pHat DAC External HD problem

Help and Support Guides
1

Hello everyone,

i have recently set up a PI zero w with volumio and a pHat DAC from PIMORONI everything works perfectly.

The big problem I have is that most of my music is stored on a external HD that is powered by its USB. When I plug the HDD into the pi zero it automatically reboots the pi. Because the pi cannot support the power of the HD. And so, I can’t stream the music from my external HD :blush: :blush: :blush:

SO, I read somewhere that there is a solution to this by buying a USB Hub to help with the power problem. Am i correct?

This would help me a lot otherwise I would have to buy a load of USB’s and transfer all the data (around 400gig) + I don’t have a NAS either.

Now what kind of HUB or product would you recommend?

I just want to precise that I live in Belgium. So, I would prefer to buy something local or from Europe. No need to go on an American or Asian website to buy such a thing.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks to all !!!

2

You need a powered USB hub i.e. the hub has it’s own power supply. HDDs take a surprising amount of power to spin up (it should be rated on a label somewhere), so make sure the the output from the hub is sufficient, and that you are using a good quality cable. I don’t have any one in particular to recommend, but a bit of googling should get you sorted.