Hi all,
Today I tried to send the following message to WD Assistence. I was very disappointed for the product and I wanted to send my feedbacks to them but once I tried to submit a ticket I found another issue. The system asked me for a serial number or a model number. There also was the help on where to get these info. But they there weren’t in my package.
For this reason I put my message here.
Message to WDLabs support:
Hi,
I just receive a WD Pi Drive enclosure and I must admit I am very disappointed. I couldn’t believe WD could create a product like this. I know, it is a very cheap enclosure but something better could be produced. First, I was very shocked when I realized that the two pieces are absolutely moveable and couldn’t be attached each other with screws. Raspberry card and HDD are separated by plastic separator but there is high risk they touch each other, in particular if someone use its own cables. No where is written that cable of WD PI Drive must be used. However, at this point I am not interested to buy it. The enclosure is design to stay in a living room but it is opened on top and if you put it lower then you eyes everything inside is visible. I do not know if it is possible have a refund and send the package back. If I have to pay for that, considering the cost, I prefer to put it in a trash. I am sorry if I am so rude, but I am very disappointed. I bought in the recent months several WD products (HDD and others) and I always found very high quality.
Thank you for the feedback and I’m sorry to hear about the experience you’ve had with the product.
The cable that comes with the kit ensures comfortable, organized and safe power and data delivery from the Pi to the PiDrive or any other WD 2.5" external USB drive so it’s recommended to use it.
If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I’ll help with whatever I can.
Have in mind that you can always contact our Live Support for help, opinions or any questions that you may have.
I love the design and it was huge style upgrade from cardboard_box to sleek black plastic but :
I was surprised that enclosure have absolutely no fasteners for drive (nor for pi just slide in). Will it not have a negative repercussions on hdd life span ? due to vibration or sth ? also I have to add additionality plastic separator between pi and drive because real danger of pi touching drive cover and short circuit.
Srlsy no top cover. Shame on you WD. How much it would cost to add piece of cover ?
Thanks for the good words on the design of the enclosure. I will make sure to deliver the concerns and suggestions to the guys at the R&D department, thank you for them!
Here’s a bit more info on the enclosure that I can share with you:
We do make other enclosures with different usages and purposes. Some of them have covers, other snap together and have shock absorbers, etc.
This particular one is designed the way it is to provide a temporary storage space for the Pi and a drive as most people simply have their devices laying around on a table or a desk for a bit before tinkering with them again and needed something for short term storage and easy access. The lack of top cover allows people to still observe their devices inside as most people prefer to have that while tinkering with the Pi and the drive. In regards to the shorting, there is a rubber bumper or two that is attached to the enclosure that should prevent this from happening.
If you have any other questions or concerns I’d be more than happy to help with whatever I can!
I initially had a similar feeling about it but have grown to like it since it makes it fairly easy to get to the pi and organize the cables.
However, I have a more negative feeling about the WD PiDrive Cable Kit (2A) kit sold on High-Performance SSDs, HDDs, USB Drives, & Memory Cards | Western Digital. I realize now that the raspberry pi 3 would prefer a 2.5 amp power supply but I can’t boot the pi even without the pi drive attached. It seems like a very inferior power supply that does not look like what is pictured, is very flimsy, light and thin and when I connect it to my phone (Asus Zenfone 2) it says “charging using USB” whereas my decent Anker brand chargers that are 2amp all say “charging using AC”. Wondering if perhaps I received the wrong part or if it’s defective? It’s not a huge deal I guess since it cost $5 difference but if I had read more carefully I would have skipped it and put the money towards an Anker charger.
Also I’d like to reiterate along with what the grandparent said: that the pull down under warranty support needs to allow items that don’t have serial numbers as well as the pidrive. That’s just bad UX and I am sure phone calls cost WD way more than emails…
Anyways, I would appreciate an answer if possible since I can’t contact support about this.
Hello runamok Thank you for the detailed feedback.
I’m sorry to hear about the problematic experience with the cable. Could you post a photo of the items that you have received so we are sure you got the correct ones?
It is stated under the compatibility list that the Raspberry Pi 3 should be used with a 5V 2.5A power adapter.
I will do some checking and will get back at you shortly.
It’s not the cable that is the issue but rather the power supply… The rest of the kit looks like what is pictured and works fine with my other power supply which I believe is 2.4 amps.
You should still be able to boot your Raspberry Pi 3 with that kit without anything attached to it.
Try contacting our live support for this and see what the guys there can do about it.
