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iPad 64GB iPad Mini + 64GB USB Stick + USB Hub + iFile = 128GB iPad Mini

R

RDAR

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2012
260
3
Will the setup that I have in the pictures below use up alot of battery? I bought the "Lightning to USB" connector. I put my USB directly to it but it game me the problem "too much power is being used" so I plugged in an unpowered hub and it worked like a charm. I was just wondering if the hub or usb will drain the battery. I have them on my Mini on the picture but I'm probably just going to leave it on my 4th Gen iPad at home cause I wouldn't really want to carry all that extra accessories on the road. I have also have walking dead running through the USB, I didn't copy it to the iPad, just playing it on the USB.

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I don't think it would make that much of a difference but on a side note, if you want to squeeze every minute out, I would also recommend only plugging one USB drive at a time in (the one with the episode you are watching).

EDIT: what app are you are using to browse/play?
 
macsrcool1234 said:
I don't think it would make that much of a difference but on a side note, if you want to squeeze every minute out, I would also recommend only plugging one USB drive at a time in (the one with the episode you are watching).

EDIT: what app are you are using to browse/play?
Click to expand...

im using ifile
 
RDAR said:
I put my USB directly to it but it game me the problem "too much power is being used" so I plugged in an unpowered hub and it worked like a charm.
Click to expand...

Wait what? That actually works?

Apple limited the output of the USB adapter from 100mA to 20mA a couple of years ago. Been driving me nuts. Your picture shows two USB drives connected to the hub, so that means they both show up in iFile, you're not getting power messages, even if the hub is not powered?

Sorry for asking for confirmation on something that from your images and text seems fully explained, but this could actually make me buy that adapter, so just want to make 100% sure
 
Cptnodegard said:
Wait what? That actually works?

Apple limited the output of the USB adapter from 100mA to 20mA a couple of years ago. Been driving me nuts. Your picture shows two USB drives connected to the hub, so that means they both show up in iFile, you're not getting power messages, even if the hub is not powered?

Sorry for asking for confirmation on something that from your images and text seems fully explained, but this could actually make me buy that adapter, so just want to make 100% sure
Click to expand...

Yes the hub fixes the problem. It would seem kind of strange considering that it says the USB requires "TOO MUCH POWER" but when I plug in an "UNPOWERED" hub it starts working. I've seen videos of people doing this on youtube so I thought why not try, I got the hub cheap for like $10.
 
Alright so I watched an episode of Dexter on my iPad through the USB without copying it over. My mini's brightness is on half way, wifi and bluetooth turned off. The battery at the beginning of the episode was 80% and it was at 68% after. An episode of Dexter is around 1 hour so is 12% loss normal for an iPad while watching a video for a hour, I never really paid attention to that in the past lol.
 
RDAR said:
Alright so I watched an episode of Dexter on my iPad through the USB without copying it over. My mini's brightness is on half way, wifi and bluetooth turned off. The battery at the beginning of the episode was 80% and it was at 68% after. An episode of Dexter is around 1 hour so is 12% loss normal for an iPad while watching a video for a hour, I never really paid attention to that in the past lol.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right. I don't know if extra processing power etc is required when reading from USB, but take the purely mathematical approach:

100mA is enough for essentially any flash drive. at 5V, that means 0.5W. iPad mini has a 16.3Wh battery, meaning that for each hour you use USB, you drain MAX 0.5Wh from that.

Assuming 10 hours of battery life off the mini, that's 1.6Wh drain per hour of normal use, and 2.1Wh drain otherwise, reducing battery life from about 10 hours to about 8.

Not exactly accurate results since the USB itself probably draws less, but might be other drains associated with it
 
Cptnodegard said:
Sounds about right. I don't know if extra processing power etc is required when reading from USB, but take the purely mathematical approach:

100mA is enough for essentially any flash drive. at 5V, that means 0.5W. iPad mini has a 16.3Wh battery, meaning that for each hour you use USB, you drain MAX 0.5Wh from that.

Assuming 10 hours of battery life off the mini, that's 1.6Wh drain per hour of normal use, and 2.1Wh drain otherwise, reducing battery life from about 10 hours to about 8.

Not exactly accurate results since the USB itself probably draws less, but might be other drains associated with it
Click to expand...

Yeah make sense, I've gotten about the same battery today as I usually get. (Around 30-20 percent by then end of the day) And the USB has been plugged in all day.
 
Awesome! I'm getting a underpowered USB hub!! Thx

----------

Does the app iFlashdrive work with it?
 
Smileyboy said:
Awesome! I'm getting a underpowered USB hub!! Thx

----------

Does the app iFlashdrive work with it?
Click to expand...

I'll try it out right now but I can't see why it wouldn't work.

EDIT: yeah I've download the app i-FlashDrive HD, I think that's the app your talking about, and it won't detect it, I think you have to buy the connector for it to work.
 
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If I dont care about the battery drain, will plugging the USB drive directly to the adapter work?

I mean for times when u wanna transfer stuff. For a few mins only.
 
Enjoylife1788 said:
If I dont care about the battery drain, will plugging the USB drive directly to the adapter work?

I mean for times when u wanna transfer stuff. For a few mins only.
Click to expand...

Only some USBs work for some reason. I have about 5 and only one works if i directly connect it to the adapter, the rest give me the too much power error. But the im pretty sure hub lets all USBs work.
 
RDAR said:
Yes the hub fixes the problem. It would seem kind of strange considering that it says the USB requires "TOO MUCH POWER" but when I plug in an "UNPOWERED" hub it starts working. I've seen videos of people doing this on youtube so I thought why not try, I got the hub cheap for like $10.
Click to expand...

Is this the video you're referring to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-I-nnocYtU


Bought a USB adapter and a hub, and, as you know, it works. At least when I connect more than one drive; still get too much power if I connect just one to the hub. Anyways, gonna write an article about this, and want to make sure I have the sources correct

edit: only one specific drive is incapable of working on its own, it seems, and only works with another drive that does work on its own
 
Cptnodegard said:
Is this the video you're referring to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-I-nnocYtU


Bought a USB adapter and a hub, and, as you know, it works. At least when I connect more than one drive; still get too much power if I connect just one to the hub. Anyways, gonna write an article about this, and want to make sure I have the sources correct

edit: only one specific drive is incapable of working on its own, it seems, and only works with another drive that does work on its own
Click to expand...

Yeah that's the video I saw. And that's weird that one of your USBs don't work by themselves, all five of mine work perfectly fine on there own.
 
RDAR said:
Yeah that's the video I saw. And that's weird that one of your USBs don't work by themselves, all five of mine work perfectly fine on there own.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a bit peculiar, but these flash drives often have LEDs on them that require power. If it's a high power LED, it might draw 20mA on its own. Guessing the orange SMD LEDs in my Sandisk drives (the ones that don't work on their own) simply draw too much

Btw, I think I get the logic of why this is happening:

iPad: Apple tells me I am to stop giving 100mA to USB devices, and instead give only 20mA.
USB drive: Yo dog gimme 30mA of power!
iPad: Sorry bro, can't, mom and dad said no
USB hub: Hey, what about me? I have four ports that need power!
iPad: Um, ok, so, 4x20mA is 80mA.
USB hub: Thanks bro!
USB hub: Here, USB drive, have 30 of my 80mA
USB drive: Ooh neat, thanks!

Btw, how many drives can you plug in at once? It started giving me too much power again at 3, but two of those were the ones that didn't work alone, so....
 
Cptnodegard said:
Btw, how many drives can you plug in at once? It started giving me too much power again at 3, but two of those were the ones that didn't work alone, so....
Click to expand...
I've only tried using 2, ill check later after work if more work.

mctroki said:
OT: The Walking Dead is a great show and worth your installation!!!
Click to expand...
Yeah I love that show :D

Menneisyys2 said:
You can use any(!) AppStore(!) app for, in this case, media playback / access if you use symlinks. For video playback, it's a MUCH better choice than iFile's built-in, pretty bad and incapable player. See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1464236/ for more info.
Click to expand...
What are some apps would you recommend?
 
RDAR said:
What are some apps would you recommend?
Click to expand...

For media playback? Depends on what you're trying to play back. iOS-native mov / mp4 / m4v files? Then, you could take a look at It's Playing or AVPlayerHD. The former has excellent DSP's really enhancing even stock videos; the latter is an all-in-one excellent player.

These players also play back non iOS-native, that is, non-mov / mp4 / m4v files but, say, MKV or non-MJPEG AVI files - unlike iFile's player.

If you want to learn more info on video (and audio) playback / streaming, you'll REALLY want to follow my articles and generic posts (even ones posted as answers to other forum members) here at the iPad Apps (and sometimes iPhone apps - I post the reviews / tips there that more likely iPhone-specific) forum at MR. Another forum I frequently post to is the Apple TV one - 95% of my posts there are also applicable to the iPad / iPhone.
 
menneisyys2 said:
if you want to learn more info on video (and audio) playback / streaming, you'll really want to follow my articles and generic posts (even ones posted as answers to other forum members) here at the ipad apps (and sometimes iphone apps - i post the reviews / tips there that more likely iphone-specific) forum at mr. Another forum i frequently post to is the apple tv one - 95% of my posts there are also applicable to the ipad / iphone.
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no way!
 
A question

Hi every one!
I just want to know if i have to format my flash drives to any specific format? Or does it support ntfs??
 
This is all fine and dandy, but I must mention the hootoo tripmate can do this with the nplayer app unjailbroken. I haven't played much with I file with the hootoo tripmate yet, but I'd imagine it can do all this without wires. It does not seem like I file supports smb so you may have to browse over ftp.

Hootoo tripmate is the coolest niche device I've bought in awhile.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DTPYRTI

The downside to the tripmate is you cannot be connected to both the tripmate and cellular data at the same time. WiFi is no problem as the tripmate can join other wifi networks while the iPad/phone is connected to it - passes the data through.
 
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