Recording to external USB powered drive on U4

mrcell · Post by **mrcell** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:26

I'm still tossing up upgrading my T3 to a U4. The front panel display has died entirely on the T3 now so it's seat of the pants sometimes e.g. I changed my last firmware update from NOFORCE to FORCE because I wouldn't be able to see the prompts

Anyway, my plan would be to get the U4 with the lowest capacity internal drive for time shift, backups etc and record to an external drive. MrQuade has helpfully commented on a few posts that the modern BWs are fine to record to anything they can see. My question is whether anyone is reliably recording to a USB powered external drive rather than an external drive with its own power supply?

Ideally I'd like to avoid having one more device plugged into the power board behind the AV cabinet but only if there isn't likely to be any down side from permanently recording to a USB powered drive. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:41

The U4 has a USB3 port that can supply up to 1000mA. That makes it a better prospect for using bus-powered HDDs that the older models with USB2 ports that can only supply 500mA.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 13:09

Hi Mrcell,

mrcell wrote: ↑
Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:26
I'm still tossing up upgrading my T3 to a U4. The front panel display has died entirely on the T3 now so it's seat of the pants sometimes e.g. I changed my last firmware update from NOFORCE to FORCE because I wouldn't be able to see the prompts

The display issue results from a power supply fault that is easily, inexpensively and fully correctable. Contact Mark (Warkus) on this forum for assistance. (http://decisivecomputersolutions.com.au/contact.html)

Regards,
Ian.

mrcell · Post by **mrcell** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 19:49

Thanks Peter & Ian,

It's handy to know that the U4 should be ok recording on bus powered drives but it's not the end of the world if I had to go with an externally powered drive.

I've sent Warkus an email to see if he can help with the T3 display. Again not the end of the world to continue with no display but if it's easy to fix, why not...

Steve