Mifi USB

Technical Support for Routers
1

I’ve read a couple of posts here about external usb drives switching off when plugging in the charger, but none of them make complete sense to me really so I will ask again for myself.
My external hard drive shuts down immediately if I plug in the charger at the same time, even after a reset of Openwrt. The flash drive however seems fine.
I understand that if I have the old version of the Mifi (PCBA V2.4 or before) then this is a ‘hardware/quality control’ issue and there’s nothing I can do except send it back.
I’m really not prepared to take it apart because it seems I still have a couple of weeks left on the warranty (I paid for mine on 4/12/2017) and so my questions are- Am I likely to have ‘old’ PCBA V2.4, or is there another possible explanation for this happening?
And, if I am likely to have an ‘old’ version- where do I send it back?
Thanks very much!

Yes, I just double-quadruple-checked and it can even suddenly reboot the mifi when plugging in the external HD, wipe my samba settings, drop wifi. And that’s without the charger even plugged in! It’s clearly defective so Ive emailed the site directly and hopefully they’ll send me a return address…
I’m glad I found out now. I was just about to install LEDE!

2

If you use external hard disk, you need to power is separately. The hard disk can draw too much current and cause the product reboot immediately.

In the old version if you are charging there is no power in USB at all. So you can tell.

3

Yes it works fine without the charger plugged in. As soon as I plug in the power it dies and can cause a reboot, loss of wlan, loss of samba settings…
This is clearly not by ‘design’ and obviously a firmware problem. I hope it will be replaced! I am just waiting to hear from the relevant people at GL.iNet
It also works fine with a ‘powered’ hard disk, but this is a battery powered ‘travel’ unit and I should be able to use the hard disk while I charge it, especially as it drains the battery so fast!
If it works while on battery power then it certainly should while plugged in to the charger.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Mifi, but I’m a little concerned this wasn’t tested fully before my model was released. It’s a very common scenario for a travel router.
Anyway, I’m sure it’s been rectified in the later release and hopefully I’ll hear from them soon :slight_smile: