OT Tech question
RAMWolff
Posts: 10,343
Hi,
At the salon we have this little known of RCA that's controlled by an Android tablet sort of interface. This gives me the opportunity to download music apps like Rocket Player that creates some great playlists and other functions I haven't found in other players. I have my music collection on an external USB 2 drive that I have connected to the mini USB port in which the Rocket Player app reads just fine and works.
The other day the unit hiccuped and I reset the entire tablet and so got back the audio drivers that I think must have gotten corrupted or something. So I was thinking I needed to buy a new mini harddrive for it to back up the current music just in case. Well my new drive arrived from Amazon post haste... it's a USB 3. I thought "OK, I have a way to hook this to the RCA no problem since it's USB backwards compatible. WRONG. The current drive has an external power connection, the new drive does not. So now I have this issue. I can't find another USB 2 drive that's compact that has an external power source. The RCA won't power this new drive up so I'm stuck.
Is there a way to cobble an external power for the new drive with some cable system that has a USB 3 on one end and a power adapter and USB 2 on the other? I really hate to have to keep looking for a drive that fits my needs as eventually this current drive will give it up (that or the RCA will LOL).
Thanks for any help or suggestions
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Removable-Android-Bluetooth-Speakers/dp/B00GIYYVO8
Rich
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Comments
You could use a USB hub that uses a power adapter.
I looked at that option just now... not sure if that's the route I need. I looked at AC USB powered hubs and found that most folks mentioned that they are not used for actually powering up a drive only for data transfer. :-( Since the RCA using USB 2 tech I guess any drive I attach to it needs an external ac power supply to make it go zoom zoom!
That would be a better option. Buy an externally powered hard drive such as some of the WD "My Book" drives. Even if it has regular USB plug you could use an adapter such as this https://www.amazon.com/BestDealUSA-Female-Mini-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00841AGCO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1472692045&sr=8-4&keywords=usb+to+mini+adapter to convert it to mini
Yes, have that already. Like I said the drive won't power under what ever USB feature this unit is offering. I need an external way to power the drive so it spins up to make the data transfer back and forth.
Please re-read my post. What I said was to purchase another external drive that has it's own power adapter such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-FireWire-Desktop-External/dp/B000WBJDUA/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1472696526&sr=8-20&keywords=powered+external+Hard+Drive THEN you could use that adapter if needed
ETA to provide link for hard drive
This is not quite true, only partially. If the PSU for the USB hub provides enough amps then it will power any device that draws less than those amps. All that is necessary is that the power supplied is high enough to actually pull the spin-up of the drive (the largest draw). In general, if you can get a powered hub that has 2A you should be golden as far as power goes. Many cheap powered hubs only provided the base 1A that USB1 specifies as necessary, for many USB powered drives 1A is not quite enough to get everything moving.
EDIT: I had a Rosewill 7-port powered USB3 hub (with 8th port for charging only) that was a beast. It was less than $30 and could be found for much less than that at times. I loaned it to a "friend" and it never made its way back home. :( I routinely used multiple USB powered drive on that hub.
Kendall
Thanks Charlie. Popped that into my cart unless Kendall can instruct me on how to use a charging hub....
I couldn't find your Ken but I did find this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-SuperSpeed-Charging-Adapter-Support/dp/B00RM5OF70/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1472751621&sr=8-3-fkmr2&keywords=Rosewill+7-port+powered+USB3+hub
So if this will work instruct me on how to make this work to rev up the hardrive. There is only one port on the drive so not sure how this would work.
Thanks so much
Rich
Sorry, was a long day yesterday. The one I had is no longer sold, but this one is very nice and I'm looking to possibly get one myself: http://plugable.com/products/usb3-hub7-81x/
It has 5A of power, a dedicated charging port and 7 USB 3.0 data ports and only $30 US.
Kendall
So still not understanding how that works though Kendall. Do I plug in the drive to the charging port and then run a USB cabe from a port on the charger to the RCA device in hopes that it revs up the drive and makes it readable to the music app I have on board?
No. If the drive is a USB 3.0 drive, just plug it into a USB 3 data port. It will draw the necessary power from there. The Amperage figure is the maximum draw across all of the ports (including the charging port). So even if you're charging a particularly hungry iPhone (at 2.1+ Amps) you still have 2.9A left to use for the data ports. Most USB drives are around 1.1-1.4 Amps for spinup at max, with the majority closer to 1.1.
If your RCA device can use a hub at all, then plugging the hub into the RCA device, and the drive into the hub (a data port) should do the trick.
Kendall
OK. I'll order it then and see what happens. Thanks Kendall! If it doesn't work for what ever reason then I have a nice USB 3 hub for the house and I have the HD drive that Charlie suggested in my Wish list at Amazon.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like you will still need to connect the USB hub to something that will allow you to copy the files. Since the RCA device is being controlled by the tablet, I assume that would be that the tablet.
All the USB hubs have a number of USB input ports and one output ports. The output port is a mini plug. You normally plug that into a computer. If you want to use the tablet, then you would need to plug it into the tablet and since a tablet has a miniport too, then you would need an adaptor to go from a mini port to a mini port. The hub will come with a mini to usb cable.
If you just want to copy the music on your flash drive to your external hard drive then just connect them both to your computer and copy the files from one device to the other. When connected to the computer, they will both be assigned a drive letter, so you can just open two Computer windows and copy from one to the other. If you don't have enough ports available on your computer, then you would need the hub. Connect the output fo the hub (the mini port) to the computer using the supplied cable and then attach all the devices you need to copy from and to and then copy away.
If the RCA device has internal storage that you want to copy, then you would need to connect it to the hub too. It should also get a drive letter as well. Or does the RCA only play what is on the memory stick?
I assume you could do all this with the tablet with the right cables, but I have never tried it.
But to me, it seems like it would be easier to just use a computer.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure you could do this using a tablet. Does a tablet have a utitlity like windows explorer (MyComputer, Computer)? You need something like that so you can see a list of files and then copy them from one device to the other. I've never see a utiltiy like that. But I have never looked. If I want to copy something from or two my tablet, I just connect it to my computer.
No, no copying. The music is already on the portable drive, I just need it to be powered up is all since the USB 3 from the drive to mini USB 2 port on the side of the RCA tablet for what ever reason will not power up the drive in order for it to be read....
Almost all android tablets/phones/devices come with a file manager app, for those that don't there are 2 very good ones: ES File Manager/Explorer (the name changed along the way) and Astro File Manager. Any tablet with OTG (on the go) can access standard USB devices that don't require specialized drivers.
Kendall
Speaking of transferring things. I got a new android phone, Moto X Pure Edition... love it so far BUT the old messages from my texting didn't come over from the Nexus 4. IS there a way to make that happen? I have some MMS stuff in there too. I did download a couple of apps, installed them on both phones, followed the instructions but nothing happened. Wondering if there was a way to open each phone on my Windows machine and copy out the texts from the Nexus 4 and the drop them into the Moto X phone?
Who is your carrier?
Kendall
AT&T whom have told me there is nothing they can do about getting these messages over to my new phone which seems weird to me!
hmmm. I also have at&t (evil empire) and I used the "backup" feature they have to transfer the texts. I had a LG Optimus Pro and bought a LG Flex2 and used that feature to move all of the stored data. You might want to look into it, the service is free.
Kendall
Well both phones are unlocked and not ones they sell or have in their data base. I think if they would have had them I would have these options. I remember going to that page and couldn't find even a tiny reference to the Nexus 4 or the Moto X Pure Edition so I guess I may be out of luck!