Looking for a USB power cable

pepiman · Apr 23, 2008, 01:26 PM

My 2nd "looking for" of the day, wow!

So I have a couple of 2.5" sata enclosures and each one needs to be powered by a 2nd USB cable.

I'm wondering if there is a power adapter that plugs into the AC plugs at home instead of through USB

the port on the enclosure is the small round slot you'd see in just about any external drives, but usually the enclose itself comes with a usb power cable... i need one to plug into the slot in the wall !

Sorry if it's hard to understand but I don't know how else to explain...
Take a 2.5" hard drive enclose and look at the back. You see there's 2 ports, 1 for mini-USB to USB, the other is a small round hole ... for power!

BlueMak · Apr 23, 2008, 03:37 PM

Eh, I have never heard of an enclosure, or any other USB device, requiring a second USB for power. They either get the power from the USB cable connected to the PC/device, or they have their own dedicated power adapter.
So, are you sure they are meant to be powered by a secondary USB connection?
The whole, hole thing, screams that it isn't a USB connection that you require.

[hobo]eclipse · Apr 23, 2008, 04:13 PM

sounds like you need an AC power adapter to plug into the wall outlet. There may be spec for voltage or amps needed around the small round port or on a sticker on the enclosure.

pepiman · Apr 23, 2008, 04:41 PM

ya I'm gonna swing by my local tech shop and get a 5V 2A adapter and call it a day
Similar to the ones used to charge Logitech MX mice...

And yeah most 2.5" enclosures with laptop sata drives in em require a 2nd cable to power it...
Some don't though, I have 3 80G portable drives (all SATA) and 2 of the 3 need power while the 3rd one somehow doesn't...

[hobo]eclipse · Apr 23, 2008, 06:42 PM

i love the WD passprt 250 gig i got, 1 usb cable, thats it!

prolly the best bet to get the AC adapter, but the power plug to usb would be cool for total portability, but are those made for anything other than charging things?

BlueMak · Apr 23, 2008, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pepiman

ya I'm gonna swing by my local tech shop and get a 5V 2A adapter and call it a day
Similar to the ones used to charge Logitech MX mice...

And yeah most 2.5" enclosures with laptop sata drives in em require a 2nd cable to power it...
Some don't though, I have 3 80G portable drives (all SATA) and 2 of the 3 need power while the 3rd one somehow doesn't...

I didn't find strange that it requires a second cable for power. But that you asked for a second USB cable for power.

Tipstaff · Apr 23, 2008, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueMak

Eh, I have never heard of an enclosure, or any other USB device, requiring a second USB for power. They either get the power from the USB cable connected to the PC/device, or they have their own dedicated power adapter.
So, are you sure they are meant to be powered by a secondary USB connection?
The whole, hole thing, screams that it isn't a USB connection that you require.

It really depends on the controller each manufacturer uses. Sometimes you will see a dual head USB cable (2 separate heads, sometimes one having a pass-through type head.. Vantec uses such a cable, btw) to single mini, where the idea is to use the power from 2 USB ports to power the enclosure. In other cases you may see a USB to mini DC plug along with the standard USB to mini USB cable. Most times, however, this is only the case with cheap powered mini USB hubs.

Rather than trying to buy the required cable you could always make one.