Head Units and External Hard Drives

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

OMNI FI > Music Keg

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

external hard drive should be fine, they are just internal drives mounted in an enclosure, and those things can get HOT in a computer case so it should be perfect

 

[brad1011a 10+ year member]

I just registered because I have a USB HU issue...
I just installed the Pioneer 6900UB and it works fantastic with my flash thumb drive, but im not getting enough power for my Maxtor 120g external. Ive expiremented with a usb car adaptor for the second half of the Y cable and i can feel the disk spinning, but its not reading. Unfortunatle the only usb car adaptor I could find on the quick was a unit that was supposed to charge a Nintendo DS or some crap.

BTW the Pio 6900 can take up to 250 gig of MP3, WMA or ACCs

Any help would be appreciated.

From earlier in this very thread:

"I discovered that compatibility (based mainly on head/cylinder count) is very limited. It's best to check with Pioneer."

 

[civciv]

I just registered because I have a USB HU issue...
I just installed the Pioneer 6900UB and it works fantastic with my flash thumb drive, but im not getting enough power for my Maxtor 120g external. Ive expiremented with a usb car adaptor for the second half of the Y cable and i can feel the disk spinning, but its not reading. Unfortunatle the only usb car adaptor I could find on the quick was a unit that was supposed to charge a Nintendo DS or some crap.

BTW the Pio 6900 can take up to 250 gig of MP3, WMA or ACCs

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi,

I have tested my Lacie 80GB "by Porsche" mobile HDD with my Pioneer DEH-P7950UB (similar model of 6900UB). But unfortunately it didn't work. HDD is spinning, HU displays "Format read" but nothing more //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

I will check it with my friend's Western Digital 120GB in a few days.

 

[Tommy Ceez 10+ year member]

Hi,
I have tested my Lacie 80GB "by Porsche" mobile HDD with my Pioneer DEH-P7950UB (similar model of 6900UB). But unfortunately it didn't work. HDD is spinning, HU displays "Format read" but nothing more //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

I will check it with my friend's Western Digital 120GB in a few days.

An update...I deleted all but one album from my Maxtor One Touch III Mini and plugged it into the unit with the second 1/2 of the Y-cable into a piece of **** USB cigarette lighter adaptor. It read FORMAT READ for a second and then PLAYED!!!

I added 2 more albums and it played, but then the HD started flashing an error and clicking.

It seems POWER is my problem, not the HD...I REALLY need to find a way to cleanly power this HD.

Another problem is that POS Maxtor has screwed the pooch on the AC adaptor for this drive, and you cant find one ANYWHERE!!.

I think its time to invest in an expensive USB cigarette lighter adaptor.

 

[Down55555]

Hi,
I have tested my Lacie 80GB "by Porsche" mobile HDD with my Pioneer DEH-P7950UB (similar model of 6900UB). But unfortunately it didn't work. HDD is spinning, HU displays "Format read" but nothing more //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

I will check it with my friend's Western Digital 120GB in a few days.

PLEASE report back with your findings, that's the hdd I've wanted to go with.

Thanks!

 

[Tommy Ceez 10+ year member]

PLEASE report back with your findings, that's the hdd I've wanted to go with.
Thanks!

If you talking the WD Passport, I believe they use 750mA...way too much for just the Head Unit to power

 

[clone 10+ year member]

Speaking of power, I checked on the Kenwood X891 and while they don't specify the power per unit, they have a usb support page that specifies that the power must be 500mA or less. Again, the highest unit I saw specified on that page was the X890 so who knows if they've upped this power.

The thing I am noticing is that these usb heads are mostly geared to thumb/flash drives and ipod. It's too bad as I'd much rather just get a 200gig drive and put all my music in a lossless codec of some type.

I guess until the mainstream moves from CDs and Ipods, that will be the focus. I'd sure like a unit that handled FLAC or some of the other nice codecs so we'd at least have the option of doing lossless, etc.

 

[brad1011a 10+ year member]

The Blaupunkts can power the Lacies (up to 80GB) alone, but the Kenwoods need the supplemental power.

It's really important to check with the HU's mfr. about hard drive compatibility. From what I understand it's NOT power (it's easy to get enough power in a car for any drive), it's the variability among drives in cylinder and head counts. Unlike computers these head units can't read just any USB device; they're far from universal.

But I feel much better about just leaving an inexpensive drive in the car rather than an expensive iPod, or constantly removing an iPod while wearing out its contacts.

Also I have always avoided iPods as portable media servers since Apple won't let you replace the internal battery or drive, making you repurchase in a few years. Hard drives alone last a long time.

Also (to me) it's important to remember companies (like Apple) that have demanded the cheapest possible labor in China for manufacturing. Their human rights record is egregious.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060830-7624.html

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18691

 

[Tommy Ceez 10+ year member]

I just spoke to Pioneer.

They claim ALL flash and Hard Drives that are Mass Storage Class will work with the HU, although they dont guarentee anything when it comes to an external HD.

Basically he says if you can find enough power to spin the unit, it will play on the Pioneer...but he said he has spoken to customers who have gotten up to 250G hd's to work, but they cannot use playlists. Odd

So we're back to power.

 

[sdmtnbiker420 10+ year member]

I bought the 6900UB last week and I LOVE IT.

Only problem is that I am getting engine whine - either Pioneer notoriously bad grounds or my wiring all jumbled together near the fuel pump.

USB - I have using a 4GB sandisk with no problems. Pioneer says up to 250GB. I LOVE the USB connection.

 

[clone 10+ year member]

I just talked to Eclipse and the CD5100 cannot support anything more than a flash drive. So as far as the units I've been looking at (Kenwood X891, Pioneer P690UB, and Eclipse CD5100), I can eliminate the 5100.

 

[clone 10+ year member]

Also I have always avoided iPods as portable media servers since Apple won't let you replace the internal battery or drive, making you repurchase in a few years. Hard drives alone last a long time.

You actually can replace the battery in an ipod. I just did this a few months ago as my battery was lasting only a few hours. Now I get 8-12 hours depending upon what I'm doing. Still, I'd rather not use the ipod for the car.

 

[Symon_say 10+ year member]

Just get one of this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-5-HDD-Player-Multimedia-AV-MP4-MP3-DVD-DIVX-USB-VM3_W0QQitemZ280100261924QQcategoryZ41911QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[brad1011a 10+ year member]

Well if you look over at the posts at Talk Audio, many people (including me) have hard drives up to 80GB working on the Bluapunkts and Kenwoods. But only the Kennys properly handle playlists (and have new, wider HD compatibility). To me that leaves just one choice.