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I want to use my raspberry pi 2 as an media center and use movies from my usb HDD Now the problem is that it runs short on power for that usb HDD (my usb hdd uses 2 usb ports btw)

Now I found an old usb hub with external power supply (5v, 2A) and I have a small box where I can fit both the usb hub and the Pi in, to keep everything clean I want to make those 2 power cables into 1, this ain't that hard but now the problem:

The hdmi port is on thesame side as the power in port, so my question is can I give power to it without having to access this port? Will this have any cons/pros and how can I do this?

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  • Before you go with hub for the HDD, try this. It should allow you to run it directly off a Pi 2 with a decent 2+ A supply. The reason it will not work otherwise is two USB jacks would be expected to provide > 600 mA.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:01
  • The problem is that I get the little rainbow on the right top of my screen so it means that the pi then doesn't get enough power, so that won't work?
    – roy Steen
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:29
  • It may mean you need a better power supply, but the only way to tell would be to try one. Officially, with max_usb_current=1, there should be 1200 mA available to the USB ports, and technically, a conforming USB device should not expect more than 500 mA per port. However, officially without it set there should still be 600 mA, which should be enough for one port, but my HDD (which only uses one port) definitely won't work that way, whereas using the same 2.5 A supply with max_current set it does.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:42
  • So either the Foundation's numbers are exaggerated, or the drive wants an excessive amount of power for one jack. I'd guess the latter, but I'd also think a drive with 2 jacks is a more polite solution (i.e., it wants 500-1000 mA, so within spec). I lot of "maybe, if" in there. I guess it's up to how much faith you have in your current supply (don't bother with < 2 A, and don't count on a hub to deliver that to the pi from one jack) and if not, whether you want to gamble $15-20 for a new one.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:42
  • BTW, since it isn't clear in your question which power cables you want to make into one, you can power the pi from the USB hub w/ a USB -> microUSB cable if you are powering the HDD from the hub separately (and the hub is unregulated, which they usually are), which means only one cable into the box (this is what I did before the 2/+ models came along). That doesn't solve your form factor problem, of course. Which I'm glad they moved everything to two sides, it was a mess with stuff sticking out at all angles on the B.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Oct 28, 2015 at 17:49

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