Disclaimer - This is my first post on this site, so I'm going to try to be strait forward and concise, I'm sorry if any info I give lacks a certain panache.
First and foremost, if you want to use a hard drive on your phone through an HD dock, you must format your hard drive to Fat32. This is a very basic, but unavoidable step. That is if you don't want to make the entire process way more complicated. I used Easeus Partition Manager to format my entire 250GB hard drive (impressive I know). You can use other partition manager software, but Easeus is the one I'm used to, and I found a free download of it, which works perfectly on my old XP PC.
The Second step is to make sure you have enough power to make your hard drive usable, and thus be recognized by your phone. I used a USB hub with a Y-Cable and my phone charger to supply the extra power. Note: Do not put the additional USB power port on the HD dock, you will not get enough power. You have to use an additional power source for this method to work. I suggest using at least a 5V 1A charger, but my phone charger is 5.1V 850mA, and works perfectly.
Step Three is to connect the hard drive. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but there is some important things to know. Do not plug multiple storage devices into the hub. There seems to be some priority conflict when this happens. Thus, if you have a Thumb Drive and a Hard Drive, connect the Thumb drive to the HD dock directly, and the Hard Drive to the hub. I haven't tested if there is a similar conflict with two hard drives being plugged in to the hub simultaneously, nor two thumb drives. There also seems to be an issue where if you only have the hard drive plugged in, but no other storage device in any port, the hard drive still won't be detected. So, you may need to plug a thumb drive to your HD dock, and then a hard drive to the hub. This results in your phone calling the Hard Drive the same device name as the Thumb Drive, but the two are shown separately in the file manager.
The hub I used was a Micro Innovations 4-Port USB hub [Model # USB210P/USB210P-F], with a Mini USB port for the main data connection. As such, my Y-Cable was a Mini USB to Full USB Y-Cable. My USB enclosure for my hard drive was made by Manhattan, which has a single USB power/data connector. My Thumb Drive was a 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro. My additional charger was my stock Droid Bionic charger. I also used USB extension cords as needed.
In regards to my use of a hub and a Y-Cable there are a couple simple alternatives. One is to use a Y-Cable with a full sized female USB connection in stead of a Mini USB connector. This would allow you to forgo the USB hub. The other alternative is to, depending on the hub you have, use the provided wall charger to directly power the hub, thus not needing the phone charger, nor the Y-Cable.
This method of allowing your Hard Drive to work on your HD dock should work on other devices, as well as (with minimal alterations) silversonic1's guide "How to use USB Host without an HD Dock." http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1495720
Please let me know if this helped you, and feel free to post any additional info on your success and methods used.
Edit 05/28/12: My brother bought a power converter that gives 5V 2.1A, or an optional 5V 1A on two ports. It's an RCA AC to USB converter, model # PCHUSB2R. This adapter was able to supply enough power to my hard drive for it to be read without my Thumb Drive being plugged in as well. It appears that the biggest problem the HD Dock has is that it does not give enough power to charge the phone and power a hard drive through USB. The normal power supply provides 12V 1.5A to the Dock, but I don't know how that power is distributed throughout the Dock. This apparently causes problems, but the additional Amps from the new adapter resolves a lot of them.
Although, recently I've had the problem of the Hard Drive failing on the phone's OS, but not on the Webtop OS, so the hard drive is still usable where it needs to be. You just have to go into the Webtop's file manager to unmount it once your done, but sometimes it won't say it's unmounted, so be careful. Also, the hub solution still doesn't allow you to plug in extra storage devices. It seems you're limited to one storage device per USB port on the dock itself. So, a max of 3, while, theoretically, you should be able to plug in up to 7.
thanks for the concise guide, i've been mulling over NTFS hacks for a while but frankly id probably not be worth the time.
currently i have a USB hub connected to my lapdock by a USB A (back port on lapdock) to mini connector on the hub. correct me if im wrong, but if you actually own the HD or lap dock, USB host mode is activated for you and thus you do not require an OTG cable (assuming you have adequate power for your components)-
i'm working on trying to mount a USB dvd drive, it is being detected correctly however i wonder if the issue you presented with the HD failing to mount without the thumb drive could also present itself here? (seems like simply mounting the DVD shouldnt be too difficult, but device drivers for writing i havent come across..)
nitephlight said:
thanks for the concise guide, i've been mulling over NTFS hacks for a while but frankly id probably not be worth the time.
currently i have a USB hub connected to my lapdock by a USB A (back port on lapdock) to mini connector on the hub. correct me if im wrong, but if you actually own the HD or lap dock, USB host mode is activated for you and thus you do not require an OTG cable (assuming you have adequate power for your components)-
i'm working on trying to mount a USB dvd drive, it is being detected correctly however i wonder if the issue you presented with the HD failing to mount without the thumb drive could also present itself here? (seems like simply mounting the DVD shouldnt be too difficult, but device drivers for writing i havent come across..)
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
It may be mostly power consumption problems for the most part for my set-up. After all I have my Thumb Drive, my Hard Drive, and a wired keyboard with built in USB 1.0 hub (which I connected a wireless mouse dongle and a USB powered fan to). But I did notice that my particular Hard Drive enclosure and Laptop Hard Drive won't work without the extra power. The light on it will turn on, but the Hard Drive remains inactive.
I just ran another test with nothing but the hard drive plugged in, but it wasn't readable until it had both extra power and my Thumb Drive connected. I don't know what exactly is up with this, but I know someone (other than me) will figure it out. I simply am not experienced enough with programming nor diagnostics to be able to find the cause, but I at least can work around the symptoms.
Related
Bought a Nook Color (blue dot). Rooted and installed CM7 7.1.0-encore. Kernel is 2.6.32.9. Downloaded Nook Tweaks. Followed Moshe's instructions for connecting USB devices to the Nook. Using a powered USB hub. I also have the male/female adapter that verygreen referenced in his thread. Downloaded Root Explorer. No dice.
The Nook does not recognize any USB device. Please tell me what I did wrong or need to do differently. Thank you!!!
Anyone? Please?
USB host aside, the (micro)USB port puts out very little power. For most micro types, the nominal power output is 100mA, which isn't enough to power most USB devices, including most flash keys.
Self-powered USB devices will work. I had some 1st-gen iPod Shuffle that worked, since they're battery powered. Also an unpowered cardreader. I imagine that devices connected to a powered USB hub should also work, although I didn't test that firsthand.
Thank you. From what I've been able to glean, a powered USB hub will allow non-selfpowered devices to be accessed/mounted by the NC. But I can plug in any USB device and it never gets ANY acknowledgement by the NC.
I read somewhere that an app may be interfering with the USB host mode.
Should I attempt to wipe downloaded apps off of the Nook? Should I just try a full wipe/format/reinstall?
Any insight would be appreciated. I've tried to find anything that I missed. But I'm running out of ideas.
From what I've read, success rate with powered hub is itself spotty. It's kind of hit-and-miss.
First thing is try w/o the hub to remove it from the equation. The techsupp mantra for troubleshooting is to minimize your configuration. Your variables are then the Nook itself, your software OS config, the cable, and the device.
Assuming the first two are OK, then find an eligible low-powered device like certain card readers, or a keyboard, or a self-powered device (some MP3 players with USB mass storage), or a HDD powered by a Y-cable connected to a laptop. Second, find a different micro-USB cable if none of the above work. Last, find somebody close by with a CM7 Nook to compare if all else fails.
Once you have at least a known-good setup, then expand from there by trying new periphs, like powered (or non-powered) hubs, et al.
I'll assume the obvious that you've enabled Host Mode in Nook Tweaks, check your /mnt/usbdisk, only FAT16/32 format and no NTFS, no multiple partitions, etc.
Good luck. If all else fails, you can wait for the CM9 with built-in host mode and see if that works better.
Can you specify what exactly you did? which hub?
Which usb devices you tried? and please provide logs
Check my POST for working with a powered-hub
when looking at the storage control panel, it lists internal, sdcard-ext, and then "/mnt/usbdisk_1.1.1" and says "insert an [sic] USB disk for mounting".
so if i were to come up with some sort of adapter, could i plug a thumb drive into my phone's micro usb port to move files between the phone and the thumb drive? i can think of plenty of times that would be useful!
Tried. OTG cable works with Samsung galaxy S2 devices (Skyrocket using either SKY ICS or rooted OTA) but haven't got it to work on our Droids...(Bionic ICS leak, RAZR ICS OTA, Droid 4 ICS OTA...all rooted).
But if someone can prove me wrong I'd be happy to "eat my words" ...
Be strong and very Koragus, my ninja...
OTG works, BUT only in a very cumbersome way, since external power is needed.
A powered USB hub does not suffice, since it only powers the slave devices, not the host (= phone). The phone must be in charge-mode, which requires a Y-cable.
You need:
- an OTG adapter
- a USB hub with mini-USB in
- a USB Y cable with 2 normal USB plugs and one mini-USB out
Then
1. Connect the OTG adapter to your phone's micro-USB input
2. Connect the 'middle' USB plug of the USB Y cable into the OTG adapter
3. Connect the 'outer' USB plug of the USB Y cable to a charger (can be a portable battery as well)
4. Connect the mini-USB plug of the USB Y cable to the hub output
5. Connect any device you want to use to the USB hub
It looks like this (found this picture for Razr):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/teppan_hakushaku/6817735705/
Edit: I verified it for Droid 4 last week, but didn't take my own picture yet. Works with ICS .215 leak, no 3rd party apps (like 'StickMount') seem to be needed.
Edit2: According to some other posts in this forums (search for 'OTG') it will only work for FAT32 formatted drives. Didn't check this in detail but my drive was already FAT32. Also I found it did not work for my cheap wireless keyboard's USB dongle, but connecting a wired keyboard worked fine.
...reminded again why I love this community...
...no possible links to a purchase of this "y" cable?
Be strong and very Koragus, my ninja...
Glad I could help!
They come with some portable harddisks, so that's where I got mine. Not sure about the linking policy on XDA, please remove if not allowed. Here's an example:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-2-0-mini-5-pin-to-a-male-power-y-cable-62-cm-65630?item=10
Can I connect my 1TB Western Digital Ext HDD (USB powered) to my Note (GT-N7000, Stock 4.0.4 with Hydracore 5.4 Std)
I tried formatting one partition to FAT32 as well, but no luck..is it bcz of lack of power to the HDD to run?
Of course you can connect. Only your external hard drive in addition to using the USB connection must have a second source of electricity. USB connector on the phone is too inefficient.
Gregs5 said:
Of course you can connect. Only your external hard drive in addition to using the USB connection must have a second source of electricity. USB connector on the phone is too inefficient.
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Ok..but how can I do that? My Ext HDD is USB powered..is there any way I can provide the HDD with power supply, using some kind of cables/adapters or something?
If your external drive has no additional power outlet, then connect it to your phone is not possible. Attempts to various modifications may damage the phone.
You need a Y split USB cable, something similar to this:
http://compare.ebay.com.au/like/280750493818?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes
NOTE: that was just first USB cable I found using google, I'm not suggesting/related to that ebay seller in any way! Do your own research, you may be able to buy locally for cheaper.
cheddarchi said:
You need a Y split USB cable, something similar to this:
http://compare.ebay.com.au/like/280750493818?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes
NOTE: that was just first USB cable I found using google, I'm not suggesting/related to that ebay seller in any way! Do your own research, you may be able to buy locally for cheaper.
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Hmmm...so, it cannot be used as "portable" as a pendrive..as it needs external power (PC/Laptop OR some external battery)..so better option would be 64GB or higher pendrive (if needed desperately)
anyone played around with usb device support?
e.g. running a mouse and keyboard and external drive from a usb hub?
Ive been messing about and seeing what works, £1.99 adapter from ebay, awesome.
my keyboard works great, as do usb memory sticks, usb micro sd card reader, usb hard drive works with a usb hub for power oh usb hub worked great too. I just tried an old apple usb mouse and thats working lovely.
Also my usb midi adapter appears to work.
Thats all Ive tried so far, but for such a cheap price Im really happy with it
very nice. thanks.
fwiw, what I'm seeking to do is to simultaneously:
- charge the phone
- drive a mouse/keyboard/external hard drive
- drive a monitor (or tv) (just starting to research this one)
essentially turn the phone into my "tower" for some desktop type computing
all this may require some creative cable splicing and fab.
incidentally I'll share this one that I've stumbled across in my travels:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1806589
Hi friends. I have a 1TB Sony hard drive(NTFS,2.5") that I would like to connect to my xperia Z(Lollipop 5.1.1). If I connect the HDD to my mobile using OTG cable,my hard drive is not getting detected by phone.so I tried using stickmount.when I press mount, my HDD gets detected for a split second and then vanishes.it shows unsupported format/damaged USB.so I tried another two apps.paragon and ntfs mount.but still my HDD is not getting detected by my mobile.so can u guys help me on solving this problem?
Use only HDDs with external power(split "Y" USB cable or second port for power).
Phone cant just like that power it self and 1TB Hard Drive. I tested my xperia with few drivers, and most of them work only for few minutes if they didnt had external power. And also its should be exFAT or Fat32
Also You realize that you can Mess up your HDD when you connect disconnect power to it?
Even if modern Hard Drivers automatically park head to start position when not used, you still can damage it by powering it on/off when connecting to eg. Phone.
Remember that its still a phone, even if it have Raw power of old PC and android have lots of customization options, its still pretty dumb device in terms of working with other devices(and for ACTUAL work).
Im using every day flashdrivers OTG and microUSB ones, but when I connect my external HDD I always use my power bank and "Y" shaped USB cable, because I know that phone cant handle it for to long without a problems.
Also "Y" shaped USB cable is cool because you can always charge two devices at once So i keep it close to my power bank in bag.
But i can connect the hdd(with the ordinary USB cable, not the Y shaped one)to my brother's mobile without any power source and it works perfectly. He is using Huawei honour 4C mobile.
Akinaro said:
Use only HDDs with external power(split "Y" USB cable or second port for power).
Phone cant just like that power it self and 1TB Hard Drive. I tested my xperia with few drivers, and most of them work only for few minutes if they didnt had external power. And also its should be exFAT or Fat32
Also You realize that you can Mess up your HDD when you connect disconnect power to it?
Even if modern Hard Drivers automatically park head to start position when not used, you still can damage it by powering it on/off when connecting to eg. Phone.
Remember that its still a phone, even if it have Raw power of old PC and android have lots of customization options, its still pretty dumb device in terms of working with other devices(and for ACTUAL work).
Im using every day flashdrivers OTG and microUSB ones, but when I connect my external HDD I always use my power bank and "Y" shaped USB cable, because I know that phone cant handle it for to long without a problems.
Also "Y" shaped USB cable is cool because you can always charge two devices at once So i keep it close to my power bank in bag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But i can connect the hdd(with the ordinary USB cable, not the Y shaped one)to my brother's mobile without any power source and it works perfectly. He is using Huawei honour 4C mobile.