What is Raspberry Pi X820 Storage Extension Board?
The X820 V3.0 Version SATA HDD/SSD storage expansion board provides an complete storage solution for your Raspberry Pi.It only support 2.5 inch SATA interface HDD/SSD hard disk.It supports up to 4TB 2.5 inch SATA hard disk drives (HDD)/solid-state drive (SSD).Only 2.5 inch SATA interface HDD/SSD hard disk is suitable for X820 SATA board;
Used as a USB 3.0 Mobile Hard Disk when connecting a 2.5 inch SATA interface HDD/SSD with no extra power & no device driver installation required. Quick file transfer with high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity from a PC or a Mac.
Supports USB booting from your HDD/SSD('reboot' command is supported), a great function to every raspberry pi users.
Powers the Raspberry Pi via Pi's 40-pin header or Micro USB socket; Furthermore, On-board XH2.54 connector and USB power socket (5V 2A output) to power other devices, such as smartphone, tablet...
Supports Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+(Plus), Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+, Includes USB 3.0 cable and the mounting accessories of Raspberry Pi & 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD & X820 Board.
There are many customer feeback and also many questions asked by our customer, so we will share here about all the FAQ of Raspberry Pi X820 SATA storage board here, hope it will help you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question 1:Does the Raspberry Pi X820 need an external power supply to power the Raspberry Pi ans X820 storage board?
Answer: Yes, you do not need to use the Raspberry Pi micro USB power port, and you must use the DC 5V 4A with a 5.5mm barrel connector power adapter to power the Pi and X820 at the sametime.
We recommand these two power supply for your X820 V3.0, X820 v1.3 or X800 board.
DC 5V 4A Power Adapter with both US Plug and EU Plug replacable
DC 5V 4A Power Adapter US Plug or EU Plug to Choose
But if you have high quality DC 5V 4A power supply, you can also use it of yourself. But please remember to choose a high quality power adapter for the raspberry pi x820 kit, it is very important.
Question 2:What is a recommended HDD for this X820 SATA board?
Answer: Basically it can support all the 2.5-inch HDD with SATA 2 or STATA 3 interface. But we highly recommand that you use a high quality and big brand HDD or SSD, as there is some customer feedback that some HDD can not be recognized, it maybe the quality problem.
Question 3:What to do if the X820 board could not detect the HDD or SSD?
Answer:
(1) At first, please use the high quality power supply adapter, the hard disk will not been recognized if you use the low quality power supply, as the current of this power supply is not enough.
(2) Please run 'lsusb' command under linux terminal, and save the screenshot of the result, then send it to our email: sp@geekworm.com, then we will figure out your problem together.
Question 4: How to check if the X820 board is defective?
Answer:
(1)Check X820 via Desktop computer (Recommend)
Because X820 can be use as the mobile hard disk. so please connect your X820 board with you desktop computer or laptop with the BLUE USB 3.0 cable. then open the 'Computer Management', check if it can found new disk.
(2)Check X820 via Raspberrypi board
Please connect the Raspberry Pi and X820 board correctly, you may refer to it here.
NOTE: Please use a good quality power supply, otherwise you may encounter some unpredictable problems!!Important!!!
Question 5: What to do if you don't like the blue light on of the power switch on the X820 V3.0 metal case?
Answer:Our customer give the feedback that the power switch of X820 V3.0 case may be too bright in the night.
It is ok to disable the blue LED light of the power switch of X820 V3.0 case, you just need to pull out the white cable (or both the white and blue cable) . Please refer to the follow picture.
Question 6:How can I have the board(s) Raspberry Pi and X820 V3.0 board auto power on after a power fail?
Answer: The Raspberry Pi X820 V3.0 board has solved the AUTO-ON problem on November 10th after get some customer feedback.Don't worry, now the X820 V3.0 board sell on our site has no auto-on problem.
But if your X820 V3.0 board which ordered before has the auto-on problem, and you want to use auto-on function, it is easy to solve the problem. You just need to change a small capacitor on the X820 v3.0 board, please check the capacitor location in the below picture.
What kind of capacitor do you need to replace? The capacitor which need to change is on the red mark place. It need to change to a 1uF XR5 0603 16V or 10V capacitor, then it will solve the X820 V3.0 AUTO-ON problem.
Question 7: Does the Power Switch of X820 V3.0 case support to power off the raspberry pi by a safe shutdown script?
Answer: Sorry, no,the power switch energy button on the case is only control to turn the Raspberry Pi and X820 on and off, it does not support to power the raspberry pi by a safe shutdown script.
But there will be a X720 expansion board will be release in the future to support a safe shutdown of your raspberry pi.
Question 8:What are the read and write i/o speed of this board, is it better than a regular external USB drive ?
Answer: This X820 V3.0 has USB3.0 port, but the current Raspberry Pi only support USB2.0, so if you use this X820 v3.0 on the Raspberry Pi, the read and write i/o speed is still the USB2.0 speed. And it also depends on the System and HDD or SSD you use.
Question 9:What are the read and write i/o speed of this board, is it better than a regular external USB drive ?
Answer: This X820 V3.0 board supports 2.5 inch SATA interface HDD or SSD, and support Max. up to 4TB 2.5 inch SATA hard disk drives (HDD)/solid-state drive (SSD) .
Question 10:Why can't boot from the SSD or HDD?
Answer:
Customer Feedback 1:I have followed the same steps you provided and my ssd is not able to boot. I have tried again with a normal sata hard drive and it works fine. My original ssd (Patriot Burst 240gb) draws too much power. Thus, do not boot.
Question 11:Can this X820 v3.0 board be powered via xh2.54 connector, powered from raspberry pi?
Answer: No, this is not suggested, as the current is not enough to power the Raspberry Pi and X820 board and the HDD or SSD at the same time. So the best choice is to power the whole set via the X820 DC port by a DC 5V 4A power supply.
Question 12:Will this X820 V3.0 board be suitable for ROCK64 board and ASUS Tinker board?
Answer: We have customer feeback that this X820 v3.0 sata module can be used on ROCK64 board and ASUS tinker board, but we do not test it, if you need to use, you can test it.
Question 13:Can you stack the x820 module with itself? Is the usb cable and bridge crossover?
Answer: Theoretically, you can stack the X820 module to use by USB cable.
But you need to solve the problem of how to power them, if you stack them together, it may need more power. Actually we do not test on how to stack them together, hope to get your understanding!
Question 14: Why my Raspberry Pi show under-voltage warnings?
Customer feeback: The board works as advertised with the 4a power supply they recommend but seems to lie really close to the voltage limit. I get a number of voltage warnings while using until I stopped using the KVM switch (which had a separate power supply) and just used a USB keyboard. Outside of that, assembled just fine and was able to configure a SSD 2.5 drive without issue.
Answer:
To a large extent, we doubt that voltage warnings maybe caused by the power supply.
Our power supply has an idling output voltage of 5.2V , even when the working current reaches 4A, the output voltage will be around 4.9V, this is the reason why the Raspberry Pi system does not have undervoltage.
So we suggest that you can measure the output voltage of your power supply when under load your device. Please test directly the voltage value between GND and 5V PIN.
We found that many power supplies on the market are known as 5V 4A output, but when use this power adapter at high current output , the voltage often drops very badly, with only about 4.7V or lower than 4.7V.
Question 15: Is there really a 4tb limit? Will this X820 not work with 6tb or 8tb?
Answer: Theoretically it can work with 6tb or 8tb as well. But actually we do not test the X820 board with 6tb or 8tb HDD, hope to get your understanding!
Get the whole set of Raspberry Pi X820 V3.0 2.5 inch SATA Storage Board + DC 5V 4A Power Supply + Metal Case Kit here.
What do you need to use Raspberry Pi X820 V3.0 2.5 inch SATA Storage Board?
Click to get what you need
- 1. A Raspberry Pi board(Pi 3B+, 3B, 2B, B+)
- 2. A DC 5V 4A Power Supply
- 3. A 2.5 inch SATA hard disk drives (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD)
- 4. A X820 V3.0 use Metal Case Kit(optional)
- 5. A X820 V3.0 Expansion Board
- Note: when using our case, the Max. compatible thickness of the 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD is 10.4mm/0.41inch. (The stander 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD is 9.2mm/0.36inch)