Pocket PC CF & SD Card Reader - Does it Exist?

Hi all, I will be traveling with my D70, CP7900 and my Pocket PC and
I'm looking for a way to transfer my digital photos and movies from CF
& SD cards directly to my iPAQ 6925 Pocket PC. This device only has a
mini-SD slot, so I can't slip in the CF or SD cards directly. I will
not have a laptop either, so I'm trying to find a way to connect a card
reader directly to the Pocket PC. Has anyone rigged up such a
configuration? Best option would be to have a Y cable to connect power
and a USB card reader all at once. Suggestions or alternatives
appreciated.

Billy wrote:
> Hi all, I will be traveling with my D70, CP7900 and my Pocket PC and
> I'm looking for a way to transfer my digital photos and movies from CF
> & SD cards directly to my iPAQ 6925 Pocket PC. This device only has a
> mini-SD slot, so I can't slip in the CF or SD cards directly. I will
> not have a laptop either, so I'm trying to find a way to connect a card
> reader directly to the Pocket PC. Has anyone rigged up such a
> configuration? Best option would be to have a Y cable to connect power
> and a USB card reader all at once. Suggestions or alternatives
> appreciated.

Unfortunately, the iPAQ 6925 lacks USB Host mode (some PDAs have the
ability to be a host or a target), so you're out of luck. If it had USB
host mode, you could transfer photos over USB, but getting an external
card reader to work would be improbable because there would have to be
Windows Mobile drivers for the card reader.

Find someone selling something like a Toshiba E750/755 or E740 which has
CF and SD slots. Then you can stick in an SD to MiniSD adapter, and copy
the CF contents from the D70 card over to the MiniSD. You can copy the
SD card contents over to the CF, then stick in the MiniSD card and
adapter and transfer the contents over to the MiniSD. Toshiba also
supports USB Host mode, so you might be able to use a USB cable from the
cameras, I've never tried it.

You could get a device such as
"http://www.xs-drive.com/xsdrivepro/specs.htm" but I don't think that
you can transfer data onto the memory cards, only from the memory cards
to the internal hard drive, so you could not get the photos into your
iPAQ. With a PDA that has both SD and CF slots, you could actually get
the photos onto a MiniSD card for transferring to the iPAQ.

Check this out @
http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=5762

I have WIFI on the 6925. I thought connecting a card reader via the
power/data port, not the mini-sd port - would do the trick. I'm missing

something I think, if you would explain.


SMS wrote:
> Billy wrote:
> > Hi all, I will be traveling with my D70, CP7900 and my Pocket PC and
> > I'm looking for a way to transfer my digital photos and movies from CF
> > & SD cards directly to my iPAQ 6925 Pocket PC. This device only has a
> > mini-SD slot, so I can't slip in the CF or SD cards directly. I will
> > not have a laptop either, so I'm trying to find a way to connect a card
> > reader directly to the Pocket PC. Has anyone rigged up such a
> > configuration? Best option would be to have a Y cable to connect power
> > and a USB card reader all at once. Suggestions or alternatives
> > appreciated.
>
> Unfortunately, the iPAQ 6925 lacks USB Host mode (some PDAs have the
> ability to be a host or a target), so you're out of luck. If it had USB
> host mode, you could transfer photos over USB, but getting an external
> card reader to work would be improbable because there would have to be
> Windows Mobile drivers for the card reader.
>
> Find someone selling something like a Toshiba E750/755 or E740 which has
> CF and SD slots. Then you can stick in an SD to MiniSD adapter, and copy
> the CF contents from the D70 card over to the MiniSD. You can copy the
> SD card contents over to the CF, then stick in the MiniSD card and
> adapter and transfer the contents over to the MiniSD. Toshiba also
> supports USB Host mode, so you might be able to use a USB cable from the
> cameras, I've never tried it.
>
> You could get a device such as
> "http://www.xs-drive.com/xsdrivepro/specs.htm" but I don't think that
> you can transfer data onto the memory cards, only from the memory cards
> to the internal hard drive, so you could not get the photos into your
> iPAQ. With a PDA that has both SD and CF slots, you could actually get
> the photos onto a MiniSD card for transferring to the iPAQ.

At 13 Jan 2007 10:25:10 -0800 Billy wrote:

> I have WIFI on the 6925. I thought connecting a card reader via the
> power/data port, not the mini-sd port - would do the trick. I'm missing
> something I think, if you would explain.

If I might jump in here, USB ports come in two flavors: hosts (ports in
computers that expect accessories to be connected to them) and slaves
(accessories that expect to be plugged into a PC/host.) For example, a
USB mouse won't connect to a USB card reader, even if the plugs fit with
appropriate adapters.

Sadly, the USB ports on virtually all PPCs are slave ports, designed to
connect to a host PC. Therefore, you can't plug a USB card reader (slave)
into a PPC (slave) any more than you could plug two USB card readers
together and expect them to transfer files to each other, sadly.

Because of this, I still take my older PPC (a Dell Axim X5 with both CF
and SD card slots) on vacation with me (if I don't lug the laptop along)
to e-mail important pictures back home (since my current PPC only takes
mini-SD.)

Todd Allcock wrote:

> Sadly, the USB ports on virtually all PPCs are slave ports,

Not true.

Some PPCs do support host mode. Toshiba, which no longer makes Pocket
PCs, supported both host and target modes on the E7xx series.

"http://www.firstloox.org/VGAppc.htm" shows some PDAs and whether or not
they support host mode. Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, and Toshiba support it.
Dell, HP, and Sharp don't.

Unfortunately, Toshiba got out of the PDA business. They had the only
units that had both a CF and SD slot, AND worked in host USB mode.

At 13 Jan 2007 14:06:37 -0800 SMS wrote:
> Todd Allcock wrote:
>
> > Sadly, the USB ports on virtually all PPCs are slave ports,
>
> Not true.
>
> Some PPCs do support host mode. Toshiba, which no longer makes Pocket
> PCs, supported both host and target modes on the E7xx series.

Hence my use of the phrase "virtually all PPCs" rather than simply "all
PPCs."


> "http://www.firstloox.org/VGAppc.htm" shows some PDAs and whether or
> not they support host mode. Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, and Toshiba support it.
> Dell, HP, and Sharp don't.


I think some mentioned a few HPs that would as well.


> Unfortunately, Toshiba got out of the PDA business. They had the only
> units that had both a CF and SD slot, AND worked in host USB mode.

True, however, lack of compatible drivers prevented the host mode on the
Tosh (or any othe host-enabled PPC) from being very useful. IIRC, that
ability was added to the 80x series for a few specific Toshiba-sold
accessories that connected to the USB port.

I'm unaware of any of the PPCs you reference being able to support a USB
flash reader, but if I'm wrong, hopefully someone will correct me...



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Todd Allcock wrote:

> True, however, lack of compatible drivers prevented the host mode on the
> Tosh (or any othe host-enabled PPC) from being very useful.

Host mode works with mice, keyboards, and mass storage devices. Most
cameras look like mass storage devices when you plug them into a USB
port (they show up as a disk drive), so it should be possible to
transfer from the storage card in the camera to the PDA. But yes, most
USB devices would not work (anything that required a driver other than
the keyboard, pointing device, or mass storage). The description for the
driver implies that it will work with a USB card reader, but unless it
the card reader uses the standard mass storage device driver, I doubt it.

In short, about half of the PPCs support host mode. For the Axim, there
was a CF USB card that supposedly gave you host mode. See
"http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/products/subpages/cfu1u.html"

At 13 Jan 2007 16:13:09 -0800 SMS wrote:
> Todd Allcock wrote:
>
> > True, however, lack of compatible drivers prevented the host mode on
> > the
> > Tosh (or any othe host-enabled PPC) from being very useful.
>
> Host mode works with mice, keyboards, and mass storage devices. Most
> cameras look like mass storage devices when you plug them into a USB
port
> (they show up as a disk drive), so it should be possible to transfer
from
> the storage card in the camera to the PDA. But yes, most USB devices
> would not work (anything that required a driver other than the keyboard,
> pointing device, or mass storage). The description for the driver
implies
> that it will work with a USB card reader, but unless it the card reader
> uses the standard mass storage device driver, I doubt it.


So pretty much any card reader that works "driverless" in XP would
probably work then? (Any USB card reader I've used loads as a generic
mass-storage device on my XP PC.)


> In short, about half of the PPCs support host mode.

Is the number really that high? 50%? I knew the Tosh off the top of my
head, but the others on the list posted I wasn't aware of.

> For the Axim, there was a CF USB card that supposedly gave you host mode.

See "http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/products/subpages/cfu1u.html"

Theoretically that would work with any PPC with a CF slot (ruling out the
OP's device.) Looks like a steal at $139! ;-)

Todd Allcock wrote:

> Theoretically that would work with any PPC with a CF slot (ruling out the
> OP's device.) Looks like a steal at $139! ;-)

Yeah, the price is outrageous.

When I was looking for a PPC, I actually wasn't all than concerned about
host mode, I just wanted both the CF slot (for a GPS and for
transferring photos) and the SD slot for maps for the GPS. It worked out
pretty well.

The market for non-phone PDAs is pretty bad, so Toshiba bailed. I think
HP still has one dual slot model.

At 13 Jan 2007 17:03:48 -0800 SMS wrote:

>
> When I was looking for a PPC, I actually wasn't all than concerned
> about host mode, I just wanted both the CF slot (for a GPS and for
> transferring photos) and the SD slot for maps for the GPS. It worked out
> pretty well.


Agreed. Ever since my first PPC (A Casio E-115) forced me to choose
between I/O (a 56kbps modem!) and expansion memory with it's single CF
slot, I've only bought dual-slot (CF/SD) PPCs. That is, until I finally
bought my T-Mo MDA (HTC Wizard) PPC phone. I've had to move from CF GPS
to Bluetooth, but with integrated BT, Wi-Fi, and EDGE data I find I no
longer really need CF (except to e-mail camera pix on the road, so I
still have the Axim X5 for that, and to entertain the kids with WMVs on
plane flights!)

> The market for non-phone PDAs is pretty bad, so Toshiba bailed.

Which was too bad. They made great PPCs. My Audiovox Maestro (a
rebranded Tosh E570) served me well for a few years. I still have it
serving as a dedicated car GPS with my old CF GPS module (and it serves
as another kiddy entertaiment device on long trips.)

> I think HP still has one dual slot model.

I'm probably an anomaly, but despite owning a Palm-Sized PC (the WinCE
2.11 predecessors to PPCs), a handheld PC and four PPCs, I've never owned
either a Jornada or iPaq.

Nothing against Compaq or HP, per se, but they never had the features I
wanted at the price I was willing to pay when I was shopping.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com