Are you planning to release a better chipset/controller inside https://sabrent.com/products/ds-sc5b to double or quadruple the bandwidth any time soon?
Also I am testing this unit on linux and the hard disks report themselves as the controller name - it would be nice if the "human readable" name of the device showed up as the actual disk on the bay - to transparently represent the reality to the Linux OS (using unraid or debian OS).
Final suggestion: it would be nice to be able to have a "sensor" reported to linux which allows full remote control of the power state of the unit and individual bays. A virtual USB device under /sys/ (sysfs) that allows changing flags from 0 to 1 for each slot to power on/off without having to physically touch the button...
@Giovanni Francesco We are consistently working on new USB4/TB3/TB4 products which includes updates to existing lines where possible. If the demand is there, we will explore it. The docking stations have been pretty popular and we know some users want more bandwidth so it's something we will consider. We also are working on USB 20Gbps products, but compatibility on that isn't as good.
Reporting in that way is normal, but there may be a way to be transparent. It's something we have explored. We have also looked a lot at power management features, per-unit and per-drive, as users have asked for more control. The chipset and its firmware is sometimes a limitation but if we update the line or offer something faster these issues will be factored in.
@Sabrent thanks for the detailed reply. Hope that indeed this feedback is considered for upcoming sabrent products.
Here is an example of what I am talking about - the ASM235CM is the identifier of the bay slot - all my other hardware connected to the computer reports normally. Hope the 20Gbps product line can mitigate this someway since USB 20Gbps is exactly perfect for a 5 bay SSD setup for higher speeds than spinning rust.
root@Tower:/mnt/cache/media# lsscsi
[0:0:0:0] cd/dvd PiKVM CD-ROM Drive 0515 /dev/sr0
[1:0:0:0] disk USB SanDisk 3.2Gen1 1.00 /dev/sda
[2:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD140EDFZ-11 0A81 /dev/sdb
[3:0:0:0] disk ATA ST20000NM007D-3D SN03 /dev/sdc
[4:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WUH721818AL X680 /dev/sdd
[5:0:0:0] disk ATA ST20000NM007D-3D SN01 /dev/sde
[6:0:0:0] disk ASMT ASM235CM 0 /dev/sdf
[7:0:0:0] disk ASMT ASM235CM 0 /dev/sdg
[N:0:1:1] disk INTEL SSDPEKNU020TZ__1 /dev/nvme0n1
When could we expect to hear/see an announcement on the USB 20Gbps products coming up? Hopefully a SATA USB 20Gbps controller is there. I did not see much on the ASMedia controller page about a dedicated chip for 20Gbps USB-SATA.
@Giovanni Francesco I don't want to give too much away, but we have devices using the RTL9220, ASM4242, and some other chipsets in unique ways. USB4 and TB3/TB4 are a priority right now. We have nothing to say about drive bays at the moment but we are eager to expand in that space.
alright, sad to hear no disk enclosures are on the near horizon. Thanks for sharing.
Leaving another feedback example when the HDD enclosure could transparently do better and represent the true hdd model serial and firmware data.
https://github.com/Seagate/openSeaChest
root@Tower:~/openSeaChest-v23.03.1-linux-x86_64-manylinux# ./openSeaChest_Info -s
==========================================================================================
openSeaChest_Info - openSeaChest drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
Copyright (c) 2014-2023 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
openSeaChest_Info Version: 2.3.1-4_1_1 X86_64
Build Date: Mar 27 2023
Today: Tue Aug 8 19:04:38 2023 User: root
==========================================================================================
Vendor Handle Model Number Serial Number FwRev
PiKVM /dev/sg0 CD-ROM Drive 0515
USB /dev/sg1 SanDisk 3.2Gen1 040193x 1.00
ATA /dev/sg2 WDC WD140EDFZ-11A0VA0 QBJ2x 81.00A81
ATA /dev/sg3 ST20000NM007D-3DJ103 ZVT4Ex SN03
ATA /dev/sg4 WDC WUH721818ALE6L1 3RHZx PCGNX680
ATA /dev/sg5 ST20000NM007D-3DJ103 ZVT7JX SN01
ASMT /dev/sg6 ASM235CM 50C000000519 0
NVMe /dev/nvme0n1 INTEL SSDPEKNU020TZ BTKXXXX 003C
@Giovanni Francesco That may be a limitation of the chipset. We will be using newer hardware on future models. I will pass this on.
