Installation: 

Tray removed	Underside of board notice the battery
HDD ready to be installed	HDD Installed

    To gain access to the inside of the Venus GOGO, there is a slide latch on the side of the enclosure. Slide the latch back while pulling on the tray to release the tray from the enclosure. When the tray is removed, you simply plug in the 2.5" HDD and secure it with the provided screws. Slide the tray back into the aluminum enclosure until you hear a click. This click means the tray is locked into the enclosure. That's it for the installation. How much simpler can you get?

Setup and Testing:

MP3's being backed upped	Camera connection
USB connection initialized	Data being transferred

    After the HDD is installed, it's time to charge up the battery. This is done with the provided USB-to-power jack cable. For my unit it charged in about 15 mins, so I'm guessing the battery was probably charged before shipping. To gain access to the Venus GOGO, simply plug the USB cable from the computer to the USB mini B port on the enclosure. WinXP will find the external unit without drivers, but for Win98 users, a CD with drivers is included. For the OTG function to work, the HDD must be formatted with FAT32.

    I tested the Venus GOGO with several units I had on hand: a USB card reader, the Creative Muvo 256 mb MP3 player, and two digital cameras. When I plugged the card reader into the USB port and pushed the OTG button, the reader powered on for a second and then the Venus went dead. I tried this several times with the same results. I guess there is not enough power to run both at the same time. Now, with the MP3 player the results were opposite. I plugged in the USB portion of the player, which is nothing more than an USB thumbdrive. I then pushed the OTG button, and the unit came alive and started copying the files from the MP3 player to the HDD in the Venus GOGO.

    The next thing I tried were the two digital cameras I own. The Venus GOGO manual states that the camera must be turned to USB mode before making the connections. The first camera I tried was a DSLR. This camera doesn't have an option for USB; it's just Plug and Play. I plugged the DSLR into the Venus GOGO and the camera went into USB mode, but it would not transfer files when the OTG button was pushed. Thinking that's what the Venus GOGO was made for, I was a little bummed out. So I tried my other digital camera, which does have the USB mode to connect the camera to the computer. I switched the camera to USB mode, then plugged the camera into the Venus GOGO and pushed the OTG button. After pushing the OTG button, the camera went into data transfer and the files on the camera card were being transferred onto the Venus GOGO. WOOHOOO! SUCCESS!!!

    I tried doing a battery longevity test, but I got outlasted when I noticed the HDD powered down after 60 seconds of no use. A push of the OTG button brings the HDD back to life only if it's connected to a USB device. I left the Venus GOGO on for roughly 8 hours in the "standby" mode, and the "battery low" LED never came on. I will get some details on battery life from AMS and post them in a future update.

Conclusion:

    I have reviewed several HDD enclosures over the past few months, but the Venus GOGO is the first enclosure that includes a battery. This is a great for people who take a lot of pictures out in the field and don't want to carry a bulky laptop with them.

   When I used the Venus GOGO with my USB card reader, it didn't work, even though the manual states that it is supposed to. Also, this may not function with every digital camera out there. It worked perfectly with a digital camera that has to be set to USB mode, but on my DSLR (which is more Plug and Play) it only functioned for a seconds then powered down, just like the card reader did.

   Overall, the unit performed well when connected to the computer, and there were only a few minor issues when using certain USB devices. My opinion is that the Venus GOGO by AMS looks good, performs well, and when copying files from the right kind of USB devices, it's quick and simple with just the push of a single button. I would like to thank the folks from American Media Systems, Inc for sending out the Venus GOGO units for me to review.

Pros:

• Sleek Design

• OTG Works Great with Approved USB Devices

• Carry Case Included

• No Extra Software Needed for OTG Function

Cons:

• Did Not Work with 2 of my Card Readers

• Does Not Work with ALL Digital Cameras

• Sometimes I had to turn unit on/off several times to get the HDD to power on the battery