New Model D owner - usb flash drive problem

[Dangleberry]

Hello, I have recently purchased a new Concept2 Model D and love it. My wife is also using it and we want to log our data separately. As such, I purchased a couple of SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB USB Flash Drives. However, I get the following message as soon as I insert them - USB Flash Drive Device Overload (with the code 342 in the top right corner). I believe that they come FAT32 formatted - do I need to buy a different USB flash drive or do something else?

I have searched through this forum and all I can find is that such drives need to be FAT32 formatted. Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks.

[Carl Watts]

I would try formatting the flash drive and formatting it again on a PC.

I would also look at the "Allocation unit size" when you format it. Recently I got a new 32Gb Apacer USB drive to record TV on my Satbox and it didn't work either, the size was set to 32Kb and when I changed it to 16Kb and formatted it FAT32 again it worked.

Not sure exactly what the drive should be set to, perhaps someone from Concept 2 could weigh in here for advice or just try formatting yours and post the result of what works.

[Citroen]

USB Flash Drive Device Overload (with the code 342 in the top right corner).

That's most likely to be a USB stick that's power hungry and a set of D-Cells that aren't fresh enough. Try wiring your PM5 to a phone charger wall-wart.

All flash media devices (less than 64GB) comes from the factory pre-formatted with a valid FAT32 filesystem.

[Carl Watts]

Has Concept 2 made a list of approved USB Drives ? might be an idea to find out the ones that use the least amount of power, if any.

Its obviously going to be a problem because your standard USB port that these are intended for can supply 500mA so power useage is never a problem. The PM5 is probably using less than 20mA without the USB stick so you can begin to see the issue. Its going to get expensive on batteries so perhaps you better off just getting one of those inexpensive USB wall chargers and plug that into the PM5, either that or get RowPro on a computer and plug the PM5 into the USB on the computer, that way you pretty much don't have to worry about batteries, a set of D Alkaline's lasts a couple of years.

[jackarabit]

Can external backup battery packs such as the RAVPower be subbed for the Apple standard wallwart? The local YMCA gym director is apparently unable to deal with the PM5's appetite for D cells. I find it more productive to circumvent his stupidity than to enlighten him. I could suggest the permanent addition of wallwart power to his new ergs but I anticipate an objection to trailing USB cables. The world will slow to a step before this snotnose figures it out. And these kiddies are all supposed to be so techy-nerdy, innovative and resourceful right? There are exceptions! If I can plug and play with one of these unobtrusive juice bars, I'll borrow one from my wife and give it a try.

[Dangleberry]

USB Flash Drive Device Overload (with the code 342 in the top right corner).

That's most likely to be a USB stick that's power hungry and a set of D-Cells that aren't fresh enough. Try wiring your PM5 to a phone charger wall-wart.

All flash media devices (less than 64GB) comes from the factory pre-formatted with a valid FAT32 filesystem.

Excuse my technical ignorance but are you suggesting that I connect the PM5 to a standard phone charging plug/usb cable when using my USB stick? This would be because the PM5 can't cope with the power demands of the USB stick, so plugging it into external power would circumvent this?

Thanks.

[Citroen]

Use a 5 metre USB-A to USB-B printer cable, plug the USB-A end into a regular USB phone charger, plug the USB-B end into the square USB socket on on the back of the PM5.

The cable you need is: http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Exibel-USB ... r326660000

[Fulnir]

Is it possible to use a USB wall charger and cable with NiMH Rechargeable Batteries in the PM5?

[Citroen]

Is it possible to use a USB wall charger and cable with NiMH Rechargeable Batteries in the PM5?

Probably, except that NiMH don't provide 1V5 under load after they start discharging, they're closer to 1V2.

The PM4 was OK with NiMH cells because it didn't have to drive a USB slave device at 5V0. The I²C bus for the LogCard normally runs at 3V3.

[at1839]

Is it possible to use a USB wall charger and cable with NiMH Rechargeable Batteries in the PM5?

Will not recharge the batteries. I asked the same question and the answer is 'nope'. Sry. Paolo

[Carl Watts]

The PM4 had a separate NI-MH battery pack and connections. It used two AA Ni-MH batteries that connected to different terminals inside the battery compartment. This configuration allowed the batteries to be recharged via the tach generator and the USB connection. You could also put standard D Alkalines in it. Essentially if you ran a USB cable to the computer all the batteries ever did was backup the date & time while the monitor was off.

The PM5 sounds like it got rid of the internal rechargeable option, however you could still use rechargeable but would have to remove them for charging. Rechargeable are really not necessary even in the late model PM4, the current drawn is so low that a decent set of D's will last two years.

The USB stick sounds like its power hungry, personally I don't know much about them but if you can use a SD card or Micro SD card in a mobile phone then there must be power savings by avoiding the USB interface connection somehow.

[Citroen]

The USB stick sounds like its power hungry, personally I don't know much about them but if you can use a SD card or Micro SD card in a mobile phone then there must be power savings by avoiding the USB interface connection somehow.

You could try a SDcard in a USB reader. Those things cost £1. http://www.poundland.co.uk/signalex-mul ... r-assorted

[GrantM]

I tried 2 usb flash drives.
corsair/lexar/
My corsair usb 3 (32gb) drive was recognized in the pm5, but with a flashing icon on the monitor, nothing being recorded and no option in the pm to get to the usb log.

The 16gb Lexar usb3 stick worked perfectly, no issue.

Thinking the smaller memory drives maybe better, less power required?

[Citroen]

The 16gb Lexar usb3 stick worked perfectly, no issue.

Thinking the smaller memory drives maybe better, less power required?

All USB sticks work the same way regardless of NAND flash memory capacity (you cannot change the laws of physics). The difference comes from the USB specification that says a USB 2.0 host has to be able to drive a USB slave device at 500mA or 100mA. USB slave devices are supposed to give the host data about their power requirement. Cheap devices don't bother doing the power requirement handshake so the host has to default to 500mA and then has no control over the slave device.

[Dangleberry]

Hello again. I took the advice and used a cable (usb a to b) and an apple wall plug thingy to power the PM5. However, I still got the same message when inserting the usb flash drive (device overload) the first time I tried this. Since then, whether I plug the usb cable in or not, the PM5 doesn't recognise the usb flash drive at all. I have tried a couple of flash drives and none are recognised.

Can anyone offer any advice? It would be hugely appreciated as this is very frustrating.