Tablo 4 Tuner USB Specs

Support & Troubleshooting
1

May not be right category, but hope it can be moved.

Tablo w/ 4 Tuners. OEM power supply, Coax connected, Seagate 1TB Backup drive hanging off USB port.

Problem I noticed was the drive always ran slightly warm, but the Tablo itself ran downright hot. Note that it is unusual for us to have an unused tuner, most are always recording. Women and their cooking / This Is Us tv shows…

On a whim, I added a USB3 rated hub, powered by its OEM 5Amp wall-wart, and plugged drive into the hub. Next day after much insincere apologizing for interrupted recordings, I checked and found my Tablo running much cooler, drive about the same, hub running warm, hub power supply warmer than I expected but less than 100F. The drive is rated at 5v 1.5A (7.5watts) on the heavily damaged label. Info may be wrong. Occasionally seeing some pixelation but so far only on shows recorded thunderstorm (ant is in attic) so may just be coincidental. Still, the hub may be slowing down bus.

What are the ports on back of the Tablo rated at? Are they both USB2/3
Same supply ratings?
Anticipated port behavior if detects an external 5v present? Scenario would be from using a USB Y cable. 1 for data/power, other for for power only, 3rd is female to drive.

Taking external power further… Should the 5v for drive supply (Y Cable) be from isolated supply so tablo only sees it on 5v and Gnd pins? Or should 5v Gnd reference be tied to Tablo power input as well?

Again, drive is now connected via a powered hub.

I am working on my DC UPS now, and trying to get info whether its best to run Tablo & Accessories from a common supply, or do they need to be seperate with common ground, or isolated fully from each other (dc/dc converters with isolation)?

To answer question coming next… The antenna coax is currently NOT grounded on shield due to lack of bond point availability (not NEC compliant install) and am currently NOT using a booster/Sig amplifier though that may change when adding 2nd Tablo. I do realize that adding booster will likely end up grounding shield.

2

please clarify: are you saying that you are using a USB powered hard drive that you’re asking the Tablo (and now USB hub) to power?

Why aren’t you using a hard drive with its own power supply??

3

“I added a USB3 rated hub, powered by its OEM 5Amp wall-wart, and plugged drive into the hub.”

So… Drive plugs into hub. Power supply plugs into hub. Hub plugs into tablo.

Seagate backup pro portable drives don’t have their own power supplies. Bus powered. This is what I had on hand without dedicating a ssd.

Without the hub power supply (5v5a) the hub would be powered by tablo.

4

frankly, I can’t imaging choosing a bus powered drive for an application like this. As you’ve discovered, you’re asking quite a lot out of the Tablo.

With the hub in place, you’ve added a power supply PLUS the hub itself. With a self-powered drive, all you add is the drive’s power supply. There’s no hub to get in between and be a potential failure point and cause problems between the drive and the tablo. In fact, I wouldn’t say it’s if the hub will cause problems–it’s when.

And there’s no need, or even desire, to use SSD for an application like this. A spinning hard drive in an enclosure with its own power supply is the preferred solution.

A spinning 1TB drive with its own power supply is, what–$50? $60?

I’m kind of surprised Tablo doesn’t address this in their specification and owner documentation. I’m sure they don’t want the responsibility of a Tablo unit powering the customer provided storage drive. They don’t want to support it and take calls like this one.

1 Like
5

USB is an industry standard. Since tablo USB ports are 2.0, they should conform to the standard.

I would think a HHD manufacturer selling USB 2.0 compatible drives that draw power from the USB port wouldn’t exceed the USB 2.0 standard.

6

Even if it’s within specs, it’s driving the Tablo power supply harder and possibly increasing the heat dissipation inside the Tablo. Also, the bus powered ones are more likely to have auto-sleep functionality that you don’t want. All in all, better to NOT use a bus powered drive. IMHO.

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7

Isn’t the question whether the tablo power supply and/or USB port supply the proper power for USB 2.0 drives.

If you believe that offloading the HDD power reduces heat that’s fine. I have two OG units that are over 4 years old. All running the original disks and tablo power supply. I’m more concerned about the tablo power supply plug being affected by heat generated by adjacent plugs.

If you go back to the older forum posts, you will find that auto-sleep issues were disk drive controller issues. Not host issues. I even had a WD Element with a model suffix of 03 that had the idle issue while all other suffixes didn’t. WD had a firmware/controller path that fixed that issue.

1 Like
8

@adam1991

I didn’t choose this drive, it is what I had on hand. I originally started out with a WD desktop drive. It failed, likely due to age. So, the alternative was the one that I am using now. It is working out great. The tablo ran hotter than I would have liked, so a powered hub was inerted into the mix. Imagination doesn’t belong here.

I usually run a hub between peripherals, most powered, occasionally some aren’t. Hubs are able to reduce the level of noise on the bus (esp with multiple power supplies, not bus powered devices), and actually speed things up if there are multiple devices that all contending to send data. Sometimes there is a cost in speed / bandwidth. Eventually I want to get to the point of just using a Y-Cable at the minimum to supply power to the drive, then I would have option to tie all power sources together to minimize common-mode noise.

Interesting that Tablo makes a direct contrary statement (see quick start guide) but you endorse it. Yet you seem to endorse it and as the preferred solution. Perhaps you meant to reference the WD Elements and Seagate Expansion as Tablo did specifically. The drive that I am using meets Tablo’s Currently Supported / Compatible requirements as USB 2.0 and Any Size. It is not one of the drives that they recommend. It isn’t excluded due to Flash Storage or NAS. It seems that the preferred solution suggested may be for only your particular use.

My WD desktop “Book” cost me $29.99 a few years ago. Remanufactured. Didn’t have power supply or cable or software. Thanks for asking.

Me Too.

Please cite your source for this statement. I was asking about port specifications.

I don’t want to come across as a prick, but you did hijack the thread that asked for specifics about the USB Ports specifications / details in relation to the concerns that I had. If I had a problem with the drive crashing, bad performance, selection, etc then I would have posted in a category with an appropriately named topic.

9

To get back on topic…

https://www.tablotv.com/products/tablo-4-tuner-ota-dvr/

It doesn’t answer all of your questions but the OG 4 tuner says 2.0 and it looks like the new 4 tuner is 2.0 as well…

https://www.tablotv.com/products/tablo-quad-ota-dvr/

10

Thanks, I had seen that.
I called Tablo support, and was told that it was 2A each port. To further nail it down, I also requested which particular revision the hardware conforms to. Should have an answer in a few days, the engineers will be consulted.

11

Why not just go read the current USB 2.0 standard. Section 7.2.1. Doesn’t the standard indicate the minimum for this type of port is 500 mA ( 5 x 100mA). And 2A is 2000 mA

https://www.usb.org/documents?search=&tid_2[0]=40&items_per_page=50

12

You didn’t choose to be a ****. It’s what you had on hand.

(Edited to remove the name calling. No need for that kind of stuff. - Tablo TV)

13

Dude, stop calling people names.
Uncool.
You’re complaining about personal attacks on you, and are blatantly doing it to others.

14

Very strange that certain people don’t want to know all the additional information that’s available.

But in my case it’s way more then “hand”. It’s “hands”. And very large hands at that.

15

To the point where they, by their own admission, choose to attack someone who dares to upset their world with said information.

I am stunned by the declaration that “I had no choice. It’s what I had on hand.”

Huh. And here I thought we had free will and choice in matters like this. I guess someone was holding a gun to his head.

“the port is in spec” does not equal “not causing harm to the unit”. Tablo’s concern is the warranty period. Beyond that, it’s on the user. The user sees heat and is (rightfully) worried.

But doesn’t want to hear any simple facts about how electronics work–to the point of trying to declare, unilaterally and on behalf of the ENTIRE world reading about this, that to expound on any of this in any way HE doesn’t like is “hijacking the thread”.

16

I have read it the standard, there are configurations that exceed 900ma and can run up to a few amps. Minimum is actually 100ma (USB1,2) and increases to 150ma for USB3.

The greater capacities are designed to run higher power devices, obviously, and charge with. There are other features I am interested in.