External Hard Drive WORKS!!!

eoinkennedy · 01-18-04, 07:49 AM

Yep,
I got my Ratoc USB CF card, and my battery-powered USB enclosure, fitted them all together, and they work.

At the moment I have 6Gb of storage, but I'll invest in a larger drive.
The performance over the USB is really good, music plays well, and Divx videos just need to be re-encoded to a lower bitrate.

There are a few issues with it, the drive and Axim lose their connection after 30 minutes, and it takes a few goes to get the two of them talking initially, but I reckon these are both driver issues, as the ones I am using from Ratoc is still in Beta for PPC2003.
But once these are fixed, I'll have the drive with me all the time, and lots of music and videos to play.

Eoin

01-18-04, 08:04 AM

nice....

01-18-04, 08:04 AM

can you post a picture of your pda and the drive connected?

Magicmonger · 01-18-04, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ChAoZ
can you post a picture of your pda and the drive connected?

That's my real question what do they look like together and are they portable even connected?

eoinkennedy · 01-18-04, 11:53 AM

Here's a quick snap, I'll get a better one up soon.

01-18-04, 12:20 PM

Nice...yeah post more!

shak_attack · 01-18-04, 12:24 PM

Wow !

I'm more interested in ur CF USB Card rather then ur external hard drive.

With that card is it possible to use all USB hardware? like Cameras, Wireless USB Adapters etc. or is it only limited to USB memory storage?

If it is, where do u get ur drivers from? I have a Mobile Disk III Usb Mem stick, when i plug it into the CF card where do i get the drivers from?

-Shak

FrankK · 01-18-04, 12:25 PM

More, I need to know more details---

3rios · 01-18-04, 12:30 PM

thats really cool.

eod_punk · 01-18-04, 12:31 PM

it be kool to match it up with this hard drive from thinkgeek.com. Unfortunately its very expensive, but it would look so damn sweet with the ax.

It mesasures just 5" x 3" x .5"!

eoinkennedy · 01-18-04, 12:41 PM

You can use any USB device with the CF card, as long as it either has its own PPC2002/PPC2003 drivers, or if when you plug it into a PC, it doesn't need drivers.
In general USB drives don't need drivers, as the Windows USB Mass Storage device drivers are loaded, a version for PPC2003 which is available from Ratoc. I know you can use mice and other USB stuff with it, but I haven't used any yet.

As for the drive from thinkgeek.com, it won't work as it draws its power from the USB bus, the CF card can't supply enough to get that to work, which is why my drive case has it's own battery. Most USB drives need 0.5A to work, the CF card only supplies 0.2A.

Eoin

eod_punk · 01-18-04, 12:51 PM

that sucks it won't work with it, i think the two cases would look sweet together. but ohwell i'm not gonna dish out that much for a hard drive anyways. How much did you pay for the one your using? and by the way thats a pretty sweet setup with the external harddrive. let us know when you get all the final bugs worked out.,

eoinkennedy · 01-18-04, 12:56 PM

I spent about €300 on the whole lot, good thing the euro is strong against the dollar at the moment.
I think its a good idea, cause you can spend about the same on CF or SD memory.

I'll kep you informed about any progress.

01-18-04, 03:05 PM

For some time, Digital Camera owners have been able to use Microdrives which fit into CF II slots. Will these work with PDAs ?

No external connectors would be necessary.

Currently a 2.2Gb magicstor hard drive is on sale from www.7dayshop.com for £180 - reduced from £300.

Has anyone tried these drives in an Axim ?

deftech · 01-18-04, 03:12 PM

Yes, Microdrives work just fine in the Axim.

However, the Magicstor 2.2GB has had troubles with WM2003. It works fine in PPC2002 though.

They are reportedly working on a fix for WM2003. Search for "Magicstor" here on Aximsite, and you should find the threads talking about this issue.