External hard drive question

[deegore]

Hi all,
I'm using an old 250gb sata laptop HDD with an externality powered adapter. It works great, but I'd like to get away from needing the extra power cord.
I bought This HDD enclosure, and This y-cable.
The HDD seemed to power up fine, but the wiiu wouldn't read it.
Next, I opened the wiiu up and soldered the points from This post.
The Wii u still acts like there is no HDD connected.
What should I try next?

 

[Antics]

I personally would never recommend modifying/overriding power rails. From an engineering standpoint, USB2.0 is designed for .5A per spec -- forcing anything otherwise is begging for issues (especially since any rail is not going to be "unlimited" and the power will have to come from another source). If you want to get away from the external power requirement, my strong opinion is to utilize a SSD instead of HDD.

HDDs require a larger power load and even with a 2.5in drive, usually require too much of a drain to spin up properly at .5A. I personally have moved over to this enclosure with an older SSD and it works perfectly while also providing USB3.0 connectivity should I need to use it for anything else (data recovery/transfers or the like).


I'm sure others will disagree and have their own opinion, but that's my recommendation.

 

[Sypherone]

Overriding the Powercercuit is a nice idea.
Didn`t knew about that it could be done on wiiu. But the question is, for security reason bevor something is damaged, where is the limit. On the Vita- TV its known that a permanent external drive will burn the components on the board. The Components are designed for a specific amount of (constant) power.

Maybe a weaker buildin resistance for max up to 0.9a (USB 3.0) should work, instead giving full Power on both.
Hmm... so a build in resistance for max 0.5a in this postion for both port should also work.
Because the Power seeks always the shortest way. If this extra circuit is longer, the missing power would be pulled over this.
One resistance with 0.5 for both is enough i think. Because Iam using a third frontport to power two hdd drives with y-cable. The spike Power, the moment when it needs most (around 0.7a), is when the hdd starts spinning. Then it normalize around 0.3a or 0.4 a.

Normaly If u use only one HDD, plug the y- cable in the second free port. !? Alternativ use a longer one to reach the front ports.
For the recognizing problem of your hdd in the enclousure. If the hdd worked bevor, be sure the enclousure is supported by the WiiU. The WiiU doesn`t even like usbcard-adapter.
If u check this Forum, u will find a lot of Problems and Troubleshooting of recognizing hdd by WiiU. Maybe there is a Solution.

 

[raging_chaos]

Use an older/different enclosure, that one you have is probably being presented as an internal drive instead of as a USB mass storage device (UASP vs BOT). When you connected it to a PC does it show up as an internal or a USB drive? If it shows up as an internal drive then you definitely need a different enclosure since the Wii U can only use Mass Storage. If it shows up as a USB Mass Storage device then there's some sort of incompatibility with the combination you are using, some enclosures only work with certain drives since the Wii U can be picky.

As far as Y-cables go they are not part of the USB spec but by using one you're just increasing the available amperage and it is no different than connecting two batteries in parallel. In the Wii U's case, you would be getting 1A to work with. The only real downside is if you are using two USB ports that don't output the same amperage (ex: .5 + 1) but that isn't a problem with the Wii U's ports. However, you've modded the power rail so you shouldn't need a Y-cable at all.

TLDR: This is going to come down to an enclosure incompatibility, not a power issue.

 

[RAHelllord]

Quite frankly if you want more power just via USB plugs you'd have to get a powered USB 3 hub that plugs into the wall separately. Personally I have one of those connected to my Wii U, and I use 3 ports for the Wii U and the others power other USB devices for my TV corner, like a bluetooth transmitter / passthrough for my stereo system, my Retrotink 5x Pro, an HDMI splitter, and some other bits and pieces.

Soldering around inside the Wii U to allow the ports to carry more power can damage nearby components if you're pulling more amps through the circuit than it's meant to handle, which is not a good idea if you care about longevity.

 

[V10lator]

The Wii u still acts like there is no HDD connected.

Some HDD/adapter/enclosure combinations just won't work on the Wii U, so test another enclosure.
For me a expensive SATA to USB adapter with 5 star rating from Amazon didn't work but a cheap one from Alibaba did, for example.

But the question is, for security reason bevor something is damaged, where is the limit.

It's really just an artificial limit Nintendo choosed to do. They are using a SOT23-6 to limit and the soldering @deegore did just bridges over this (connecting the 5 V rail from before that limiting chip directly to USB VCC). There's nothing other bridged. All capacitors and stuff still in place.

//EDIT:

It works great, but I'd like to get away from needing the extra power cord.

Stupid question but did you try that one without connecting the extra power cord?

 

[deegore]

The powered adapter won't do anything when not plugged in.
The external case shows up as USB mass storage on my computer, but doesn't assign a drive letter. Maybe that's because the HDD is formatted for the Wii u. I don't have another HDD to test.
The case does say uasp compatible.
Can anyone recommend a case that's known to work?

 

[Sypherone]

It's really just an artificial limit Nintendo choosed to do. They are using a SOT23-6 to limit and the soldering @deegore did just bridges over this (connecting the 5 V rail from before that limiting chip directly to USB VCC). There's nothing other bridged. All capacitors and stuff still in place.

Do u know a limit that can be pulled constantly by the rail without killing the board components?
Its like home where u have incoming circuits and then home circuits secured with a fuse (max level). If there would no fuse, it would be possible to pull constant to much Power and burn the cable at home.

Now we make this Override. Sure if u connect directly to main circuit there is a higher Powerlevel but also a limit. In Case of the WiiU the Poweradapter provides with 15V and 5A in result with 75 W. Coverted to 5 V, theoretically u could take 15A by 5V. Dont know how much the WiiU Converter provides. But pulling this would be clear the end. By using all four ports we have a official limit from 2.0A (0.5 per port)