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**dhead** · (This post was last modified: 2012-12-26, 09:19 by dhead.)

Need a cheap nas to stream content to your darn cheap Raspberry Pi's ?
You might want to consider the Pogoplug Series 4.

For 39.99$ you're getting:
1. 800Mhz Marvel 88F6192 SoC with 128MB ram.
2. Sd card slot, not bootable.
3. 1 x usb 2.0 port, directly connected to the SoC, bootable.
4. 2 x usb 3.0 ports, connected through the pcie bus, not bootable.
5. 1 x sata + power port, directly connected to the SoC, bootable, hot-swap enabled, port multiplier enabled.
6. Giga lan ethernet.

The device is supported by Arch Linux Arm. http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/...g-series-4
OS would be installed on a SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB Flash Drive and would probably fit the device even with the top lid closed.

A 2.5" Seagate USM GoFlex Slim drive probably would fit the device perfectly.
I'm not sure about the non slim versions because of the width of the more larger drives.
Part of the width issue I'm guessing any internal 2.5" drive would fit.
Any remark on this matter is welcome.

With the port multiplier support any external raid device should work with the Pogoplug, such 4 bay devices on Amazon cost about 100$.
More info about the port multiplier ability:
http://archlinuxarm.org/article/20120114...g-series-4
http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3481

I'm anxiously waiting for my Pogoplugs to arrive, I'm planning to use them as:
1. VDR PVR server for dvb-s2 transmission.
2. Portable nas with huge library of hd movies and music wirelessly streaming to a 10" tablet (720p stuff, 1080p might not wifi compatible).
3. Backup machine for my primary Qnap nas.
4. Gifts.

ikwyl6 · (This post was last modified: 2013-12-31, 15:42 by ikwyl6.)

This is a great post with great information! I'm about to buy one with a usb thumb stick. I'm planning on a USB 3 drive instead of messing with the top cover and a SATA drive. I've seen some posts with some problems with mounting USB3 drives but I'll take the chance with the typical armv5 kernel but have seen some posts with a Kirkwood-Arm kernel that have got mounting the usb3 drives ok.

Any chance you tried the SanDisk Cruiser to see if it fit with the top cover closed?

**dhead** · (This post was last modified: 2013-12-31, 16:44 by dhead.)

@ikwyl6

Sandisk Cruzer Fit does fit perfectly under the closed cover (I love this drive I've got more than few of these).
I don't know where you've read about USB 3.0 issues, there aren't, I've got a 1TB WD 2.5" USB 3.0 drive and I didn't experience any issue in the last year.

You should be aware that you can only boot Linux through the top USB 2.0 port or the Sata port and not through the USB 3.0 as its hub connected through PCIe (you can also boot from lan: load kernel through tftp and rootfs through nfs).
(there's a uboot version that allows you to boot from sd but I wouldn't recommend that, the standard Arch Linux Arm uboot works flawlessly).

For a few months (in the blazing hot summer here) I was running my PogoPlug in a 30x30x30cm partially closed wooden cube (back open), without any fan and with other network equipment (and one mini itx Intel Atom machine) and this beast was 100% stable didn't crashed even once.

What I did found out is that you shouldn't put the PogoPlug directly on top a 2.5" drive (snugged together without spacing) as the drive can't tollorate the heat dissipated through the lower air vents of the PP it will overheat under load (the drive only) and shut off.

Anyway this is a great little device, you really can't ask more for 27$ on Amazon (and that includes shipping).

ikwyl6 · 2013-12-31, 17:16

Yeah I'm aware of the usb2 boot disk and I probably won't bother with tftp and boot from lan. I'm planning on just getting 1 or 2 USB3 drives, one for main and 1 for backup. I have a 500GB usb2 drive now that is showing it's wear (disk errors in dmesg) and will use the PP instead of my raspberry pi. Rpi is a nice little machine but I think I'm finding the load gets pretty high when I download a (single) torrent at above 1MB/s and it writes the torrent to the usb2 disk. I think it's the USB/NET bus that shares the same channel, it's making it load down. (Will end discussion here, not to hijack this thread!).

As I'm currently doing, I want to use the PP for bittorrent (transmission daemon), music streaming, and video streaming for the house.

You're right, this is a cheap price for a NAS. I live in Canada and shipping from Amazon is killing the cheap price of the PPv4 since buying that a the SanDisk is making my shipping $55 on top of the $29 price for PPv4 and the sandisk! I am checking ebay now for total prices.

Netix · 2014-01-02, 09:42

So I'm looking into that pogoplug. Currently everything is running from my gaming rig and it stays on 24/7 using alot of power. So I'm trying to find something that could replace that at a lower cost.

Do you guys think the pogoplug would be able to run torrents downloads, plex, flexraid, server for my htcp without any problems?

With this : http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.asp...6817576009 it would make a great cheap nas or is there something better/cheaper on the market?

nickr · 2014-01-02, 10:43

Nice machine, although not that keen on a machine with a bundle if attached drives, i prefer a tidy server. Can think of lts of uses though, and so cheap.

Does it have a fan?

What is the power supply? I am thinking car music server.

**dhead** · 2014-01-02, 11:36

@nickr
There's no fan and there's no need for it, PSU is 12V/2A.
I think that maybe a portable battery powered wireless hdd would be a better solution.

@Netix
Keep in mind that the PP4 got only 128MB of RAM.
It's still more than enough for running NFS, Samba, Transmission, Tvheadend and it can stream content to multiple clients.
I believe that Plex and FlexRaid are out of the question, if you require these then get a proper x86_64 machine or a complete NAS solution like Qnap.

jammyb · 2014-01-02, 12:08

Pogoplug do plex? If only dreams could come true! You need muscle for transcoding!!

nickr · 2014-01-02, 12:15

(2014-01-02, 11:36)dhead Wrote: @nickr
There's no fan and there's no need for it, PSU is 12V/2A.
I think that maybe a portable battery powered wireless hdd would be a better solution.

I'm thinking replace the cd player with one of these with a usb sound card and run maybe mpd, or squeezeserver, control via android.

**dhead** · 2014-01-02, 17:36

@nickr

In this case I would just use a Raspberry Pi with a lower cost i2s DAC like HiFiBerry.
You'll be able to use preconfigured systems like Volumio and SqueezePlug.

solamnic · 2014-01-02, 20:04

Reviews on amazon.com are not that encouraging...

**dhead** · 2014-01-02, 20:45

@solamnic

The idea is to run Linux, not the Pogoplug software.

nickr · 2014-01-02, 21:00

(2014-01-02, 17:36)dhead Wrote: @nickr

In this case I would just use a Raspberry Pi with a lower cost i2s DAC like HiFiBerry.
You'll be able to use preconfigured systems like Volumio and SqueezePlug.

Yes thinking about it overnight I reached the same conclusion, although thanks for the hifiberry tip. Also the composite video on the rpi should plug into the bmw video system.

solamnic · 2014-01-02, 22:59

(2014-01-02, 20:45)dhead Wrote: @solamnic

The idea is to run Linux, not the Pogoplug software.

thank you for claryfying this...

lets hope some one will write more in this thread about setting up and actual use of Pogo... Nod

noggin · 2014-01-02, 23:06

(2014-01-02, 22:59)solamnic Wrote:
(2014-01-02, 20:45)dhead Wrote: @solamnic

The idea is to run Linux, not the Pogoplug software.

thank you for claryfying this...

lets hope some one will write more in this thread about setting up and actual use of Pogo...

Check out the ArchLinux forums if you're interested. They seem to be doing quite a lot on this platform.