[amck10]

Hi All

I am sure that there is an easy answer to this but my quick searches over the past couple of weeks can't find the answer.

I have:
R-Pi B+
Noobs pre installed on the R-Pi supplied micor SD card
Powered by a cheap micro USB into an old iphone charge
Wi-pi
Powered USB hub that has a dedicated powered port, 5 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.0 port
2GB Seagate USB3.0 2.5" external drive powered by the hub

for some reason, the usb keeps disconnecting from the Pi and I have no idea why.

The pi is fine and will keep running xbmc (Gotham) and now the latest Kodi but my drive won't stay connected.

Essentially all that I want to do is use the pi to stream from a USB drive, ideally at low power (3.5" External HDD).

What I think that I need to know:
- Why does the 2.5" HDD keep dismounting.
- is there a better way to mount the drive to the pi/Kodi other than plug and play
- is the issue the pi or the USB hub? I have not found a difference in performance using any of the usb ports on the hub
- are there any tweeks to my setup that I could make (new modem with USB ports?)

[alexcarter]

Hi,
i have the same raspi b+ and hard drive seagate 3.5 usb (large size) auto alimented with 12v power supply and directly connected on usb raspi port.
The only thing i did make was enabled in config.txt the line max_usb_current=1.
i have kodi version 15 and a power supply for the pi is 5v 2a (important)
all my large hard drive are detected directly.
I think your problem is the power supply of your hard drive or power supply of the pi.
usb hard drive work great for me.

[amck10]

thanks Alexcarter for the suggestion.

I am not sure that it is a power supply issue because i can connect everything up and have it working for a couple of days and watch streams from the HDD, but then it will disconnect without warning.

I would prefer to use 2.5" HDD due to low power and noise from a fan.

is there a specific way that I need to mount the drive so as that it is always detected?

[amck10]

duplicate

[ActionA]

Powered by a cheap micro USB into an old iphone charge
Powered USB hub that has a dedicated powered port, 5 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.0 port

for some reason, the usb keeps disconnecting from the Pi and I have no idea why.

The pi is fine and will keep running xbmc (Gotham) and now the latest Kodi but my drive won't stay connected.

Disconnection of connected peripherals is a classic symptom indicative of the pi not receiving enough power. "Cheap micro USB"'s are notorious for dropping voltage when demand for amperage. The reason they are cheap is because the quality is junk. Many iPhone chargers have been shown to also perform poorly under a load and drop voltage. Most pi won't tolerate voltage dropping much lower than 4.8v.

I'd recommend testing the pi while under a load (library scanning) with a voltmeter to verify that it's receiving enough power. Or, at the very least, test with a more substantial USB cable and maybe some other USB charger you can get your hands on.

Short of all that, creating and searching debug logs will be the only way to find out what's going on here.