CF drive to the Revo?

[craig T.]

I saw this posted on revoworld and thought it was a great question so I am moving the discussion over here to see what any one has to say on it:

by Robert Streeter at the revoworld forum on 19/10/2002
"The hardware side of adding an external CF drive to the Revo is simple. Connect an old 9 pin serial CF drive that was intended for use with a desktop/digital camera to the Revos docking station.
Getting it to work is the hard bit. It needs a driver. If there is anyone out there who is capable of creating a driver please do so as it will expand the revos capabilities at a very small cost (CF readers are cheap and easy to get hold of).

Any takers?"

[brianh]

This is a wonderful idea that has been batted around in forum discussions many times. Some concerns seems to continually arise though:

Isn't power management the biggest problem to seeing this as a reality?

How would the Revo/Mako allot power to the CF reader?

I know that it is theoretically possible to read/write data to the serial port using OPL, but someone would have to understand the file structure of the CF card to understand file storage, etc.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge than I...but it would be great to have!!!

[makoman50]

great point!!!!!!! i think that it would be wonderful if one could hook up a cf drive to a mako. as the cahp said the power management would be extremely hard to do. the old serial 9-pin serial connectors had two power pins built in that i provides 5volts. in a message i got from the expert on power managment ChasinRecordings it is not possible to draw power out of the docking station other than to control a device (an innsugnifficant amount of volts). one would havet ot splice the cable and add power from and external source. that's jsut what i know about the power and hardware. i know very little about the software issues involved with this prospect but i would think you'd have to format it for epoc not windows.
i wish you the best of luck
cheers
makoman

[ChasenRecording]

If anyone could get a hold of a serial reader I would love to know, as I could not find one about 6 months ago.

The power issue could be solved with a small port added to the back of the mako or to the bottom in the protected area (the part covered when it is closed). The reader could be integrated in the docking station along with the special power port. The battery drain would most likely be rediculous (close to 5 times normal power usage).

The compact flash cards would only have to be formated with fat16 (standard) as that is what the series 5 and 7 take. This is a well published standard and an interface can be created with a reasonable amount of effort.

I am very curious on this issue.

[lazerin]

Any new updates on this issue??

[ChasenRecording]

This topic has been abandonded due to the inablility to find a serial CF reader. If you really need more space, get another revo and transfer files between them or use one for one purpose and the other for another.

Sorry,
Chasen_recordings

[MartinG]

Surely you meant a parallel CF reader? I cannot believe that anyone made a serial CF reader - it would be incredibly slow. Certainly parallel readers exist(ed) - I have one at home (now unused due to a nice USB 2.0 reader) and I guess that - theoretically - you could connect one up to a parallel/serial converter and connect it to a revo (or whatever).

Doesn't get around the speed issue however. The thing'd be practically unusable - even if you could drive it...

Just my 0.02c.

Martin

[JKC]

Forgive me if I've got completely the wrong idea, but is this the kind of thing you guys are talking about?

http://www.elandigitalsystems.com/interface/cf232.php

[lazerin]

I was thinking more of something which plugs into the port on the bottom of the Revo to provide CF card readability.

[MartinG]

Quite remarkable... :eek:

Although of course, these CF cards are non-standard insofar as they have a special port added. But once you have the card, you could use it in an other reader/CF-using-PDA/etc. I guess.

Plus of course, you wouldn't be able to use a revo to read them via their serial connection since that requires special drivers (provided for Windows only I imagine).

Still... Impressive! :cool:

Thanks for the link.

M

[MikeMcC]

Originally posted by JKC
Forgive me if I've got completely the wrong idea, but is this the kind of thing you guys are talking about? Not really, that is a device to create a standard RS232 serial port from a CF slot (in a machine with a CF slot which would support such a device which a Psion wouldn't).

Many users would like to use CF memory cards with their Revo but there is no interface to be able to do this.

[MikeMcC]

Martin,
Although of course, these CF cards are non-standard insofar as they have a special port added. But once you have the card, you could use it in an other reader/CF-using-PDA/etc. I guessI think you have mis-interpreted what the card is. It isn't a memory card which connects to a PC via a serial port, it is a card to create a serial port from a CF slot. It terminates in a 9-pin male connector, the same as a PC's serial port.

[MartinG]

Yep, you're quite right Mike. Looked at the picture, got way too excited, and wrote a reply. Reading the information is for wimps, right?! :rolleyes:

:o Must remember to engage brain before mouth... Erm, fingers... :o

Martin