USB head units destroy pen drives

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by akash_m

When I took the pen drive to sony dealer for replacement under warranty, he flatly refused saying that the warranty stands null void in such cases. He told that the pen drives are never ment for high speed continuous data transfer. Live audio streeming cannot be done using conventional pen drives!

Why did you have to tell him that. It could have been some other problem as well. You should get a replacement, IMO.

[gopalnayak]

I think the HU is supply >5V to the pen drive instead of the standard 5V output supply on the USB port. I have seen this issue with one of the DVD players and I guess it is the same issue with this HU as well.

I personally use a pen drive with my PC as a ReadyBoost cache and the pen drive is working absolutely fine. I am sure the data rates associated with the Readyboost cache would be much higher than streaming audio.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by Driven

...we assume that all these drives are built equally well.

I believe you get what you pay for.

You are right but ... it is difficult to figure out, given the grey market price variations. More than that, we assume that the smaller devices are not faked, or that we always get A-grade stuff.

Originally Posted by gopalnayak

I think the HU is supply >5V to the pen drive instead of the standard 5V output supply on the USB port. I have seen this issue with one of the DVD players and I guess it is the same issue with this HU as well.

Almost all devices are tolerant till 5.5V. 5.75V reduces life; with 6V and you are waiting for the flash. But, accurate measurement is difficult, given the connector geometry.

Originally Posted by gopalnayak

...data rates associated with the Readyboost cache would be much higher than streaming audio.

Data rates of pen-drives are not an issue with Audio, not even with Video - even USB 1.0 is fast enough. My Toshiba laptop of Y2K vintage plays AVI files flawlessly from a 2002 vintage 256MB pendrive.

With most HUs, 'streaming audio' would be a wrong term to use - mp3 is read as a file, like on a PC.

With a stream, one cannot do FF/Rev at the receiving end - one has to do it at source. For example, network radio and BT streaming.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by akash_m

He told that the pen drives are never ment for high speed continuous data transfer. Live audio streeming cannot be done using conventional pen drives!

Ha ha thats a funny statement!!! Heard about ReadyBoost feature in Vista? It uses the USB pen drive for creating a parallel paging file because it is faster!

USB 2.0 really is fast. If a mp3 file of 5 MB can be copied into a pen drive in a matter of seconds, why does he think that it can't handle a slower read operation? (A song of 5MB takes about 4 minutes to play right)

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by akash_m

...When I took the pen drive to sony dealer for replacement under warranty, he flatly refused saying that the warranty stands null void in such cases. He told that the pen drives are never ment for high speed continuous data transfer. Live audio streeming cannot be done using conventional pen drives!

Did you buy the pendrive from the Sony dealer with b&w? If so, he is liable to replace it instead of giving amusing reasons that have nothing to do with the situation. He has to prove to you that you have violated the printed terms of warranty wilfully, not by indirect non-technical conjecture. It is what is written that matters, not his interpretation of it. If he persists with that line of logic, take him to consumer court and throw the book at him.

However, if the pendrive was bought somewhere else, or bought without explicit warranty, you will have to swallow pride and let it go. I don't think Sony would bear the indirect damage, unless you are able to prove it technically.

[anandpadhye]

This is one hell of a thread...

It has got electronics, signal processing, embedded software, debugging and some nice humour (some of the discussion on the first page is quite hilarious).

BTW, can we charge PDA cell phones (e.g. O2 Atom) via the USB port on the HU?
And if this works, can it be concluded that the ground and voltage levels on the USB port are OK?

Akash, I think you should debug this further. The problem seems to be related to your setup more than the USB pen drive technology as such.

Guys, any way to check the grounding is OK or to measure the USB o/p voltage levels?

[splitsecond]

Originally Posted by akash_m

When I took the pen drive to sony dealer for replacement under warranty, he flatly refused saying that the warranty stands null void in such cases. He told that the pen drives are never ment for high speed continuous data transfer. Live audio streeming cannot be done using conventional pen drives!

Has anyone of you experienced similar issues..?

Its a known fact that pen drives are not designed for continues data transfer for hours. Even pen pen drives used for ready boost in vista have problems. Even though todays dvd players comes with usb, its not advised to play music or videos from usb for long. But some usb brands do survives more.

[tsk1979]

A read operation cannot damage a pen drive. Only if you give higher volatage(as derAlte said), or you have static issues your pen drive will be toast.

[akash_m]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Ha ha thats a funny statement!!! Heard about ReadyBoost feature in Vista? It uses the USB pen drive for creating a parallel paging file because it is faster!

USB 2.0 really is fast. If a mp3 file of 5 MB can be copied into a pen drive in a matter of seconds, why does he think that it can't handle a slower read operation? (A song of 5MB takes about 4 minutes to play right)

You are true in what you are saying, but imagine a case where the data is flowing continously (for hours together). Even if you copy the data worth 4 GB in one go, it only takes 5 min. Continuous operation makes the pen drive damn hot because the poor chip inside never knew that it would be put to such labour when out of the packing!

[wanderernomad]

Been using a USB for almost 2 years now no issues. Remember to switch off the HU when cranking the engine in case you ahd switched off and continued listening to music.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

A read operation cannot damage a pen drive. Only if you give higher volatage(as derAlte said), or you have static issues your pen drive will be toast.

Read "should" involve Write as well. Thats is, if HU updates "last access time" of MP3 files that is plays.

[tsk1979]

I once ran an entire OS of a USB pendrive for 3 days. The system was not rebooted, and all the while data transfer was taking place.
Never faced any such issues.
As for last played time, that information is not encoded into the mp3 files. When you use some software, it creates such a list in its internal database.

As for writing, do a md5sum on the mp3 before playing and after playing, you will find that the file is unchanged.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Guys, a memory drive does NOT stream audio or video. It is simply read as if it is a disc. And I am a bit confused about people asking for "Safe to remove" hints from the HU. Such a feature is required only if a write happening to the drive. IMHO, a HU will require far more intelligence than any of them currently have to even change the "last access" time. Remember that pendrives have fat32 partitions. (Does fat32 support "last accessed" info? I use ext3)

TO me, this is a simple problem with the quality of the pendrive, and/or as already stated, looks like a problem with the HU.

I had purchased a Sony stereo set 7 - 8 years back, and have vowed never to purchase a sony product ever again. (errrr.. did buy a DVD R/W for my PC later on....)

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

As for last played time, that information is not encoded into the mp3 files. When you use some software, it creates such a list in its internal database.

As for writing, do a md5sum on the mp3 before playing and after playing, you will find that the file is unchanged.

This (last accessed time) does not have anything to do with mp3.

ANY file has this info (along with file creation time, file modification time) and its stored outside file (in FAT32 in case of typical thumb drive, could be NTFS, AFS, JFS EXT3 etc).

So yes MD5 of MP3 wont change, but MD5 of "directory file" should change.

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Remember that pendrives have fat32 partitions. (Does fat32 support "last accessed" info? I use ext3)

TO me, this is a simple problem with the quality of the pendrive, and/or as already stated, looks like a problem with the HU.

FAT32 is quirky, it might or might not store "last access time" (If Long filenames are enabled then it is stored).

Otherwise, it stores "Last access date".

So, if a file is accessed its FAT entry is changed to reflect last access date or last access date/time depending on how it was formatted.

I don't know if HU actually does it or not.

And I agree that this by itself will not destroy USB drive. My MP3 player mounts XD cards in RW mode, and 256 MB card is running just fine for last 2 years.
That is if HU updates "last access time" as it reads MP3/JPG/WAV files. MP3 player that I have does it, HU might or might not.

[NetfreakBombay]

Duplicate post....