Bytecc 2.5" External Drive Enclosure - bus power supplies enough juice?

[Madison Kelly]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 08, 2006 at 01:07:48PM -0500, Madison Kelly wrote:
>> IIRC, Bytecc use a horrible chip which often locks up hard when you 
>> start a transfer of any decent size. I can't think of the chipset off 
>> the top of my head though, sorry. My personal opinion is to stay *far* 
>> away from Bytecc... they're cheap for a reason.
>>
>> On the other hand, I have had good luck with Vantec's line, though I 
>> have only used their 3.5" carriers. Generally speaking though; any 
>> carrier that draws power from the USB bus will need ~500mA which is more 
>> than the spec allows (350mA/channel). To get around this they generally 
>> give you a USB pass-through cable that provides extra power for the 
>> drive. These pass-throughs should only be put in between low-power or 
>> self-powered USB devices (ie: a mouse).
>>
>> The real test is to look at the power draw on the hard drive you want to 
>> use and add ~20/30mA for the controller. Then see if one or two ports 
>> will provide enough power for you.
> 
> I thought USB 2.0 increased the power limit over what USB 1.1 allowed.
> I have certainly read of needing the extra cable on USB 1.1 systems
> while not needing it on USB 2.0 systems.
> 
> Len Sorensen

To be fair, this might have been a limitation of my PCMCIA USB2's 
channels as opposed to the proper USB2.0 spec... Please let me know what 
you find out!

Madison

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