So yeah like the title says, the PCDuino seems to crave power when running a 2.5″ SATA hard drive. When using a SATA drive you need a 2.5AMP power supply, MINIMUM, or you will experience issues with the hard drive shutting down and disconnecting. With the PCDuino by itself a 2amp and 2.4amp supply seems to be ok. I was using an Apple iPad charger rated at 2.4amps, I use it on the Pies all the time with no issues, although I have read that others have some problems with them shutting down after a while (can’t find the link right now). I moved from the iPad charger to my Orico USB power supply (rated at 2.4amps each plug). It worked here ok but after 20 minutes the same issue appeared. So I pulled out the wall wart power supply that came with my CanaKit. Its a 2.5amp power supply that shipped with my RPi2. This power supply has been working flawlessly.

I tried two different 2.5″ drives with all of the power supplies I mentioned. One drive says 0.55amps the other 0.45amps both at 5v of course. They would both power up but after about 10-15 minutes the drives would start clicking, like they were losing power and cycling over again. Access to the drives was also lost while this happened. I tried three power supplies that were all rated 2.4-2.5amps. It seems they are not all created equal…

I need to get my hands on a USB current meter.

Side note: I purchased a BananaPi SATA hard drive cable kit off of Amazon for like $3. It will work – but you must SWITCH THE POWER AND GROUND CABLES! The BananaPi swaps the 5v and GND on the power cable. Just pull the pins out and switch them and it will work just fine. Or get a cable for the PCDuino or I head the Cubbieboard cable works too.