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I have a couple of HDDs that I use to store lossless music ripped from CDs. How do others get on with connecting multiple drives to their Pi? A powered USB hub is an obvious solution – any recommendations, or is this one of those hifi foo things where anything half-decent will do? 
Ta,
Graham
The second one you said… I recommend also cutting the 5 volts power rail of the usb cable that goes from the hub to the Pi… Doing so prevents the usb hub dc to pollute the pi's dc…
admin said
The second one you said… I recommend also cutting the 5 volts power rail of the usb cable that goes from the hub to the Pi… Doing so prevents the usb hub dc to pollute the pi's dc…
Just the 5V rail, leaving the ground connected? I'll guess this has already been tried – presumably the +5V isn't needed by the Pi for handshaking? I know some DACs can get upset if they don't 'see' the +5V, at least to start communications.
I didn't know this… Mine works flawlessly without the 5v rail… But this cuold be a matter of interest… Have you tried ?
You're right about those 'smart USB' implementations on some DACs, Graham – but leave the ground cable intact, just abort the 5V wire.
Also, if you're into tinkering, try connecting 5V directly to TP1(+) and TP2(-) on the Raspi, bypassing the Micro-USB connector (and, unfortunately, the polyfuse) and let us know if you hear any difference in sound quality.
admin said
I didn't know this… Mine works flawlessly without the 5v rail… But this cuold be a matter of interest… Have you tried ?
I'll check the details but as Derek says, there are problems with directly connecting to some DACs. The 5V is used to handshake, but then dropped during data transfer.
I'm quite inclined to bypass the Micro USB connector – I've had all sorts of problems with them on phones. Less of an issue on a Pi where it would be more fit and forget, but regular (dis)connecting seems to wear on the contacts resulting in charging issues (with phones).
Having 'invested' in a good quality USB cable which currently sits between my laptop and the S/PDIF converter I'm a little hesitant to start carving it! I'll find a cheap one to experiment on.
I'm still to plunge into the Pi. Nearly did a few days ago when a (allegedly) Model B came up for sale at a reasonable price. Only it wasn't… 256Mb, not 512. And as I plan to use Ramplay I'll perhaps be better off with the larger memory capacity. And the extra USB port. At present I'm being very good – I'm out of work and really shouldn't be spending money on such things! Hopefully I'll have good news today, in which case I may contact Element14… 
gjm said
I'm still to plunge into the Pi. Nearly did a few days ago when a (allegedly) Model B came up for sale at a reasonable price. Only it wasn't… 256Mb, not 512. And as I plan to use Ramplay I'll perhaps be better off with the larger memory capacity. And the extra USB port. At present I'm being very good – I'm out of work and really shouldn't be spending money on such things! Hopefully I'll have good news today, in which case I may contact Element14…
Probably teaching grandma to suck eggs, but the B originally came with 256Mb, up to mid October last year
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