--Help w/ wild P2 PCMCIA Hack--

dmpsk8

dmpsk8

Well-known member
As we pondered the constraints of our ever tightening equip budget we found this guy in our spare parts storage room:


hvxhack3.jpg


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Now it seems to me that this is possible. If we can get the HVX to play nice with the card (or something similar) you could record direct to your external HD. Unfortunately you would be limited firewire connections(400 or 800), but its a tempting idea. At the moment the HVX sees the card but calls it an "Incompatible Card". The adapter actually has a power input near the FW connections to bus power devices. This may play a factor as well but I'm not sure. Anybody hacked anything like this into a usable work flow? I'm thinking there might need to be some firmware work involved to get it to read.

Ideas & Input welcome.


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I've gotta look more in depth as to how the cam recognizes P2 so we can attempt to fake it. As of yet the "incompatible card " messeage wont allow the HD to talk
 
Put the card back in the storage room, you are wasting your time. If you want to know why, search the forums, you're not the first to try this.
 
thanks for the input. there a a million ways to say what you just said- luckily you managed to come off sounding like a total prick. We searched for a while yesterday and couldnt find what we were lookin for
 
dont be so sensitive (or aggressive) dmpsk8. THoff makes a good point. a LOT of people have tried this before in several different ways and it comes down to there is a LOT more to the P2 card experience than just the physicality of the PCMCIA slot.
 
Not having searched the forums with regard to this topic, I am perhaps stupidly wondering how much of this "incompatibility" with alternate P2 cards is simply a software shut-out. Has Panasonic made its software code for the HVX publicly available and hackable, so that we may study it, modify it and write our own specialized versions? (Knowing the risks, of course.)
 
Lacie PCMCIA to firewire adapter

Lacie PCMCIA to firewire adapter

I use on of those for transferring files from my Firestore to an external drive via my Powerbook G4. By using the adapter in the PCMCIA slot, the transfer times are faster than Firestore "into" firewire 400 and "out" firewire 800 to external drive. I was told by someone who knows more than me that the PCMCIA slot is a different "bus" than firewire making for faster in/out speeds. Whatever the reason, it works for me!
 
mpalmer12345 said:
Has Panasonic made its software code for the HVX publicly available and hackable, so that we may study it, modify it and write our own specialized versions? (Knowing the risks, of course.)
Click to expand...

No.

Keep in mind, there is a big difference between a "software shut-out" and a lack of support for something you want to stick in your P2 slot. But: the P2 cameras only work with P2 cards in their slots. Nothing else is supported.
 
Cam has been out for two a half years.

Companies have tried to do something similar for two a half years.

Nobody has succeeded
 
what is it that you are trying to accomplish? If you think you will come up with a cheaper/better solution than p2 or firestore then someone would have already done it - and probably someone with a lot more resources - i could list a dozen reasons why this is so complicated and therefore too expensive to warrant the effort.
 
It isn't going to work. We've been at this for over two years now, just about everything people have talked about has been tried. Spec-Comm says they pulled cards apart and found you cannot upgrade the chips in them. We've tried all manner of compactflash and SD adapters and firewire adapters, and the camera won't recognize any of them.
 
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