CF emulator with usb cable? CF of 20GB... ?

[fhorst]

Hi there,

I'm looking for a "CF emulator"
This is what I want to do:
Connect the "CF" in my digital camera,
connect the usb cable to my laptop,
Get all the information (photo's e.g.) that is writen to the "fake" CF directly on my harddrive.
With some software emulation it should be possible to make the camera beleave that a portion of my laptop's hard disk is a compact flash card, but than one of 20 GB!! (and cheap!!)

Did someone hear of this solution, or should I run to a programmer, and make the deal of my life for the idea?

If you know where to get it, please let me know (post or email to me)

[NHL]

fhorst

Theoretically it should be easy since the CF standard is similar to the ATApi albeit in miniature version, hence if you can reverse adapt the CF to a PCMCIA (PC card) connector, there should be plenty of USB adapter that would fit this footprint...

In practice however it's more difficult since the driver for this 'homemade USB' must reside inside the camera, hence there's not too many people developing code for a proprietary close system (or know where to start). It would be much easier to adapt the CF to a regular IDE hardisk connector, then you only have to worry about sufficient power to drive the hardisk from the camera... But then you'll run into the current DCF standard for digital camera which is limited to fat-16 (ie 2G).

Trust me, buy the IBM microdrive and you're all set. It's much simpler and for what it costs, it's not worth the effort to cobble something up !!! (and this device can sustain 100's of G shock that your emulator can't barely approach!)

http://www.compactflash.org/

[Edited on 7-18-2002 by NHL]

[NHL]

FYI

If you build something up this is probably easier @ 1/4 the cost of the Microdrive...(and you don't have to worry about the DCF's fat-16 limit)

[fhorst]

Thanks!

This is what I was looking for!

Cheap, large and usable

Regards,

Frank

[NHL]

Frank

No problem!

Now a Blue-Tooth or an 802.11 enabled camera, that's an idea... Forget about all this CF/Microdrive stuff !!! (Minolta are U listening ?)

[Bowisc]

Hmmm. Okay, now can you break this down to laymen's for a newbie like me?

Is this CF ghosting? I'm curious.

Bowisc

[NHL]

Buenos Diais

The Blue-Tooth and the 802.11 are the new wireless standard for portable devices. Blue-Tooth especially since it's design for more power conservation, whereas 802.11 is just the wireless extension of the good old Ethernet!

What I try to say is with one of theses type of CF adapter (a larger PCMCIA form factor exists now), one can shoot and the picture are immediatly download wirelessly to your PC or network... ie just how cell phones or PDA are sending E_mail now...

Comprendo?
(Sorry about the Spanish, only speak French here...)

[Edited on 7-23-2002 by NHL]

[Bowisc]

Thanks NHL, that makes a lot more sense. So in essence... what device is connected between the camera and laptop??

Gracias.

By the way, are you a Networking guru?

Bowisc

[NHL]

Nothing... only the ether(air) between the camera and the laptop, and not just a laptop but anything on a network! ie. a news photographer snap a shot and it'll show up on the editor newsdesk in the blink of an eye! Let's not forget some camera can tag voice annotation along with the picture as well... (BTW the original D7 has a CF modem option, but was dropped from the D7i accessories list).

Network guru? No where close! but I did my time in the H/W design of ATM (not the teller machine) telecom switches and have since move on to the satellites side of the business... (but I can certainly find my way around OC-3 to OC-48, dslam, frame relay, token ring etc...)

LOL

[Edited on 7-23-2002 by NHL]

[randyclark]

Do dash camera has the same way of transferring files?