USB Drives with AMI

Jeffc · 04-26-2012, 04:21 PM

I bought a AMI-USB interface cable for $14 on Amazon. Not bad considering ECS wants $75. I plugged in a 32gig USB2 thumb drive and the music plays and sounds great. Plugged in a 500gig USB3 drive with 80gig of music on it and the MMI says it does not recognize the device. Is the drive too large or is the MMI not compatible with USB3?

Pyro451 · 04-27-2012, 03:02 AM

The larger drive probably needs more power than the interface delivers.

There is probably a list somewhere of low power usb drives that will work.

Jeffc · 04-27-2012, 06:05 AM

That probably eliminates a USB hard drive and puts me back to using a USB flash drive. They top out at 64gig. Too bad, I was hoping to put up to 100gig of music onboard. I guess I can split genres between the SD cards and the usb drive.

Thanks for the info.

Jeffc · 04-27-2012, 07:32 AM

I did some more experimenting. The MMI manual says there is a file limit of 4000, so I deleted all but about 20 files. No dice. Also reformatted from NTFS to exFat. No change.

I question whether power consumption is the problem since the portable USB3 drive is backward compatible to USB2 @ 500ma, which the MMI supports. Unfortunately, I don't have a USB3 flash drive to experiment with or I could confirm whether the problem is USB3 or power draw.

Stereodude · 04-27-2012, 09:48 AM

Probably needs to be FAT or FAT32.

lodaka · 04-27-2012, 11:11 AM

I vote for power draw, considering that it has mechanical moving parts, probably requiring a bit more juice.

Jeffc · 04-27-2012, 02:29 PM

I tried reformatting as exFAT and then FAT32. No go.

Carbines · 04-30-2012, 01:59 PM

From just reading the few posts above, I'd say that the power requirement is probably what's at the root of the issue.

A pricey option *might* be an SSD drive mounted in a portable enclosure. I like the acomdata branded enclosures (available at amazon) for laptop-sized drives (2.5"). The SSD drive will require less power over the USB cable, and may work. Best idea would be try to find a friend to try his/hers SSD drive before you spend decent $$ on a new SSD just for the car.

DrGP · 04-30-2012, 04:25 PM

I wish that I understood what you guys were talking about!

Stereodude · 04-30-2012, 05:01 PM

It might also be that the drive + enclosure isn't a pure USB mass storage device, but instead some sort of combo device due to the enclosure which causes the MMI to not support it.

04-27-2012, 03:02 AM	#2
Pyro451 AudiWorld Member 2012 Audi S4 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 191	The larger drive probably needs more power than the interface delivers. There is probably a list somewhere of low power usb drives that will work. __________________ 2012 S4 Prestige \| Monsoon Grey \| Black/Magma Silk Nappa Leather \| NAV/3GMMI \| Sport Diff \| SS Inlays \| S-Tronic \| Side Assist \| Advanced Key \| Backup Camera \| Red Supercharged Badges \| A&A LED Light Kit \| STiR+ \| LI Dual \| Various VAG-COM mods \| HEX-USB+CAN VAG-COM Cable

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04-27-2012, 06:05 AM	#3
Jeffc Audiworld Junior Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 45	That probably eliminates a USB hard drive and puts me back to using a USB flash drive. They top out at 64gig. Too bad, I was hoping to put up to 100gig of music onboard. I guess I can split genres between the SD cards and the usb drive. Thanks for the info.

04-27-2012, 07:32 AM	#4
Jeffc Audiworld Junior Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 45	I did some more experimenting. The MMI manual says there is a file limit of 4000, so I deleted all but about 20 files. No dice. Also reformatted from NTFS to exFat. No change. I question whether power consumption is the problem since the portable USB3 drive is backward compatible to USB2 @ 500ma, which the MMI supports. Unfortunately, I don't have a USB3 flash drive to experiment with or I could confirm whether the problem is USB3 or power draw.

04-27-2012, 09:48 AM	#5
Stereodude AudiWorld Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Detroit Metro Area Posts: 595	Probably needs to be FAT or FAT32.

04-27-2012, 11:11 AM	#6
lodaka Audiworld Junior Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: May 2009 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 34	I vote for power draw, considering that it has mechanical moving parts, probably requiring a bit more juice.

04-27-2012, 02:29 PM	#7
Jeffc Audiworld Junior Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 45	I tried reformatting as exFAT and then FAT32. No go.

04-30-2012, 01:59 PM	#8
Carbines Audiworld Junior Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 21	From just reading the few posts above, I'd say that the power requirement is probably what's at the root of the issue. A pricey option might be an SSD drive mounted in a portable enclosure. I like the acomdata branded enclosures (available at amazon) for laptop-sized drives (2.5"). The SSD drive will require less power over the USB cable, and may work. Best idea would be try to find a friend to try his/hers SSD drive before you spend decent $$ on a new SSD just for the car.

04-30-2012, 04:25 PM	#9
DrGP AudiWorld Super User Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 11,506	I wish that I understood what you guys were talking about!

04-30-2012, 05:01 PM	#10
Stereodude AudiWorld Member Garage is empty, add now Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Detroit Metro Area Posts: 595	It might also be that the drive + enclosure isn't a pure USB mass storage device, but instead some sort of combo device due to the enclosure which causes the MMI to not support it.