How much current does the My Passport Ultra draw? Can a Raspberri Pi (USB2.0) drive it?
Hello,
This should be possible, i have not tried this on mine, but lets see if another user can share some information or tips on this matter. On this link, you could find some help on this:
https://community.wd.com/c/wdlabs/wdlabs-community
Yes (i have tested several WD Portable Drives, All different Sizes [Ultras, Elements, Pi Drives etc] … and they all work fine)
But … 3 Things
- You must have at minimum a 2A 5V Power Supply [a good quality one]
- Only One Portable HDD will work at a time (but you can plug in as many externally powered as you want)
- You also need to add the following lines inside the config.txt on the SD Card
max_usb_current=1
safe_mode_gpio=4
My Passport Ultra is on loan to a family member … but here’s a pic of my 2TB WD Elements with a Voltage Tester connected to the Raspberry Pi 3 to give you an idea of of the Current Draw, Voltage, Amps etc …
Thanks, I have a 2.4A power supply.
What do the config lines do?
I will have all 4 USB occupied with
- keyboard2. mouse
- old hard drive with its own power4. new Passport drive
Looked up the max_usb line, so never mind on that.
Found a comment that the safe_mode line is not necessary.
Before I do the edit, as a FYI, the Passport does mount with just the keyboard/mouse ports used.
(because it only draws .22A?)
i like to keep it … it doesn’t hurt to have it
forgot to mention … .22A is draw when the drive is “idle”
it will increase when under load
eg. this is playing a uncompressed Bluray 22GB 1080p mkv@25Mbps
Just a FYI, can access the drive OK, had a handful of corrupted inode file/directories on it which I cleaned out by reformating it on a Win7 box. I’m getting a no SES driver issue on the win which I can’t seem to get around so may have to return this and try another manuf.
Thank you for this information posted almost three years ago. I have a slightly different situation, but is still germane to this thread (rather that starting a new one) and was hoping that you, or others, may have any additional advice.
Scenario/Givens
The RPi 3B+ has a maximum total USB peripheral draw of 1.2A
The 5v power supply has a stable 2.5A, or sothey say
Keyboard and mouse are generally not in use, but might be from time to time, but when they are in use, I’m not knowledgeable as to their collective draw.
Presently, Raspbian (NOOBS install) boots from SD card, but I’m hoping that my WD My Passport Ultra (alone) can be used instead of the SD card to run the RPi.
I’ve read that use of a USB hub to power the external hard drive will end up creating an issue with back-powering the RPi, and should not be attempted.
Any thoughts please?
It’s true. I’ve bought power 5V 2.5A power supplies for $20 and they work fine … cheaper ones are garbage, they can power flash drives without a problem, but hard drives virtually a no go. The ‘unstable’ 5V 2.5A i have can only handle a 314GB WD Pi Drive and that’s it.
have never tried booting from hard drive … i’m happy with SD Card Booting as it’s Fast, and i can swap out the SD Card with different OS’s
Anyways, have been using a WD My Passport Ultra 4TB with my Raspberry Pi 3 directly connected via USB (no USB hub) for years now (also works fine with a USB Dongle for Keyboard/Mouse Combo) … in that time not one single problem. Has worked perfectly.
Have never used one on the Raspberry Pi … but i have seen a powered USB hub back powering my PC even when it’s completely shutdown, which i wasn’t keen on.
I have been running a Passport 2TB on a Raspberry Pi 4 with a powered USB hub for a few years.
The way I have been able to get it to operate is to remove the power cord from the USB hub when rebooting the Raspbery Pi 4.
I posted on this thread to see if anyone had trouble using the device with the Raspberry Pi 4 (using the Raspberry Pi POE hat) with the USB hub enabled.
I’m using the drive as media server but I’m considering adding a WD Green NVM in the future.
There should be enough voltage to operate the drive but it times out when playing HDMI videos.
I was looking for any tips.
I’m using both a Rpi 3 and Rpi 4 with a 4TB WD Passport on each Pi.
Admittingly, i’m not using a Pi POE hat on either of them.
Both Pi’s are using genuine Raspberry Pi branded power supplies and both can sufficiently power the 4TB Passports without the need for external usb hubs.
The only thing i add in the config.txt boot file is …
max_usb_current=1
safe_mode_gpio=4 (not needed for the Pi 4, but doesn’t hurt if it’s there)
No problems or HDMI video times out ever.
I had nothing but trouble keeping the fan down on the one that had the 2tb Passport. It runs headless so the video features aren’t need nor is the Bluetooth or WiFi.
The USB powered hub helps keep it more quiet when the fan is turned on. After following the suggestions to change the USB power, the system still runs the fan even after suggested modifications have been made while 13.5 watts doesn’t seem to do the job.
The other two in the cluster are ok with no external drive in one of them while the other has a WD book drive that is running fine thanks to the separate power supply
