sd card to sata or SSD?

T

tuprware

Member
I have been toying around in my head the thought of hooking the GH1 up to a SATA drive or SSD by leaving the door open and using a sd adapter and trying to get even higher bit rates from the mods. I came across this:

http://www.aptolink.com/content/sd-sd-extender-card-ribbon-cable

So I emailed them and they replied with this:


"I believe that I've come up with a solution that you can use to solve your
problem without having to redesign our product.

If you use two of our SD tongues and the ribbon cable to connect them, and
slide one of the SD tongues into an ASATA to MMC/SD converter, then you'll
have a solution. See the link below for a converter. All we'll have to do is
solder the connector onto one of the SD tongues differently (i.e. with the
tongue upside down) and then it will have the data lines properly connected,
so when it inserts into the adapter on the converter side it'll be correct."

http://www.sourcingmap.com/secure-digital-sdhc-mmc-sata-adapter-converter-p-39574.html
 
I see what he means, and I could problably figure this out. However, I don't have $200+. For experimenting, all you would need is one of the "tongues" as he calls them.

EDIT: What this would do, if it works, is give you the write speed of an SSD. That means you can crank the bitrate of the hack way up.
 
Last edited:
Very cool concept. Maybe I'll finally get some use out of my netbook's ssd. Do the cables and converter limit or have any effect on the speed of the SSD?
 
The main issue is that an SD card isin't just a blob of flash memory, it has it's own microcontroller. While this isin't project-breaking, it means this is not an easy or necessarily cheap endeavor. If we're lucky it's possible with an AVR, if we're not it'll be something more complicated.
 
Here is what Kurt from aptolink told me, I had the same question:

"The bottle neck would be the SD bus, itself. There aren't any limitations on
our side, our extender cards can handle high-speed SD cards, which transport
bits at greater than 25 Mbits/sec per data line. Four data lines is 100
Mbits/sec total speed.

I can't say that you'll be able to speed up the bits after they get to the
SATA chip but you'll have plenty of speed up to 100 Mbit/sec...which should
be plenty"
 
It does mean that you could put a monster SSD right on the camera, and get 100 Mbits in each direction. If it works.
 
bonobored said:
I've been investigating the same idea. Imo get me one of these and start hackin'. The new ones are SATA and will read SDHC. Not a big risk for the price.;)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.781
Click to expand...
Where are the new ones?

Here says:

Cons: - the product was not working with my SDHC card (calss 6), the card is not recognized
- some difficulties to start (need to push a long time the start button)
- a 1,7Gb transfer needs 26 minutes !

Other Thoughts:
Bottomline: good product except it is a little bit to slow
 
Gordon Prince said:
Where are the new ones?

Here says:

Cons: - the product was not working with my SDHC card (calss 6), the card is not recognized
- some difficulties to start (need to push a long time the start button)
- a 1,7Gb transfer needs 26 minutes !

Other Thoughts:
Bottomline: good product except it is a little bit to slow
Click to expand...

Yeah, but look at the dates. Those are from '08. When you order now you should get the new one. At least that's what they told me. Try this link:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13576
 
bonobored said:
Yeah, but look at the dates. Those are from '08. When you order now you should get the new one. At least that's what they told me. Try this link:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13576
Click to expand...
swinginswirlie Friday, January 08, 2010 10:56 AM Reply I should amend this. After traveling with this unit, it works fine. As long as you have good batteries (I had spares and a charger), it works as needed. It's not fast. Also be aware that it will read SDHC cards, but ONLY the first 4GB. If you try to transfer more, it will throw an error and stop.

A piece of advice: Always keep an eye on it while transferring, as if it does fail, the error message only shows for a short time (10 seconds? don't remember) before turning off. If you don't notice it, you'll have no idea if it worked or not.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13576
 
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