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New RAVPower FileHub model - WD009

S

sparksd

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
10,297
37,141
Seattle WA
Earlier, I posted a review of a new model of the RAVPower FileHub, the WD007 –

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/new-ravpower-filehub-model-review.2128117/

I noted a number of issues in that review and since that review, RAVPower has released an update, the WD009:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M6P618P

I have received a copy of this device and can report on it. This update has addressed a number of issues I identified, the most significant being the overheating problem – this was so severe that I discontinued using the WD007 as I was concerned about damaging inserted SD cards. This issue has been resolved with the WD009. Other improvements have been made, including increasing the size of the internal battery and reverting back to the micro USB power interface in lieu of USB-C. Data access and copying speed is comparable to the WD007. Overall performance of the iPad-hosted app also seems improved, being “snappier” (the app did not change but performance with the new device seems quicker). General functionality remains the same as with earlier models.

I just used the older WD03 model on a week-long photo trip and used it to copy many GB’s of photos and videos from my camera’s SD card to a USB-based Samsung external SSD. I also used it for streaming movies from a 4TB HDD to my iPad. It worked great and I will now be using the WD009 in a similar fashion. I've been using a FileHub with my iPads for 3.5 years now and they are great accessories for external file management.

Edit: Latest model on 8/19/2020 is https://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-FileHub-Wireless-Portable-Transfer/dp/B07P5QDQ1B

https://www.ravpower.com/products/rp-wd009-filehub - if unavailable on Amazon
 
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Was waiting for your thoughts on it, I went ahead and ordered it ahead of a trip to Cuba recently thinking I would use it with my XQD card reader to copy the images into the Files app instead of the camera roll and then into Lightroom but my dumb ass forgot the right cable to pull that off (USB A to Micro B I think it is, the weird camera one), I only had the USB C version of the cable so imported straight to the camera roll.

I only shoot backup JPG’s to my SD card so the SD card to USB storage function is wasted on me, maybe I’ll look into investing into one of those new Gnarbox’s soon that I think have XQD support.
 
jaseone said:
Was waiting for your thoughts on it, I went ahead and ordered it ahead of a trip to Cuba recently thinking I would use it with my XQD card reader to copy the images into the Files app instead of the camera roll and then into Lightroom but my dumb ass forgot the right cable to pull that off (USB A to Micro B I think it is, the weird camera one), I only had the USB C version of the cable so imported straight to the camera roll.

I only shoot backup JPG’s to my SD card so the SD card to USB storage function is wasted on me, maybe I’ll look into investing into one of those new Gnarbox’s soon that I think have XQD support.
Click to expand...

I posted this earlier in another thread:

I just went on an 8 day trip where I decided to leave the laptop at home and just take the 10.5” iPP. Each day I took several hundred pictures – all RAW format – and some videos. I originally planned on just backing the pictures up to a portable HDD every day, using a RAVPower FileHub. But I ended up with free time and I really wanted to do some processing using Lightroom on the iPP. But I found the associated file handling (I wanted backup of processed images to the HDD and I had very poor Internet access) and finger manipulation of Lightroom controls to be too inefficient for processing for anything more than a handful of images. Next time, I will take the laptop, mouse, and external SSD drive; the iPP will tag along as the very nice consumption device I find it to be.
 
Has anyone been able to do any speed comparisons to older models? I have the WD03 and find it very useful, but I would love a boost in transfer speed.
 
widestload said:
Has anyone been able to do any speed comparisons to older models? I have the WD03 and find it very useful, but I would love a boost in transfer speed.
Click to expand...

See the thread I pointed to above. I have found the WD009's speed to be about the same as the WD007 in my earlier tests (I have all three). I just took an 8-day trip and took the WD03 to use.
 
From the RavPower website:

The difference between RP-WD007 and RP-WD009
1) One key backup speed improve to 14~18 Mb/s from 7-12 mb/s when your are using high speed SD card.
2) Overheating： Solved
3) Battery Capacity changed to 6700 mAh from 5200 mAh
4) User Manual: upgrade
5) Type C port replaced by Micro USB port
6) The problem of app: solved most of them and still working on the rest.

The difference between RP-WD03 and RP-WD009

1) RP-WD009 is updated with faster seepd which can instantly converts a wired network to wireless with super-fast speeds of up to 433 Mbps Wi-Fi over 802.11ac and 300 Mbps on 802.11n connection.
2) Better APP and more stable.
3) Additional Function： One key backup speed up to 14~18 Mb/s which is useful for the customer who need to transfer the files from SD card to portable hard drive.

Supporting to reading USB hard drives up to 3TB and SD/SDHC/SDXC cards up to 256GB.
Perfect for when you need to free up space for Android or iOS devices.
Up to 5 mobile devices can connect simultaneously allowing you to stream media from the SD or USB drives, or you can directly share files between two different storage devices.
As a portable router, you can turn any wired network to wireless, or connect it via a DSL or cable modem.
 
Still100 said:
On the wd007, was the usb c port just for charging?

I was hoping that they supported usbc for data and power. But they’ve just gone back to usb micro.
Click to expand...

In the user guides, it mentions data for both the USB-C and micro USB ports but near as I can tell they are only for charging. I've tried connecting them to different devices and there is no recognition of a connection to anything on those devices.
 
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So I went ahead and bought one of these after watching videos and reading through this thread. Overall, it works better than I had originally expected. The import times are faster than I had anticipated in to the FileHub app. I do however use FileExplorer as I want to circumvent the photos app and have a separate storage “app” for all of my non-personal photos/videos. What I did notice is that when I attempt to download the same SD video file via HTTP (NAS) in FileExplorer, the transfer speed is about 1/5 as fast, or worse, than the app. I cannot really figure out why that might be.

I emailed support to see what they have to say about it.

TL;DR
The filehub app is fast. Using other apps for wireless download are realllllly slow. Why?!
[doublepost=1553582591][/doublepost]So super quick update for you guys in case anyone gets curious. I managed to solve the problem of speed. In other apps, the filehub shares files over SMB, but it is rather slow. However, the filehub also supports WebDAV, which is about 5-6 times faster. If you are using another app and can setup webdav use the following settings:

host/ip: 10.10.10.254 (filehub ip)
port: 80
directory: /data (may have to input ip as http://10.10.10.254/data)
user: admin
pass: blank

The reason this is huge for me is I have found a way to take the contents of my SD and remotely back them up either to my imac at home, or one of the external drives connected to it. This way I can create remote backups in the field. I also know the XML support is coming from LumaFusion, which means starting an edit in LumaFusion and finishing it in Final Cut. When that starts, my footage will already be loaded up and ready to edit.

Hope this helps anyone.
 
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GrindedDown said:
So I went ahead and bought one of these after watching videos and reading through this thread. Overall, it works better than I had originally expected. The import times are faster than I had anticipated in to the FileHub app. I do however use FileExplorer as I want to circumvent the photos app and have a separate storage “app” for all of my non-personal photos/videos. What I did notice is that when I attempt to download the same SD video file via HTTP (NAS) in FileExplorer, the transfer speed is about 1/5 as fast, or worse, than the app. I cannot really figure out why that might be.

I emailed support to see what they have to say about it.

TL;DR
The filehub app is fast. Using other apps for wireless download are realllllly slow. Why?!
[doublepost=1553582591][/doublepost]So super quick update for you guys in case anyone gets curious. I managed to solve the problem of speed. In other apps, the filehub shares files over SMB, but it is rather slow. However, the filehub also supports WebDAV, which is about 5-6 times faster. If you are using another app and can setup webdav use the following settings:

host/ip: 10.10.10.254 (filehub ip)
port: 80
directory: /data (may have to input ip as http://10.10.10.254/data)
user: admin
pass: blank

The reason this is huge for me is I have found a way to take the contents of my SD and remotely back them up either to my imac at home, or one of the external drives connected to it. This way I can create remote backups in the field. I also know the XML support is coming from LumaFusion, which means starting an edit in LumaFusion and finishing it in Final Cut. When that starts, my footage will already be loaded up and ready to edit.

Hope this helps anyone.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Using FileBrowser, I was able to create a WebDav connection to the FileHub. I'll have to do some testing to check out speeds.

Regarding use of other apps like FileBrowser vs. RAVPower's own FileHub app - if you copy from an SD card to a USB device (both attached to the FileHub), the FileHub app is significantly faster than another app. I think the FileHub app does a direct point-to-point copy within the FileHub device whereas with the other app, the copy goes through the iPad, i.e. SD card -> iPad -> USB device.

It would be nice if the FileHub could be made faster with support for USB 3 but I don't think anyone has cracked the nut of putting fast networking + USB 3 together in a small form factor like the FileHub. But so far, it's the best (and cheapest) device of this kind I've been able to find (I have all four models - -01, -03, -07, and -09 - the similar device from Kingston, and a Seagate wireless drive).
 
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sparksd said:
Interesting. Using FileBrowser, I was able to create a WebDav connection to the FileHub. I'll have to do some testing to check out speeds.

Regarding use of other apps like FileBrowser vs. RAVPower's own FileHub app - if you copy from an SD card to a USB device (both attached to the FileHub), the FileHub app is significantly faster than another app. I think the FileHub app does a direct point-to-point copy within the FileHub device whereas with the other app, the copy goes through the iPad, i.e. SD card -> iPad -> USB device.

It would be nice if the FileHub could be made faster with support for USB 3 but I don't think anyone has cracked the nut of putting fast networking + USB 3 together in a small form factor like the FileHub. But so far, it's the best (and cheapest) device of this kind I've been able to find (I have all four models - -01, -03, -07, and -09 - the similar device from Kingston, and a Seagate wireless drive).
Click to expand...

Out of all here hubs that you have used, which has has been the best for you and why?
 
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GrindedDown said:
Out of all here hubs that you have used, which has has been the best for you and why?
Click to expand...

Easily, the RAVPower WD03. It has had the best performance and has been reliable with extensive use with my Air 2, 10.5 iPP, iPhone XS Max, at least one Android phone and two Android tablets. Been using it for 3.5 years now. It is also the most compact.
 
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I just got one, WD009, and I am testing it. Everything seems great except that I cannot transfer videos from the iPhone to the device storage on USB or SD card. The videos are on iCloud, is that the problem?
 
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sauria said:
I just got one and I am testing it. Everything seems great except that I cannot transfer videos from the iPhone to the device storage on USB or SD card. The videos are on iCloud, is that the problem?
Click to expand...

I’v never tried that. It’s not a protected movie bought through iTunes, is it?
 
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I used this for 3 days in a hotel. I connected the Ethernet to the rav and wireless to the ipad and 3 phones. I tested the file transfer speed and it was over the max the clock rating the speed would register. I had no issues with streaming from the card off the rav and /or using Ethernet on devices that were access just Ethernet.

I had an old school “hootoo” wireless router (link for grins):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012ZNMUL6/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And it was fine over the years. Had some quirks but was reliable.

The rav model just makes me realize how robust it is over the hootoo.:)
 
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A.R.E.A.M. said:
I used this for 3 days in a hotel. I connected the Ethernet to the rav and wireless to the ipad and 3 phones. I tested the file transfer speed and it was over the max the clock rating the speed would register. I had no issues with streaming from the card off the rav and /or using Ethernet on devices that were access just Ethernet.

I had an old school “hootoo” wireless router (link for grins):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012ZNMUL6/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And it was fine over the years. Had some quirks but was reliable.

The rav model just makes me realize how robust it is over the hootoo.:)
Click to expand...

Good to hear. I still have the Generation 1 FileHub and Generation 1 of the old HooToo Travel Router. They've worked well over the years and glad to hear it all worked for you. That Ethernet capability has saved me a couple of times in older places without wireless.
 
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I like the idea behind this product and would love to buy it, but there are two dealbreakers here - the HDD limit of 3/4TB, and no Mac formatted drive support.

I want to use it to stream movies on my iPad Air 3 from external HDDs that I could plug into this hub. But all my HDDs are Mac formatted and I’m not about to convert to windows or FAT - they’re full of movies and it would be too much work. And all of them are 8TB.

If they can solve these two issues I’ll buy.
 
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