PMW EX1/3: Use cheap USB Hard Disk Drives up 168GB!

[Barry J. Anwender]

WD Passport Drive

WD Passport Drive

My experimenting has progressed to an actual field configuration. The proof-of-concept revealed some issues around the EX3 recognizing the presence/absence of the external harddrive. So I decided to take another go with an simple store bought notebook drive that is USB powered and self contained. In this case:

Western Digital My Passport 250GB USB 2.0 powered
Modified the USB cord to supply 5 volts to the Passport unit

Surprise-surprise! The Western Digital Passport firmware and USB interface is very robust to initiate dialog with whatever it is connected to. The camera has no problems at all with recognizing the presence/absence of the Passport drive. Moreover, the slot switching between A/B also works just like it does with SXS/KXS/MXR memory cards. NO need to cycle the Passport power inorder to be recognized by the camera.

All work like one would expect it to. The camera formatted the Passport drive its maximum of 80GB or 308 minutes. I repeated all of the various recording tests at 720/24P and 48fps overcranking. "No media errors"

All that remains now is to come up with a portable 5 volt supply to power the Passport and a simple mount for the hot-shoe on the back of the EX3. Then it should be ready for the field.

Total cost for the WD Passport & Modified ExpressCard =$125.00

 

[Tom Roper]

That's great but I've opened up two express cards, one an adapter and the other a memory card. The problem for me, is neither is like the BroadTek card that has the detachable daughter board.

The connector pins are soldered to the main board, which is populated with components. I had to cut the pins from the board, leaving them as long as possible, then pulled them out of the connector one by one so I could solder pigtails to the nubs. I reinserted the pins into the connector but the spacing is so tight, the solder beads might touch, and I just can't take a chance of shorting the EX through that connector.

And before I even did that, I dremeled through the circuit board just in front of the components, and was going to attach the pigtails to where the connector pins were soldered to that board, because there is room there. The problem, is that the board is about 6-multi layered, and the dremel homogenized the layers at the edge. Again, I can't take the chance that pins would be shorted to each other, so I had to cut the pins away from the board altogether leaving me only the shortest of stubs to attach to. It's possible, but the solder beads are so close there's not room to put a piece of paper between them.

I need that BroadTek card or one like it that has an unpopulated daughter board that I can attach to.

I've got to find another express card adapter or a better way.

 

[Steve Shovlar]

All that remains now is to come up with a portable 5 volt supply to power the Passport and a simple mount for the hot-shoe on the back of the EX3. Then it should be ready for the field.

Total cost for the WD Passport & Modified ExpressCard =$125.00

I would suggest something like the Mypower battery, which is power switchable between 1 and 15 volts. they are well made and would probably power the Western Digital Passport drive all day and then some.

http://www.tekkeon.com/products-mypowerall.html

 

[Iudex]

I have a Delkin that didn't work with my sdhc cards, could I do this trick???

This thread and the SDHC thread are clear proofs that our economy values money over efficiency

 

[Barry J. Anwender]

I need that BroadTek card or one like it that has an unpopulated daughter board that I can attach to.

I've got to find another express card adapter or a better way.

Hi Tom, I know what you mean about the solder beading up. It is delicate work even with a circuit board clamp and magnifying glass. I checked an double checked my connections with an Ohm Meter to ensure there were no shorts and for continuity out to the USB cable. Thankfully there are only two data pins to solder and the ground is much easier.

I lucked out with the BroadTek card on my first try and it came from my old parts box. I guess it will take some trial and error as folks try different cards before discovering which cards have the daughterboard.

This morning I woke up with image of the EX1/3 mini USB port on the camera in my head. I wondered if by chance it might have 5volts of USB power. Tested it out and no-go as Sony has engineered it to be powered down until a computer is plugged in to the camera's port - at which point a menu prompt appears to enable the port.

It appears that the WD Passport drive requires about 40ma at 5 volts. So now its time to brainstorm a solution for this.

Happy hunting Tom and cheers!

 

[Dana Kupper]

All respect intended, I feel like I'm missing something. If someone would be so kind as to explain what the advantage is here, please do. Am I understanding that the goal is to have a hard drive attached to the camera so one can have 10 hours of filming without changing cards? Is this necessary? Wouldn't this be a dangly (sp?) cabley mess? Or is this just one of those "look at this cool thing we can do with our beautiful EX3s!", which is awesome in its own geeky way? Thanks!

 

[GuyB]

a bit of both really.

 

[Tom Roper]

All respect intended, I feel like I'm missing something. If someone would be so kind as to explain what the advantage is here, please do. Am I understanding that the goal is to have a hard drive attached to the camera so one can have 10 hours of filming without changing cards? Is this necessary? Wouldn't this be a dangly (sp?) cabley mess? Or is this just one of those "look at this cool thing we can do with our beautiful EX3s!", which is awesome in its own geeky way? Thanks!

I can't allow Barry to be the only one to get this to work after deti. He's already beat me to it. And yes, it is geeky. :badputer:

 

[golf_bht]

Oh well, may my dumb ass suggest the gurus a bit? I think that you might want to try Lithium polymer battery. you can get those cheaply from any R/C store near you. you could get power regulator transistor from digikey. the 5V rated @ 1 amp is a common stock on their website.

you feed what ever voltage and get 5V for usb use.

 

[sadude]

All respect intended, I feel like I'm missing something. If someone would be so kind as to explain what the advantage is here, please do. Am I understanding that the goal is to have a hard drive attached to the camera so one can have 10 hours of filming without changing cards? Is this necessary? Wouldn't this be a dangly (sp?) cabley mess? Or is this just one of those "look at this cool thing we can do with our beautiful EX3s!", which is awesome in its own geeky way? Thanks!

i think the ability to record straight onto a hard drive in the field or even in studio is a brilliant concept. imagine doing a full day of filming on your own with no assistant to help transfer files from card to hard drive through a laptop. this concept has removed the need for a laptop and removed the need for an assistant and also its removed the need for expensive sXs cards(although i think everyone here most probably knows about using SDHC cards with an adaptor.

the possibility exists now to film straight onto a hard drive and give it to the client to walk away with at the end of the day.

And lets be frank, when sony looks at this and sees how easy it is for us to make an adaptor for this they will have to release some sort of card capable of doing this at a very cheap rate.

 

[nsoltz]

The excitement of all of this is, IMHO, because we can... and some of us love to tinker.

I am thrilled at the prospect of so many hours of footage.

But I need to remind myself of my own advice-- hard drive storage is scary. Hard drives crash. Maybe not with great frequency. But they do.

 

[arkay]

All respect intended, I feel like I'm missing something. If someone would be so kind as to explain what the advantage is here, please do. Am I understanding that the goal is to have a hard drive attached to the camera so one can have 10 hours of filming without changing cards? Is this necessary? Wouldn't this be a dangly (sp?) cabley mess? Or is this just one of those "look at this cool thing we can do with our beautiful EX3s!", which is awesome in its own geeky way? Thanks!

At the risk of offending some with rather salty language, I offer the classic analogy:

Q: Why does a dog lick his b***s?
A: Because he can.

:laugh:

 

[Barry J. Anwender]

And lets be frank, when sony looks at this and sees how easy it is for us to make an adaptor for this they will have to release some sort of card capable of doing this at a very cheap rate.

This is a very good point as Sony's very own "Professional" PHU-60K 60GB (260 minutes) Hard Disk Unit for the EX1/3 camera costs $1000 US. It turned out to be lame duck for many users because they kept getting "Media Errors/Restore" issues. I now think that their 1.8inch harddrive is the problem, it just cannot handle the EX video data rate. Whereas the 2.5 inch market seems to be sweet spot in terms of sufficient performance for dirt cheap.

Sony's selling point "increased capacity, you can shoot over 4 hours of uninterrupted footage." Then the real kicker - they charge 10 times the actual cost of making it. Let's face it there was no serious engineering involved here. What the market will bear - i guess.

Sony could take a hint from RED who provide a cable adapter from their video camera to provide a SATAII output. This makes it possible to easily talk to harddrives and I'm pretty sure RED has SSD's in mind. If Sony would provide an Express Card adaptor that works of the EX's PCExpress bus with a SATAII cable output, now that would be progressive. And if they provided an SSD of sufficient size, that would sell.

 

[Barry J. Anwender]

The excitement of all of this is, IMHO, because we can... and some of us love to tinker.

I am thrilled at the prospect of so many hours of footage.

But I need to remind myself of my own advice-- hard drive storage is scary. Hard drives crash. Maybe not with great frequency. But they do.

Ned, the really scary part is that one can purchase cheap portable RAID-1 mirrored USB/SATA disk arrays for notebooks. Cannot be mounted on the camera but with allowable USB cable lengths, one could have reliability and flexibility for the situations/events needing lengthy record times. So another tool when needed.

 

[GuyB]

Lets face it, this solution is for studio & static camera locations and most likley within reach of AC power. I've seen a few USB power supply options on the market, you know, plug pack to USB plug to charge USB devices away from a computer (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/9124/?cpg=ab) . There are also cigarette lighter USB power supplies so you could use Dolgins EX-V plate & an U30 to power a USB HDD & one of these type of things (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12928).

With the poor connection quality of many USB plugs (especially mini ones) I would not want to move the HDD while recording even if it is a Solid state drive.

 

[GuyB]

I thought I would have a look inside some of my less fortunate SD card readers tried during testing of XxS solutions some time back. The first one I opened again was a Sandisk one which was not recognised by the EX1.

I opened it and found a pleasant suprise, the design is just what you would want, a Express Card connector with a PCB soldered to the connector which can be removed.

While I will get to that a bit later, I thought I'd post this as those really keen to try this at least know one adaptor that is probably a good starting point.

A litle ironic that Sandisk do it for us again rogar-Happy(DBG):

 

[Tom Roper]

Thank you Guy.

- BroadTek
- Sandisk

 

[deti]

Hi Guy,

as you can see your SanDisk reader is the same model as any other cheap GL827 based reader thingy. Besides using it as an USB port adapter you can make it work as a normal SD card reader for an EX1/3 by cutting pin 17 of the ExpressCard slot leading to pin 1 of the daughter board connector (refer to http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=169614).

In the meantime I tried a 100GB Toshiba 1.8" HDD with a no name chinese 2000mAh USB iPod power supply from ebay. All together can be attached easily by a velcro strip to the BP-U60 at the back of the camera. It operates app. 8h which should be enough for a netto recording time of ~5h. IMHO this is a very portable solution which runs ages. Will take some photos later.

Deti

 

[GuyB]

Hi Deti,

Yes I thought of that however this adaptor sticks the card out of the reader a long way anyway so I wouldn't want to use it as XxS anyway, it is much better for me to try this with XxU (Xx(USB)) lol

Cheers

Guy

 

[Kenny_G]

I have the Sony hard drive with the adapter. I made an extension cable because the mini-usb plug of the Sony has a notch that blocks you from using it on a standard usb device.
With this extension cable a can use any usb drive available. Limitations are the 80 GB boundary and the external 5 volt to the drive, but of course it works.