Current avenue I am looking into is figuring out what OpenWRT Linux uses to spin down idle disks, and make sure that the disk is not active when it is idle. I believe Linux does not by default sleep disks when idle.
This is really interesting stuff. And cool that you managed to find a solution.
Tho I want to dig a bit deeper (as I have some weird connection issues with it, too but I'll open another thread for that).
I find it the overheating part a bit odd. Which temperature does the router reach ?
And could you explain, why/how you linking that to the USB ?
Which process(es) are creating the load ? did you check with htop or something ?
I mean the router shouldnt just overheat, bc you plugged in and mounted some usb device ...
I need to un-mark as solution. I jumped the gun. Same issue occurs with hd-idle, and honestly hd-idle shouldn't be necessary with the correct kernel parameter settings.
No, I haven't been able to determine exact temperature, or have not dived into processes yet. The heat is "usb is too hot to touch and 2.4ghz radio stops working, and you get a bit of hot computer smell". Also, mounting is not fluid through Luci interface, it doesn't want to respect the mount that I define.
Now that this solution is not working, I will likely just move off of this device for tftp use, but can try to dig in a bit today before I do.
I can also try with a different usb drives, but I notice that drives tend to get quite hot when mounted to Alpine on laptop as well, thought I don't lose performance there. It may be due to extra heat dissipation due to distance from other components.
THAT sounds rather concerning, tho that might be also a HW issue, maybe you can monitor the current ( if you have these usb testers), or try another cable or something. Just change one thing at a time.
Imho, you gotta somehow pinpoint first, if it is a HW or a SW issue.
Bc the beryl has usually a fan and you can definite the temp (I guess for the soc) for the fan to turn on. This is what I'd call "overheating" (of the soc).
But yours sounds like there is some other component overheating/maybe even burning instead ...
Ya, I am wondering if - because it is a crappy compact sandisk usb - the distance is minimized to other components since the beryl is small.
I don't have any usb tester unfortunately, though I kinda want one now lol.
I was thinking of trying to plug in a usb hub and try mounting on that, but that defeats the whole purpose of making this a compact little test router.
I did just receive a better compact usb to try that should be better with heat, but that may not affect the beryl. Maybe I can also clean the slot?
I have been running the device for months without USB, and constant wireguard VPN, and never had an issue. So it is weird.
I have read that the voltages for the usbA port may be odd in other threads, but can't validate.
Well I havent used these specific sandisk drives,
but we're using the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C and Type-A in the office, and daaaam these get crazy hot.
So just to test that specific thing: try your first SDCZ430 in your laptop/pc, and do some heavy reading for a while (and some writing).
Maybe use h2test w to write a few gb and read them back ...
If it heats up like crazy you know it's probably the usb drive itself.
If it does heat up then sure it might affect the rest of the beryl, whatever is closest to the usb port.
If you have some gunk in the cables, and that got transferred onto the port contacts, then sure, those might be dirty and have higher contact resistance on the voltage pins and thus heat up more. Idk if it'd be thaat crazy high tho (at least I never experienced it) but maybe a contributing factor.
I definitely recommend one, there are very cheap models out there,
tho I have the X shaped one with A and C ports, comes in VERY handy in such times, just to quickly find if and where might be an issue with the usb/cable/voltage/device, etc ...
Ya, the Samsung drive has been going for a while now, and there is no heat and it feels fine. Gonna mark the solution to not use a Sandisk drive referenced.
The only reason I thought cleaning my be necessary was I had marked the outside face of the sandisk usb with pensil, and thought graphite may have rubbed off, was not an issue when I cleaned.
Will look into buying a cable like you mentioned, thanks for the conversation, and help.
Similar-ish issues for my Spitz AX (GL-X3000). I had problems with a 4TB M.2 drive in a USB adapter - in my case, as things warmed up, the M.2 drive dropped offline. But, since the official USB 2.0 spec allows for a max 500 mA draw. I wasn't that surprised.
Since I wanted to expand my storage and add a 8TB SSD to the 4TB M.2 plus occasionally connect my HDDs (a USB-connected enclosure with two 16TB HDDs mirrored), I obviously had to go with a powered USB hub. Once I added the powered hub, everything works fine and the X3000 runs at a normal temperature.
Note: yes, I know the X3000 only has a USB2.0 port, but its fast enough for my use. My X3000 is in my travel trailer and I needed a low-power NAS.