During install, when I got to point of spi flash and to turn on rockpro64, it was on when I plugged in power didn't have to press power button, didn't think it issue enough to worry about.

Continued through installation, got everything done, setup has been running since beginning of April.

So I have some stuffs I want to rsync, it gets done, this was using usb external hard drive, connected to rockpro64 usb.

Connected rsync usb drive to main slackware box to do listing, "Bad message"?
Seems some things didn't rsync. Reformat usb drive on main slackware computer, try again, same thing.

Buy new usb external hard drive, connect it to upper usb port on rockpro64, click click click? This was before partitioning and all that.

Connect new usb external hard drive to rockpro64 lower usb port, no clicking.

Related all this to pine64 help desk, waiting to hear back from them.

I'm a little disappointed as it seemd the rockpro64 was running aarch64 fine.

Granted my RockPro64 is my very first SBC so I have nothing for a frame of reference, and mine, too, used to power up as soon as power was connected and now no longer does, but it isn't a problem at all. I have experienced some bad reads of cheap USB sticks but my Sandisks have never failed. I am extremely glad I sprung for a Marvell-based 4 port SATA PCIe card. It works really well. Since mralk3 provided a new SPI flash that allows/enables USB even during the first stages of UBoot, I couldn't be more pleased. I have tried at least 8 different distro images but only Aarch-Slackware is on my SATASSD. I can boot images from it, from MicroSD or from eMMC no problems now even if they use Grub.

I haven't tried my SATA-to-USB external enclosure yet but I will today to see if I have any of the issues you've experienced. Aarch-Slackware64 works better than any distro I've tried. Many don't apparently have modules for either of onboard sound but Slack works with either. Some distros, especially with 4x kernels, don't support many features including either of my PCIe SATA cards.

Anyway, I'll report back later on the extrernal drive. Hope it works out for you. I really like mine.

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I had a few USB external SATA's drives go bad and realized I should be powering my drives using a powered USB hub. It provides guaranteed electrical current. Now the drives are not drawing extra power from the rockpro64 USB port and none of my drives are failing. I was able to salvage the drives from within the external enclosure cases.

The USB hub maxes at 60W. I can use it to power my boards, or to quickly swap peripherals (keyboard, mouse, external drives, wifi dongles). It has a power button for every port. Here is what I have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

I also use a battery backup to power everything in case of power outage. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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mralk3, I really like that usb hub, external power and power switches, thanks for posting.

I'm going try testing lower usb port.

I'd seen couple videos of rockpro64 with two ssd connected to sata card in pcie slot using onboard power for both ssd and it worked fine. I got rockpro64 power supply Output: +12V DC 3A, assumed it would be enough for external usb drive, maybe it's just ssd?

The battery backup is branded as "Amazon Basics", works better than I thought it would!

It's possible that the USB port is loose from USB being reconnected over and over. Or the disk / board are not grounded properly. I have the Pine64 PCIe SATA card with two 120GB Kingston SSD's plugged into the RockPro. That card has been very reliable with the Pine64 NAS case. This setup works great if you are looking for a good desktop experience.

Here is what the inside of my RockPro64 case looks like: https://exitstatus.one/wp-content/up...336-scaled.jpg

Here is an "at scale" picture to give you an idea of the case size. The rockpro64 is on the left.
https://exitstatus.one/wp-content/up...264-scaled.jpg

Reporting back: I tried my 4TB Seagate 3.5" SATA-to-USB on my RockPrto64 in 2 different USB ports and transferred files over 150GB as well as a few GIFs and MP4s. All animations ran without a glitch. There was zero corruption in an rsync either to or from the USB Drive. One USB slot is obviously slower than the other but both worked without error.

SDince you guys have brought up PSUs I think I should mention that, though I did buy the Pine64 5A version from ameritroid, I don't use it. I re=purposed an old dual drive bay enclosure instead as it has a fairly hefty PSU and plenty of room and power for 2 x 3.5" drives and a 2.5" SSD as well as a fairly monstrous fan. It's not huge in diameter but it is in depth and draws almost 1A all by itself. It's a veritable tornado in there. I'm totally new to SBCs so I have worked the bejeezus out of it to learn it's faults and capabilities. It has never throttled and voltage is rock solid even under extreme loads though I have yet to see CPU usage above 72% and that only very rarely for fairly short bursts. My RAM usage seems so low I wonder if it is reporting accurately.

The only serious disappointment I've experienced may well be a configuration problem I have caused because rsync is VERY slow on very large files. I'm currently syncing a 164GB Backup Directory, Subs and Files, and it is still going after 5 hours. At best it hits very short bursts of 150KB/sec, commonly hovers around 70 and drops occasionally to 30-40. I'll be figuring that wrinkle out soon.

Here's the case halfway done with a 4-port SATA card, 2 x 3.5" 2TB drives and 1 x 2.5" SSD (one of the USB ports holds a transmitter for a wireless Logitech Kbd/Touchpad combo)...

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hey everyone, thanks for the pics! I'll get mine up soon, using repurposed desktop case too.

Heard back from pine64
enorbet, I'd like to know how you managed that, are your sata drive disc or ssd?

mralk3, your slackware arm os ssd drive is connected to the powered USB hub? and the hub is connected to usb 3.0 on the rockpro64? and this all boots and runs?

Thanks

No. I used to boot from some SABRENT external SATA's on my RockPro without a hub (back up drives). Some time last year I tested the current on my third extra SABRENT and realized there was too much current draw. That is when I purchased the Hub. I use the Pine64 PCIe SATA card and two Kingston SA400 120GB all stored in the Pine64 case. I have the "slim profile" heat sink from Pine64. I currently do not use the Hub to power any storage for the RockPro due to having the PCIe card, aside from back up drives. The power buttons are handy for the back up drives.

I plug all other peripherals meant for the rockpro into the USB 3.0 hub, keyboard, mouse, usb dongles, Alfa wireless NIC. The Pine64 wifi module was not reliable enough so I chucked it.

I use my USB 3.0 to SATA adapters on my Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. Also with the Kingston SSD's. The current draw is also an issue on the Pi's if you use an external enclosure that draws power on top of the storage.

USB to SATA adapter: https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-SATA-Ad.../dp/B01N2JIQR7
Kingston SSD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-SA.../dp/B01N5IB20Q

The main goal is to have a thick cable and snug fit on both ends of the SATA adapter. I think that should fix the issues on your RockPro.

This is my new Pi cluster case: https://www.c4labs.com/product/cloud...-raspberry-pi/
Built in fans and I use some of the extra USB Hub ports to power the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 with micro usb to USB 3.0 and usb-c to USB 3.0.

Cool... can't wait to see the pics.

Sorry for not being clearer. I thought the pics would suffice. My Slackware ROOT drive is the Kingston 2.5" SATA SSD you see on top. There are 2 x Seagate 3.5" 2TB spinners in RAID 1 below the SSD as can be seen in the 2nd pic. I bought a Marvell chipset 4-port SATA card off Amazon about which the only complaint I have is it has an onboard activity LED but no pin header to connect case LEDs, which my enclosure can use.

The drive enclosure came with a PSU that provides somewhere around 60W-70W in 2 outputs, 1 x 5v and 1 x 12v. The Fan, and all drives run off 12v (5v usage is very low on spinners and almost nonexistent on the SSD) and the Rockpro64 is the only item using the 5v supply.

I have a strong background (EE) in electronics and have monitored usage but truth be told I got lucky. There was almost no data on the CoolGear PSU (I had to graph it out) and no certainty with the 4-port PCIe SATA card. I just took a chance on the common success of the Marvell chipset and figured I already had the CoolGear enclosure (it's A dozen years old) and could replace the PSU if it just couldn't provide enough wattage under load given the 2 rails. It stays around 44C with the case cover off and drops to 38C under load with it on. I may get the larger but un-fanned heatsink as that CPU fan, though direct, is superfluous with the massive CFM and static pressure from that after-market 12v fan. Airflow is at least 80% front-to-back only (side draw is minimal) , so it's a wind tunnel.

Had the CoolGear PSU failed I figured I couldn't build one as cheap as one like this, so no biggie

https://www.amazon.com/Arcity-Switch...07X1LBK19?th=1

looks like it's all together now, rockpro64 os usb drive connected to usb powered hub

bananapipro using my fone charger cord, connected to usb powered hub for power

see attached

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