Technical help for plugging power cables (clearfog pro / orangepi+ 2e)

[deb2016]

Hello,

 

I have recently bought one clearfogpro and one orangepi+ 2e. I power them with a RD65A adapter which delivers both 5V and 12V DC.

 

You can see everything on the pictures. There is also a 2.5" hard drive connected to the clearfogpro.

 

Before powering up everything, I would like to be sure all cables are correctly connected, there is the picture of all connections to the RD65A

 

1) The main power cable : the red (phase) goes to the L, the blue (neutral) goes to the N, and the green/yellow goes to the ground.

 

2) V1 is 5V for RD65A, so I plugged the orangepi+ 2e and red cable of the sata power

 

3) V2 is 12V for RD65A, so I plugged the clearfogpro on it, there is also the yellow cable of the sata power, but not sure it is needed as it is a 2.5" hard drive,

 

I assume all black cables are to be connected to the ground or negative : which should be COM on the RD65A, then all red cables should go on the positive

entry (+V1 or +V2).

 

The power of the 4D65A is 66W, I think it is enough for all device connected, even at boot when all devices requires the maximum of power.

 

Let me know if there is something to correct or improve.

 

Regards

 

deb2016

[deb2016]

 

Hi,

 

I am surprised no one answeers (?)

 

The most important is the sata power cable, is it necessary to connect the yellow cable (12V) ? As it is a 2.5" hard drive, it only needs 5V power (like usb).

 

Is it safe to leave it ? (it is not used by the hard drive) or must I disconnect it ?

 

Regards

[Technicavolous]

I think you're fine to plug the unit in and play with it.  I left the 12v on the sata drive because the connector liked it ... I have the Clearfog Pro with almost identical config, but my sata card has 4 ports. 

The RD65A is 6a max at 5v, which means it will run well at 3~4a, 5a will be pushing it ...  

 

I have the RD65A 5v driving only 4 sata hdd's. Their current rating is 1a each, so I feel I'm pushing the 6a rating just a bit but I think the 1a rating on the drives is absolute max so it should be ok. The 3a on the 12v side should be adequate for the Clearfog board, I'm measuring less than 2a draw (@12v) with all the lights on and an M.2 ssd attached.

The MOST important thing I've found so far is current draw and voltage drop. That kind of power supply has problems in prolonged use over 75% of its rating, so I usually run them at about half their rating for continuous load. 

 

I had a LOT of trouble with cheap sata to old style molex power connectors. They suck. Cut those off and use the screw terminals like you show in your pictures.

 

 

[deb2016]

Hi,

 

Many thanks for your reply.

 

I am going power it and let you know how it works.

 

You said you have on M2 SSD attached to the clearfogpro. That is my case too, I would like to install the armbian OS on it.

May I know how you proceeded ? As far as I know one need to boot over one SD card and then redirect the installation

on the M2 SSD. Then there are some button to move on the clearfogpro to make it boot on the SSD (?)

 

Regards

[Heisath]

There is a perfect guide for installing to M.2 SSD available here:
https://github.com/nightseas/arm_applications/blob/master/doc/getting_started_with_clearfog_base.md

 

Bottom page comes the M.2 SSD part.

 

If you want to make use of your existing setup on the sd card, just use another device (eg. computer) to make an img of the sd and then write it to the m2. Just remember flashing the new uboot to the m2 disk. 
But thats also described in above article. I recently used it to port everything from sd to m.2 ssd and it works like a charm. The sd card ain't even neccessary to boot. 

 

 

[Technicavolous]

In Armbian the procedure is simple - run

armbian-config

and select 

System and security settings

then

Install to SATA, eMMC, NAND or USB

 

and you're all set!

 

I have the Clearfog Pro with eMMC - the SD card is basically disabled. I use the M.2 drive to hold files for rebuilding the system from scratch since I have a habit of losing USB sticks ;] Booting from any other media with the eMMC installed seems like a waste on my board. In retrospect I kind of wish I had got the unit with SD rather than eMMC because the card slot can be used, whereas in the eMMC version the card slot is just there to enable the eMMC if one chose not to enable the 'fix.'

 

BTW: armbian-config was the first method I was able to get the wireless and routing working as I am still learning network configuration. Kinda wish more tasks were possible with that marvelous utility!

[Technicavolous]

4 hours ago, deb2016 said:

You said you have on M2 SSD attached to the clearfogpro.

BTW I used a little extender that you can barely see in the back of my photo. The full size M.2 drives are longer than the space allotted under the board. A cute little adapter allows the M.2 to extend to a panel on my [eventual ...] cabinet.

[deb2016]

On 3/9/2018 at 2:38 PM, count-doku said:

There is a perfect guide for installing to M.2 SSD available here:
https://github.com/nightseas/arm_applications/blob/master/doc/getting_started_with_clearfog_base.md

 

Hi,

 

Thanks to this guide, everything works now flawlessly. System is now on the M.2 SSD and is accessible.

 

 

 

 

[Heisath]

Out of interest, which temperature is your m.2 ssd idling at?

 

You can check with:

:> apt install smartmontools
:> smartctl -a /dev/sda             # Replace sda with your m.2 device

Then check for  the value at id 194.

Example output:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       45

Raw value contains actual temperature.  

 

I thought mine was relatively hi but maybe it is just bc it is placed under the cpu....

Maybe Technicavolous extender would be a good idea to move it a bit away from the board.

 

 

Greetings 

 

[deb2016]

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply.

Here is the output I get :

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0000 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 37

I issued this command right after startup. It tends to increase (39 a few minutes after), but very slowly.

The room in which is the board is at 20-21°C

I'll let you know up to which it grows.

Hopes this helps.

Regards

[Heisath]

Ok then I wont worry about my temps. Stable at 45°C.

 

Thanks.

[clevershark]

My M.2 SSD runs at 30C, according to smartctl.

 

Device Model: TEAM M4PS5 SSD 128GB

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0000   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       30