High Speed Portable Storage Solution ???

BobDiaz

BobDiaz

The Professor
The Other World Computing (OWC) Mercury On-the-Go High Speed Portable Storage Solution is an attractive acrylic enclosure containing an Hitachi Travelstar 2.5-inch hard disk in capacities from 40GB to 160GB. If that's not enough disk space enough for you, the company offers the case and electronics only ($75), letting you provide your own 2.5-inch hard disk up to 500GB. For my evaluation, I used the 100GB FireWire 800/USB 2.0 model ($290). I took the unit out on the road and also onto our test bench, trying out both the FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces.

This OWC drive is quite small -- it's just 3.5 inches wide by 5.5 inches deep by 1 inch high. Even though the company says it weighs 11 ounces, I placed it on our scales and it actually weighs less than that, 9.6 ounces. Well, what you know, a vendor who's actually honest with the specifications, and understating them to boot.


Looking at the bottom of the drive you can clearly see the top of the disk drive, and it's a very small device indeed especially given that it holds 100GB. The Hitachi Travelstar included in this enclosure is a 7200RPM drive with an 8MB data cache. If you're using a recent Mac, you'll be happy to see the two FireWire 800 ports on the back of the drive. There's also a USB 2.0 port back there if you don't have a FireWire 800 port available. If you're a PC user, you can also use FireWire 800, but you have to get a PCI card that's installed inside your computer in order to use it. Since we already have a workstation with that FireWire 800 PCI card installed, I was ready to plug in the drive.
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To read the whole review, please see:

http://desktops.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=38605


Untill someone test this, I can't say how well it would work with the HVX-200, but it does look interesting. A Firewire 800 write speed of 34MB per second translates to 272Mb per second and a USB 2.0 write speed of 13MB per second translates to 104Mb per second.

Given the price, $290 for 100 GB, it would not be unreasonable to have two units to backup your P2 data.

Bob Diaz
 
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i have this firewire drive and love it! of course, i use it w/ my 15" 1.5ghz powerbook and works flawlessly. guess i'm not sold on a firewire hd only solution as that would eliminate continuous shooting. i love the p2, pb, fw workflow...=)
 
Barry_Green said:
SOOO CLOSE... but no battery power. :(
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Yes and no....

I immediately realized that FireWire 800 is the preferred interface on this drive -- one important reason is that only the FireWire 800 interface is bus powered, where you don't have to plug in the included wall wart in order to bring power to the unit. It's a joy to just omit plugging in anything except for that FireWire 800 cable.
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With USB 2.0, you do need to plug it into the wall, BUT if I am reading this right, with Firewire 800, it will draw its power from the bus.

By the way, here's the link to their WEB page:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MO8U7100GB8/

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

Power Supply:
  • Bus Powered*
  • 110v auto switching power supply transformer (included) * Some systems cannot supply enough power through the FireWire or USB bus and the included AC transformer use will be required. This is more common with high speed (5400 and 7200RPM) drive mechanisms and may vary from computer to computer and drive to drive. All drive mechanisms sold with drive solutions by Other World Computing have been tested using a Power Macintosh G5 system and do properly bus power.
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It looks very interesting, but until its tested, I can't be sure if it will work or not...

Bob Diaz
 
vidled said:
If there is enough interest, we can make some of these adapters and offer them for sale. It accepts the DVXuser or any DVX battery, and converts the voltage to 5.0V. Price should be less than $25.00:

DVX_batt_adapter_3V_5V.jpg


Alternatively, we could offer the parts for a lesser amount.
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Barry,

Could this Battery adapter + a 2.5" firewire drive kit (The Macsales or the cool little G-Drive mini) work to offload directly from the HVX? I know you've tested the USB on-the-go units extensively...but is a self powered firewire drive really faster and more secure because of the "Verify" Stage?
 
Self-powered firewire sure can be a lot faster (4 minutes versus 7+). And it can be more secure (but slower) with the verify.

I'm sure a battery pack could make all the difference too. I'll have to check my M.P.D. firewire external enclosure, because if it takes 5VDC, that means the battery pack I just got with the m.i.o. enclosure would work with it...
 
So, if I am understanding the thread correctly, if we can create a battery that will power this drive we can record directly onto from the HVX, thus allowing for continuous shooting? I though you needed to go through a laptop or other controller to record onto firewire/USB drive. Please explain if this is correct.
I have an Anton Bauer battery system, which is pretty adaptable with the powertap connection. If all of this is correct, I can then run the HVX and this Hitachi Drive from the Anton Bauer, right?
 
One thing to watch out for is the input voltage of the drive. The WEB page on the drive does NOT say if it takes +5 volts or +12 volts. Also, there's no information on how much current it takes. (This is a minor issue, but will give us a clue about battery life.)

I could assume that the input voltage is +5 volts, but that would be a guess and it's possible that with external power, they designed it to take in +12 volts and drop it down to 5 volts...


Maybe I'm worrying about the details too soon. If it's +5 volts, there are batteries that can supply that and if it's +12 volts, there are other batteries that can supply that too.


Bob Diaz
 
DP StrangeLove said:
So, if I am understanding the thread correctly, if we can create a battery that will power this drive we can record directly onto from the HVX, thus allowing for continuous shooting? I though you needed to go through a laptop or other controller to record onto firewire/USB drive. Please explain if this is correct.
I have an Anton Bauer battery system, which is pretty adaptable with the powertap connection. If all of this is correct, I can then run the HVX and this Hitachi Drive from the Anton Bauer, right?
Click to expand...

sorry DP StrangeLove, this setup will allow for offloading the P2 cards to the HD, not streaming/continuous shooting. After offloading the P2 card can be formatted and reused. I believe the HD needs to act as host for streaming.

--Gary
 
Recall that BeBob is introducing the Twist-D-Tap and Hirose connector equipped CoCoDVX and CoCoHVX in the weeks to come. That'll give you 12vDC from the 7.2vDC Panasonic form-factor battery.

As long as CoCo is guaranteed not to fry your camera like the Sony version does, we'll be in good shape - 12v or 5v.

e
 
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