Sandisk USB 3.0 Ultra Fit drive too hot

Ian

Ian

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I've just bought a pair of Sandisk USB 3.0 drives to use as Raspberry Pi boot drives, but boy do they run hot. I've just flashed an image to one of them (so it was plugged in for around 20 mins), and if it was much hotter it would be uncomfortable to hold on to.

I've had a google and it looks like this is a common problem. The workarounds suggested seem to be to use a USB extension cable (completely avoids the point of having a tiny USB drive) or to leave it 30 seconds before touching the metal parts of the drive after removing it.

Heat is a real killer of electronics, so I'm considering sending these back. I wanted to post this in case anyone else is thinking about getting this model.
 
I'll see if I can pull apart an old extension cable to give me points to measure current with my multimeter - I suspect you're correct that it's drawing too much current (not help by how small it is for heat dissipation), but they should have mitigated that when designing it.

I'm going to try it on a USB 2.0 port later today and see if that has any impact on temperatures.
 
Sorry for the slow update... it appears that USB 2.0 ports don't cause the same heat problems. I guess the slower transfer rates are less taxing, and it does't have as much available current to use. I've not hooked up a multi-meter yet to see what it does, as I've not got a USB 3.0 cable with the correct ends that I can splice.
 
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