Hardwiring a 12V or USB-powered SSD - possible?

[Johan]

So, I've seen people posting on the audio threads about how SSDs and portable harddrives do work, at least up to 256 Gb. I've seen in other threads, such as the dash cam thread, that people have tapped in to the 12V outlet under the screen. So my thought is around the possibility of permanently hardwiring an SSD (for music and in the future possibly other storage) for example inside the glove compartment box. I would hard-wire the data connection to one of the USB ports. Power would have to come from either the same USB port (simplest, but what is the power output of the USB ports? I know SSDs require at least 1000mW, probably more for stable operation) or by using power from the 12V port and getting some gadget that either conforms 12V to 5V (for a USB-powered SSD) or get a HD/SSD case that supports 12V power input (plenty of these, but adds bulk).

Is this possible? Anyone try it yet? Also, if you hardwire to one of the USB ports, will the actual port still be usable by another device, or at least for charging a phone for example? Thanks for any input.

 

[widodh]

As far as I know the ports all supply 1A 5V.

You could try adding a USB HUB? No idea if it works, but it could at least charge the devices.

 

[Johan]

As far as I know the ports all supply 1A 5V.

You could try adding a USB HUB? No idea if it works, but it could at least charge the devices.

And that hub would then have to be powered from the 12V?

Maybe something like one of these:
USB 3 0 HUB 7 Ports 12V 2A DC AC Power Adapter FOR Laptop PC WINDOWS7 WIN8 MAC | eBay
USB 3 0 HUB 4 Ports 12V 2A DC AC Power Adapter FOR Laptop PC WINDOWS7 WIN8 MAC | eBay

If there is room in the glove compartment and not to hard to run the cables invisibly I might try it...

But does anyone know the answer to this: If you solder the connector from the USB hub to one of the USB ports under the screen (I mean under the surface, where there surely has to be some sort of internal connector for the physical port) will the original port still function - i.e. will the hub and the original port now share this connection data-wise? I would guess so, since it would be kind of the same as using a USB hub to make one port in to for example four ports. If you connect four devices to that hub then it must be that all four are now sharing the same usb connection to the computer, right?

A drive like for example this one would be tempting to try:
Solid State Drives - 2.5â€￾ SATA II 3Gb/s (Standard),2.5â€￾ SATA III 6Gb/s (Ultimate), 2.5â€￾ SATA III 6Gb/s (Premium) ,ESD200 Portable SSD (USB 3.0),SATA III 6Gb/s mSATA SSD,2.5" PATA SSD (Standard), - Transcend Info

In the data sheet I can't find it's power requirment, but if you hook it up to a 2100mA USB port I can't imagine there would be trouble?

Next question is do we know if the USB ports on the Model S are 2.0 or 3.0???

 

[yobigd20]

A little related .. I was originally also going to go with a SSD. I'm all about SSDs, all my PCs at home run on them, including my 'main gaming pc' which has 4 SSDs in a RAID 0 config, but I actually opted to get one of these instead http://www.amazon.com/BUFFALO-MiniS...8-1&keywords=BUFFALO+MiniStation+Stealth+1+TB Can't really beat 1TB for $70. Works like a charm. No skipping or anything. Just need to format using FAT32 for Model S to recognize.

So instead of spending like $850+ for something like the Crucial RealSSD 512GB which is what I have on my main working computer at home http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-512GB...600&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=crucial+realssd+512 (side note: damn! It's only $361 now??? Holy crap that's dropped by 58% in only a year...that's awesome that SSD prices continue to drop at that rate!) you could get that Buffalo drive for only $70. Better value It's not like you really need the performance of an SSD for just playing music off of it...

 

[griffd]

HD requires more power than 1 USB port can provide / Always powered???

A little related .. I was originally also going to go with a SSD.,,,
So instead of spending like $850+ for something like the Crucial RealSSD 512GB which is what I have on my main working computer at home http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-512GB...600&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=crucial+realssd+512 (side note: damn! It's only $361 now??? Holy crap that's dropped by 58% in only a year...that's awesome that SSD prices continue to drop at that rate!) you could get that Buffalo drive for only $70. Better value It's not like you really need the performance of an SSD for just playing music off of it...


Question for you. Do you need to plug both USB ports in in order to adequately power the drive? The USB ports only supply 500 mW of power, and these drives demand about twice that. I was shopping for SSDs because of the lower power consumption, but want to avoid spending $450 for 1TB of storage. But I'm worried about two things;

1) having to use BOTH usb ports, leaving no room for my iPhone to charge)
2) the fact the USB does not power down when you leave the car would mean that the drive is always powered, and trickling power from the car.

Please let me know how you avoid these two issues.

Thanks,
Dave