Jamesemt

Can anyone give me some advice?

I bought a Kenwood car stereo with USB 'key' output, and also bought a portable USB 60GB hard drive off ebay (one of those which looks like SONY style writing on it).

When I connect the drive, the stereo shows 'NA DEVICE' - anyone know why? The hard drive worked fine when porting MP3s on my PC...

In the Kenwood car stereo manual, it states that it only powers USB drives up to 500(mv????-can't remember the units). Although the unit does power up and start spinning...

Bit disappointed cos I only chose the Kenwood cos of this facility (it's a bit of a munter in all other respects). I've also got to try and find a home for the portable drive

lightning101

I wouldn't have said 60gb was a keydrive to be honest.

ChrisB

Agreed, a keydrive to me says something up to 4 or 8GB flash memory, not a proper HD. The drive could well draw more than 500ma.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

May need more power supplied via the cigarette light socket.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

On one of the eBay auctions it says:

Q: Does this hard drive need any power supply?
A: In most cases, no. However, if you use some mini USB hubs that can't supply enough bus power, you can use the double USB cable to get more power

As above, I'd say it needs more power.

Jamesemt

Cheers - to be honest I'd kind of come to the same conclusion... How do I go about powering it up separately? There is only one mini USB connection on it...

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Did you get a double USB cable with it ? You'll need one of those and also something like this to provide more power.

Jamesemt

Sorry to sound thick, but how would you connect it all?

The disc drive is mini USB, I got a mini USB to large USB cable with a second large USB on it as well. So with it currently connected, I've got one spare large USB...do I just plug the spare USB up to the cigarette lighter?? The USB lead is split at the large end - surely meaning the extra power will simply go to the HU??

Is there any other way without using a cigarette lighter adapter, as I don't want wires trailing...I've got the disc drive below the HU in a pocket.

For anyone interested, this is the drive: 280017765915 on ebay...

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Exactly. Only other way would be to hardwire the adapter or another powered USB hub. Personally, I'd fit a powered USB hub into the back of the pocket under the stereo, so you can use it to charge other devices too.

Jamesemt

Do you know of anything which I could buy off the shelf and just wire up to the back of the cigarette lighter?

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Sorry, no. I'd hack up one of those adapters and hardwire that. Unlikely you'll find anything ready made that doesn't need chopping up.

Jamesemt

Cheers I'll give it a go. There is definately no way I can cause damage to my HU is there?

bob269

Why would you need 60gigs worth of music in your car, are you driving around the world

you can get a 4 gig usb pen which should hold plenty

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Anything's possible Should be fine though, the double USB cable you have is desgined for that purpose, all you're doing is supplying another USB port to get power from as you're not connecting it to a PC.

Jamesemt

lol not at 320kbps...and I can't be arsed to start down sizing my entire collection, plus my mp3s are on a PC which hardly ever gets switched on...

John Catlin

Plugging straight into cigarette lighter won't the voltage be incorrect for the drive ?

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

No, the adapters output 5V, 1000mA.

Jamesemt

Right, got the adapter and STILL the drive comes up as NA Device. Tried reformatting with Partition Magic to little effect...

So, do I go for the biggest compatible USB pen drive, or do I buy a card reader and use the 1Gig cards I've got for my camera...

This is doing my head in!!!!

Anyone got a 4GB pen drive they want to swap for my 60GB

kernel

Are there any formatting requirements, does the head unit only support FAT and you've formatted the drive ntfs?

Jamesemt

Yeah tried that!!

Will only support FAT32, hence me needing partition magic!