USB dock station for 5 disks

Dock station / External HDD case / RAID box for 5 disks (3.5" or 2.5" HDD/SSD with SATA interface)
3
31
0
308
updated May 3, 2025

Description

PDF

Dock station / External HDD case / RAID box for 5 disks (3.5" or 2.5" HDD/SSD with SATA interface)

FreeCAD source in attachment - customize for your needs!

Parts:

Update (version 2):

  • Improved caddy: easy to assembly, no more 2.5x10mm screws needed.
  • Improved SATA connectors mount/holder.
  • Improved back cover: Much easy for assembly (two versions: with ventilation grid and without).
  • Optional: Fan's controller with thermal sensor: https://www.aliexpress.com/order-list/5520676807139743

Notes:

  • On photos - outdated version (combination of v1 and v2). STL files contains improved model (v2).
  • "Sockets holder Back" - print two of them
    "HDD Cage base" and "HDD Cage handle" - print 5 of each (one pair per disk)
  • JMS580 is a "USB-to-SATA" converter, so speed limited by SATA-III specs (~600MB/s). You can use base board as USB-NGFF (M.2, Key-B SATA disk) converter, if need.
  • JMS575 is a "1-to-5" port multiplier. When you access multiple disks - this controller spend lots of time for switch between ports and waiting for result, so speed was much lover, than you expected.
    For compare: ZFS zRaid-1 with 5 disks (~160MB/s per disk). Read/Write in/to file on ZFS partition.
    dd if=/dev/random of=/RAMDISK/test.bin bs=1M count=10000
    dd if=/RAMDISK/test.bin of=/ZFS/test.bin bs=1M oflags=direct
    dd if=/ZFS/test.bin of=/dev/null bs=1M iflags=direct
    JMS580+JMS575: 260 / 200 MB/s (Read/Write)
    ASM1166: 320 / 220 MB/s (Read/Write)
  • Each HDD can consume up to 1A on 12v line and up to 1A on 5A line. But 5v we got from 12v line by dc-dc step-down converter (for conversion we use around 40-50% of current). So, we need around 1.5A per disk plus 0.2-0.5A per fan (check label on your fan). So, i recommend 12v/8A power supply. But you can use less powerful PS - just check your disk's power consumption and calculate your consumption, using this formula.

Tags



Model origin

The author marked this model as their own original creation. Imported from Thingiverse.

License