storage
                      6.9T  5.0T  1.5T  78% /home
popcorn:/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/Video
                      917G  865G   52G  95% /home/storage/mounts/popcorn
/dev/sde1             391G  956M  390G   1% /home/niklas/mnt/usb_fat
/dev/sde2             533G  263G  243G  52% /home/niklas/mnt/usb_ext4

niklas@b3:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sde
smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [armv5tel-linux-2.6.39.4-11] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Momentus SpinPoint M8 (AF)
Device Model:     ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
Serial Number:    S2TPJ9CC786300
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0004cf 207fc5eb6
Firmware Version: 2AR10001
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 6
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Tue Apr 30 17:15:04 2013 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)	Offline data collection activity
					was never started.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		(13140) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					No Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 219) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x003f)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0026   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0023   086   085   025    Pre-fail  Always       -       4460
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       171
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   252   252   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0024   252   252   015    Old_age   Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       118
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       169
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   064   055   000    Old_age   Always       -       30 (Min/Max 20/46)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   252   252   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0036   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x002a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       96
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
225 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1256

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Completed [00% left] (0-65535)
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Cheers!

/Cheeseboy