Raspberry pi not powering 1 ssd via usb?

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1

I’ve just gotten started with doing some small projects with a 2nd hand raspberry pi 4 (4 gb). I don’t have the official adaptor and I’m using normal 3rd party wire and adaptor we get with mid end smartphones to power it up.

I was able to configure jellyfin correctly and I’m trying to view media on an internal ssd. For this I’ve used a Zebronics 2.5 inch sata to 3.0 usb connector.

While I was able to connect the ssd initially and mount it, I think the connection gets lost after a few seconds. I’m not super skilled in coding / debugging but as per perplexity and the errors i think the raspberry may not be able to power the ssd to read it continuously?

  1. Any definite way / code to confirm this?
  2. What is the cheapest workaround for this?
Raspberrypi 4 compatible usb 3.0 to sata connector
2

This is most likely the issue. You need 5V 3A power adapter.

Using the phone power adapter it may not give 3A or 2.5A at 5V.

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3

Could the wire also be affecting this? I generally mix and match adaptors and wires.

4

First line of action would be to check if the adapter works as intended with a known good device [ can be any laptop, PC or even phone ]

5

Yes the adaptor is working ok with the phones

6

Check logs with journalctl… if the SSD is using too much power, you should see “undervoltage detected” in the logs to confirm

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7

So, if the SATA convertor is working properly OOTB, and if you’re sure that the necessary drivers are present [ given you mentioned that you were able to intialy connect the SSD and mount it ]; I would recommend looking at alternative power sources to ensure 5V 3A are properly delivered to it.

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8

It might.

I use windows booted from an external SATA SSD using the SATA to USB adapter. Plugged into normal computer 5V USB port, which only gives 500mA.

Are you getting this icon displayed in the corner.

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9

Is this from raspberry pi os gui? I’m using raspberry pi lite os

10

Yes, on pi lite os, this icon may not show up. Run the official GUI OS, it will show if your power adapter is not enough.

11

The lightning icon?

12

Yes, it indicates low voltage.

On power adapters which can not provide the required current their voltage will tank and then this icon shows up.

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13

I’ll install raspberry os desktop version and check this icon out.

If the lightning icon does show up, what would be the cheapest way to resolve the issue? Get the official adaptor? Or would any 5V 3A power adapter work? In the latter, I still think the quality of the wire could remain an issue.

14

Other than official one, you can go with this one.

It’s out of stock on robu.in but available here.

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15

I can for sure say that the Rpi 4 works very well with a 5v 2a adapter, but use a good quality one. I have been using mine for jellyfin with a 2.5 external HDD and got no issues .

But as @Heisen mentioned the Rpi is smart enough to show you the lightning bolt for power issues so that would be the first thing to resolve, my external HDD takes about 600ma most of the time which means the rpi gets less than 1.5A, although it hasn’t caused an issue so far I would recommend buying the 5V 3Amp one. Robus does sell a cheaper model 5V 3AMP Adapter

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16

What is the rating for the charger - can it support 5V 3A. If yes then it should work fine. Most smartphone chargers support this.

other issues could be due to the zebronics connector itself, check if the same issue occurs on other machines.

I used to use the RPI4 with a seagate powered HDD running OMV plus docker containers running qbit plus gluetun as download rigs. Had to apply storage quirks to get full speed ie UAS else would run in BOT mode.

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17

All phone chargers are 5 Volt . While Raspberry Pi 4 needs a 5.1 volt 3 amp power supply or it will give “under voltage” error.
My Amazon firestick 4K too uses a 5.1 V 2 amp power supply. I used it with R Pi 3b+ and it worked fine in normal load, but it gave under voltage error (due to only 2 amp power supply) when I used it with some graphics processing.

So I recently ordered an official one from Amazon as it was a quick delivery. And after that no under voltage error for me now. I also thought of saving some bucks by searching some after market power adopters but finally bought official one for peace of mind. I ordered a Pi 4 power supply (which is USB-C) for Pi 3b+( which is a micro USB) and using it with “usb-c to micro usb converter”.
Link to official adopter on Amazon

There is some good info here…

1 Like
18

A few useful scripts to check if your Pi is being throttled:

and another

#!/bin/bash

#Flag Bits
UNDERVOLTED=0x1
CAPPED=0x2
THROTTLED=0x4
SOFT_TEMPLIMIT=0x8
HAS_UNDERVOLTED=0x10000
HAS_CAPPED=0x20000
HAS_THROTTLED=0x40000
HAS_SOFT_TEMPLIMIT=0x80000


#Text Colors
GREEN=`tput setaf 2`
RED=`tput setaf 1`
NC=`tput sgr0`

#Output Strings
GOOD="${GREEN}NO${NC}"
BAD="${RED}YES${NC}"

#Get Status, extract hex
STATUS=$(vcgencmd get_throttled)
STATUS=${STATUS#*=}

echo -n "Status: "
(($STATUS!=0)) && echo "${RED}${STATUS}${NC}" || echo "${GREEN}${STATUS}${NC}"

echo "Undervolted:"
echo -n "   Now: "
((($STATUS&UNDERVOLTED)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"
echo -n "   Run: "
((($STATUS&HAS_UNDERVOLTED)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"

echo "Throttled:"
echo -n "   Now: "
((($STATUS&THROTTLED)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"
echo -n "   Run: "
((($STATUS&HAS_THROTTLED)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"

echo "Frequency Capped:"
echo -n "   Now: "
((($STATUS&CAPPED)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"
echo -n "   Run: "
((($STATUS&HAS_CAPPED)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"

echo "Softlimit:"
echo -n "   Now: "
((($STATUS&SOFT_TEMPLIMIT)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"
echo -n "   Run: "
((($STATUS&HAS_SOFT_TEMPLIMIT)!=0)) && echo "${BAD}" || echo "${GOOD}"
1 Like
19

Ok..

  • I got the official Raspberry Pi adaptor and plugged it in
  • installed the full desktop version on my Pi
  • No lightning icon
  • ssd not getting recognised

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The sata connector could be the problem but it works fine on my PC.. the ssd remains visible.. unlike in the PI where it is visible when i 1st turn it on… then it disappears after a few minutes.. and doesnt appear even after reboot.

I will try to share the logs if possible

20

On PC you connected SSD directly to motherboard or with usb to Sata adapter?