Contents
Foreword
At the early 2017, we made a NAS storage solution for Raspberry Pi. Accroding to customers' feedback, we made a series of improvements, like X800, X820, X825 V1.5, X825 V2.0, X828,X832, X829, X822, X880, X883, NASPi Lite, NASPi, NASPi Gemini 2.5 etc. From only supporting single hard disk to support dual hard disks, from complicated installation to simple installation, now a new Raspberry Pi ANS storage kit - NASPi Gemini 3.5 (support DUAL 3.5" HDD) is released. Hope you will like it!
You can refer to GEEKWORM NAS Family to know more.
Overview
The NASPi Gemini 3.5 makes it easy to add high-capacity, high-performance external data storage to your Raspberry Pi 4. The dual SATA shield supports two 3.5” SATA hard drives with ultra-fast data transfer speeds and configurable RAID modes. This dual SATA shield delivers fast file transfer rates up to 5Gbps with USB 3.1 Gen 1 performance. It supports SATA I, II and III and is enhanced with UASP to maximize the performance and speed of your SATA III drives. The dual SATA shield provides an effective solution for Raspberry Pi4 to store, access, back up, and protect important files.
NASPi Gemini 3.5 is composed of three parts: X885 dual 3.5" SATA HDD shield, X885-C1 metal case and heat dissipation system(3Pin 4010 PWM fan with metal bracket).
Features
- Ideal storage solution for Raspberry Pi 4 - Dual SATA Gen3 ports Shield
- Model: NASPi Gemini 3.5
- Create high performance storage with a dual SATA HDD RAID array through USB 3.1 (5Gbps)
- Supports Standard Desktop 3.5" SATA Hard Drives or SSD
- Supports hard drives up to 10TB（In theory, the HDD capacity is no limit but related with the operating system）
- Supports SATA I, II and III and is enhanced with UASP to maximize the performance and speed of your SATA III drives
- Supports Transfer Speeds up to 5Gbps (USB 3.0),480Mbps (USB 2.0), 12Mbps (USB 1.1)
- Supports hardware JBOD, RAID0(striping), RAID1(mirror), Normal mode
- Supports mode select via jumper setting
- Plug and play, no drivers needed
- LED blue indicator indicates each drive status
- Onboard push button to control power on, safe shutdown, reboot and force shutdown
- Supports full poweroff from software
- Onboard red LED shows the status of power on, reboot and shutdown
- Powers the Raspberry Pi via the 40pin header - no additional cabling required
- Speciallymade USB3.1 jumper to connect with RaspberryPi - no additional cables needed
- Onboard PH2.0 connectors for external switch and PWM cooling fan
- Mounting holes and standoffs provide mechanicalstability of the Raspberry Pi 4 and X885 assembly
How to Power
- Power supply: 12Vdc +/-5% , ≥3A, via DC 12V IN Port of X885, recommend to Geekworm DC5521 12V/5A Power adapter US/EU plug
- Ports & Connectors: DC jack - 5.5x2.1mm
Important Note: Please use high quality power adapter, the low quality PSU may damage the X885 board and not recognized the HDD.
Warning about power supply:
- Don't use that adjustable voltage power supply.
- Don't use the same power supply used on LED strips.
The above two are absolute garbage power supply, can not be used!!!
Packing List
- 1 x X885 V1.1 Dual 3.5" SATA HDD Shield
- 1 x X885 A1 V1.0 Adapter
- 1 x USB3 Connector
- 3 x Jumper link Pitch 2.54mm
- 4 x M2.5 *11mm F/F Spacers
- 8 x M2.5 * 6mm Screws
- 8 x M3 * 8mm Spacers
- 1 x X885-C1 metal case
- 1 x Momentary Switch
- 1 x X823-A3 metal bracket with 4010 PWM cooling fan
- 4 x M2.5 x 6+5 Spacers (for fix fan)
- 4 x M2.5 x 5 Screws (for fix fan)
- 2 x M2.5 x 9+6 Spacers
- 4 x M2.5 x 9 Spacers
- 6 x M2.5 x 5 Screws (for fix X885 board at the bottom of case)
User Manual
Installation Video
Hardware installation guide: https://youtu.be/iifa9cTGqFM
How to Install Script
Refer to how to install the shell script, and this script is required to install to enable PWM fan runs and safe shutdown function.
About SSD/HDD
- Do not recommend using Samsung hard drives, please use hard drives of other brands.
- As with all SSDs, new SSD/HDD must be formatted before use.
- Older SSD/HDD drives with less efficient flash media may not perform as well as newer drives.
- A microSD card is required for forceing the Raspbian OS to use the HDD/SSD for its "root" partition
How to Configure RAID Setting
Refer to How to Configure RAID Setting
Some tutorials
- How to Run Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 Off an SSD or Flash Drive: Does the X825/X855 support USB boot
- Tutorial – How to Initialize, Partition and Format a Brand New SSD in Windows: File:Tutorial Initalize New SSD.pdf
- How to set up OpenMediaVault on Raspberry Pi 4
- Properly Mount USB Storage on Raspberry Pi
- Auto Mount an NTFS USB Drive on Raspberry Pi
- Difficulty booting from SSD drive
- How to build a Raspberry Pi NAS: https://youtu.be/gyMpI8csWis
- How to View/Partition/Format/Mount HDD/SSD
- How to Format and Mount a USB drive on Raspberry Pi
- How to Use rc.local on Ubuntu
FAQ
Q1: What is the max hard disk's limit?
A: In theory, there is no limit to the HDD capacity for NASPi Gemini 3.5, but related with the operation system. And the engineer only test it with max 10TB HDD, so we write 10TB in the product information,
Q2: Why only one SSD/HDD is recognized?
A: You found only SSD/HDD if you select the RAID0/RAID1 mode.
Please exit the RAID mode and check again after entering the PM mode(clear raid mode).
More details please refer to Set CLEAR RAID mode of [[How to Configure RAID Setting]
Q3: Does the X885(NASPi Gemini 3.5) support one 2.5" SSD and one 3.5" HDD?
A: It is not recommend, but if you need to use one 2.5" SSD and one 3.5" HDD, it can only be used in the PM mode, not support RAID.
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