~misfit~ wrote:
On 22/06/2019 4:26 AM, MaxTheFast wrote:
Thanks for your explanations. Now I've no time to read Paul's last
reply and I'll do it later because I want to learn something on that.
~misfit~ solved that with a PCIe so for now I just want to ask you if
this https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B007FVQIVW/ can be good for my
scenario. Data transfer is only 3gbps, so it's esata II like my fantec
enclosure, but it costs only 5 euros (a bit less than 5 usd) shipped.

If I were you I'd be ordering that (and an eSATA to eSATA cable) and
trying it. I don't know for sure but I think your enclosure uses the
'power in' on eSATA and USB to tell it what mode to run in. No power in
signal on either means it won't power up.

It's not a lot of money to spend to find out for sure. Please let us
know how it goes. I always read all of Paul's posts as he is the most
knowledgeable hardware guy I know of. Sometimes though the answer is
simple and if you get too deep into the minutiae of the situation you
can lose sight of that.

Good luck!

I look at the power issue this way. Fantec put their
enclosure into a different pricing class, when making
the decision to include an AC power adapter. That means
they're "pretty well committed" to their own power
source (they don't need VBUS, they don't need
to sniff VBUS). If they add (VBUS OR Adapter) operation, that's
an additional cost adder (more components on PCB).

*******

When an enclosure like that has two data cables, you're
only supposed to use one of the cables at any one time,
and unplug the other.

*******

Pretty well all computer cables have some sort of sensing incorporated,
even if it isn't all that clever. For example, on audio, the
standard calls for "side-contacts" to detect a plug is
present. One of the companies has an electronic way to
do sensing, but I expect they (Analog Devices) have a
patent and would love to earn royalties by licensing it.
The audio jacks in that case, have a 25KHz AC signal placed
on them, any time the chip wants to check the port. Must
scare the crap out of your dog or cat :-/ I've actually
verified that signal is present, by using the audio chip
on one computer, to record the test signal coming out
of the Analog Devices.

So detecting the USB3 or the ESATA data signals are
connected, should not be a problem. The evidence the ESATA
has sensing on the computer end, is the "Hot Plug" detection.

If you don't have "Hot Plug" detection enabled in the BIOS,
um, guess what happens... :-) Enclosure only detected at
OS boot time.

Paul