P2 to External HD in Field

T

Tunnell Mill

Member
In the field, can I simply transfer the contents of my 4gig P2 card from the camera directly to an external HD (G-Raid) without using a laptop or a P2 Store drive? I've read it is possible, but is there a capacity with how many times the P2 card can be copied? I've heard there is. If I can copy directly to an external HD in the field (such as G-Raid), this would save me from having to drop another grand on a laptop. Can it be done and what are the pros and cons?
 
I haven't tried it yet, but it says it's possible.

The real drawback is you can't be shooting something while doing this. You can with laptop or p2 store.
 
15 P2 card loads using firewire. There is no limit if you use USB OTG (on-the-go)

I have a 40 Gb battery powered firewire drive I use in the field. One advantage of firewire is the copy can be verified by the camera.
 
Its just a cheap pocket sized unbranded usb/firewire combo, it uses an oxford 911 chipset. Takes a standard 9.5 mm depth 2.5 inch laptop drive.
Something like THIS I think.
I built the battery pack myself (6x AA nicads, a voltage regulator and 2 capacitors all from mapplin).

Works well.
 
Milezee said:
Its just a cheap pocket sized unbranded usb/firewire combo, it uses an oxford 911 chipset. Takes a standard 9.5 mm depth 2.5 inch laptop drive.
Something like THIS I think.
I built the battery pack myself (6x AA nicads, a voltage regulator and 2 capacitors all from mapplin).

Works well.
Click to expand...


I have a weibetech pocket drive that's usb powered with FW400/800......will that power off the usb port of the HVX?
 
Milezee said:
Its just a cheap pocket sized unbranded usb/firewire combo, it uses an oxford 911 chipset. Takes a standard 9.5 mm depth 2.5 inch laptop drive.
Something like THIS I think.
I built the battery pack myself (6x AA nicads, a voltage regulator and 2 capacitors all from mapplin).

Works well.
Click to expand...

Show us how!

Step by step pictorial will be a killer. I am an electronic newbie.

It's impossible to find a battery driven OTG USB drive enclosure in Canada... let alone a Firewire/usb battery driven enclosure.

Do this, and I will love you always.:love4:
 
shorelinedigital said:
I have a weibetech pocket drive that's usb powered with FW400/800......will that power off the usb port of the HVX?
Click to expand...

HVX does not provide bus power on usb or firewire, hence need for self powered drives.

I'll post a diagram of my battery power thing later...
 
Milezee said:
I built the battery pack myself (6x AA nicads, a voltage regulator and 2 capacitors all from mapplin).
Works well.
Click to expand...

Can you post plans or schematics of the battery pack you built? That would be much appreciated. I would have no problem building it, i know how to solder, just have no idea what parts to use.. A parts list and some drawings would be EXCELLENT..
How long do the batteries last on the hard drive.. Do you leave it on continually or turn in off until you offload?

Thanks Much!

Edit: Crazy that your post came in while I was writing my post...
 
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I've had good luck with this kind of project just showing up at radio shack and asking. What would be great would be to be able to use your same batteries. What was that thing people were using on the monitors?
Sam
 
Milezee said:
Its just a cheap pocket sized unbranded usb/firewire combo, it uses an oxford 911 chipset. Takes a standard 9.5 mm depth 2.5 inch laptop drive.
Something like THIS I think.
I built the battery pack myself (6x AA nicads, a voltage regulator and 2 capacitors all from mapplin).

Works well.
Click to expand...


Please!!!

Tell Us how to do this... :dankk2:
 
Here you go...
This is for my 5 volt external firewire drive.
Be careful with soldering iron (don't solder the batteries etc etc...)

batterybox.jpg
 
What exact brand hard drive or hard drive enclosure? If i use a different brand that takes a different voltage, do I need a different setup? or is the universal?
 
Milezee:

I'm off to Radio Shack in the morning with your shopping list.

I hereby officially declare my undying love for you.

One quesion:

I'm using a home modded sealed lead acid battery to power my digital slr (instructions off the net... I also declared my undying love to someone else)... is it possible to adapt something like that as well?

It's a sealed lead acid rechargeable battery, they ones they use for emergency lighting. It's 6 volts, 6.5 ampere hour... no other info on the battery... it's standard... from a hardware store like Home Depot. It'll probably last much longer than AA batteries.

Thanks!!
 
Milezee said:
Here you go...
This is for my 5 volt external firewire drive.
Be careful with soldering iron (don't solder the batteries etc etc...)

batterybox.jpg
Click to expand...


So basically, you have a typical 5 volt regulator, and the capacitors are for smoothing.

I would like the mount for the HVX200 battery. I think the guy making the led light panels has that. That way we have one battery for everything. Does anyone know where we can get the battery plate to take the HVX batteries?

We could even get a standard case for the hard drive, and put the voltage regulator inside the case.
 
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Hi, glad this is helping some of you.
Some answers:

Most laptops drives are 5v but sometimes the enclosures electronics might need something else and will step it down to 5v inside. Have a look at the regular power supply for your enclosure, it should say something like 5v dc 1000mA or similar.

The drive needs more juice to spin up so (up to 1000mA), hence the need for bigish capacitors. I tried it first time with smaller ones and it didn't work.

Also I tried it with regular non rechargeable alkaline batteries and they couldn't hack the required startup surge. You need to supply a couple of volts more than destination voltage as the regulator drops a couple. My NiMh are 1.2v x 6 = 7.2v.

Don't forget the heatsink on the regulator!

Good luck.
 
For those who want a portable , battery powered hard drive, why do you prefer this method over the P2 store?
Other than price, it just seems to really slow down the shoot, for me.

For every minute of captured footage, it takes nearly as long to do the transfer.
During that time, you are not shooting.

For (2) 8 gig cards shooting at 720 pn, that is 40 minutes of shooting time, and about the same to transfer. That seems like a long time to be waiting.

The P2 store offers unattended downloading, while still shoting.

A laptop offers the ability to set up and download, and then go back to shooting.

I am just trying to figure out why I would use the battery powered hard drive.

If I were in the field, then maybe it makes sense, but then thinking about tying up the camera for that amount of time, while steadily reducing my shooting time (due to that amount of time eating the camera battery while doing the download) To me, it seems like it's not the best solution.

That's like doing DV tape capture in the field after every dv tape you shot. No one does that.

Help me understand why the people are seeking a battery powered hard drive?


Sure, I hate power cords, so I use the seagate usb drive via laptop/usb power.
It is small, quiet, and fits in my laptop bag without bulk. It's about the size of a large set of playing cards.

If I find a need/desire to have battery power for this drive, it even has a power cord port. I could get the 5 volt regulator, get a charger and battery from radio shack..the ones used for their R/C cars, and make this work.

Just let me know why I need this.
 
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Green Hornet:

You've answered your own questions... you don't, in your case. You own all the goodies that obviate the need for a battery powered USB/firewire OTG enclosed drive.

Speaking for myself: I don't have, or could afford, the p2store or even a laptop (still saving my shekels).

But I do have a OTG drive enclosure for $20 bucks.... I just lack a portable battery pack to power it. Yeah, I think you can pick one up mail order on the net, but home building one is easy on the wallet... as well as educational (my knowlege of electronics expanded twofold already on this project... I'm an abslolute newbie).

But I see you point though, Green Hornet....

If I had paying gigs, I too will choose a P2 store and laptop because they are more efficient.
 
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