Topic: FR-2 hard drive hack ?

[Nick's Picks]

so i've been checking out the FR2 and the Toshiba PCMCIA 5gb hdd...and I got to thinking.

the PCMCIA cards pin out...is that the same as a normal 1.8" ATA female cable?  the kind that a laptop drive would hook up to ?  The number and orientation are the same.  That drive slides into a little PCMCIA dock w/male pins waiting to plug into it.
If so, what is to prevent the installation of a laptop drive in one of these?  The pinout (male) end is all ready in place (assuming they are one and the same....or a custom cable could be made) and that is all that hooks up normal laptop drives inside of the laptops themselves (typically)....so it doesn't seem out of the question.
And their certainly feels like there is room inside, though I have not popped her open.

ideas?  am i crazy?
or maybe a pcmcia card w/a cable running to an external drive ? 

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

You aren't crazy.  I used to build an embedded system that used a PC104 CPU card as a daughter card processor.  We used an adpater board to connect a pcmcia memory drive to the IDE bus.  So what you propose is more than just feasible, it's been done.  I have one of the adapter cards here in my office that converts cables.


The main issue is whether or not you can mount the harddrive into the FR2.  If there is room in the case and if you can retrofit a shock absorbing carier, you are in buisness.  Screw the 5 gig drive.  There is not one thing preventing you from using a 40g laptop drive.

the only other issue is the power consumption and internal batteries of the FR2.  those AAs aren't going to last long driving a bigger drive.


BTW, I spoke to SD last week.  722 should ship in november.  They are building the first 722s for demo machines in the current run of customer 744s, then the customer units.  So I'm going to be patient until end of november.  I don't think that the guy understood what I was saying, that I would buy an FR2 if the 722 doens't ship in time for ashville.

[jpschust]

im waiting to see how the 744 works and if all goes well with that ill take the plunge.

[John R]

they just need to get the firewire problem figured out

[BobW]

Why would you want an internal drive ?
I don't transfer data. I pop a drive from the FR-2 into my DAW.
The show's instantly on my workstation.
If you don't have the little Kingston USB-2 to PCMCIA interface, I strongly recommend it.

All you (we) really need is bigger removeable drives at reasonable prices.
BTW, 20GB and 30GB 1.8" drives exist for embedded systems.
Toshiba won't market them with PCMCIA plugs and controllers, for reasons unknown

Are there any more SD744 samples floating around ?.

[Nick's Picks]

Why would you want an internal drive ?
I don't transfer data. I pop a drive from the FR-2 into my DAW.
The show's instantly on my workstation.
If you don't have the little Kingston USB-2 to PCMCIA interface, I strongly recommend it.

All you (we) really need is bigger removeable drives at reasonable prices.
BTW, 20GB and 30GB 1.8" drives exist for embedded systems.
Toshiba won't market them with PCMCIA plugs and controllers, for reasons unknown

Are there any more SD744 samples floating around ?.

I'd want an internal drive for more storage....of course.
the transfering of the show...etc, is not as much as a concern to me as 24/192 recording.
these bigger drives...they must be the heart of those toshiba audio players I posted about??
hmm....maybe its just as easy as buying one of those and popping it in the FR2

[F.O.Bean]

well, if you can just pop the HD out and put it on the DAW, wheres the firewire problem

[nic]

well, if you can just pop the HD out and put it on the DAW, wheres the firewire problem

the firewire problem is with the 722/744

[F.O.Bean]

well, if you can just pop the HD out and put it on the DAW, wheres the firewire problem

the firewire problem is with the 722/744

hehe, thanks bro

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

So did you try adapting a big drive to the FR2? 


November is gone as is my patience.

[wbrisette]

November is gone as is my patience.

It was this and lack of inputs that did it for me.

It will be interesting to see what happens when tapers start getting their hands on 744T units. I keep thinking that suddenly there will be a demand for 4 track files. Then again, maybe not...

One thing is for sure, if people use 4 channels, then it's going to take them a little longer to master these shows, because they will have to do some actual mastering in order to bring them down to two channels.

Wayne

[Ed.]

i personally don't think there'll be that much demand for 4 channels, i also don't think there'll be a wide number of tapers that buy the 744.  dropping $4k+ seems like it may limit the amount of people that use it.  at least at first.  right now, i'd still rather have a small laptop for taping than drop 4g's on a recorder.  i know some might say that a laptop and concerts don't mix, but you can just as easily have someone spill beer all over the 744 too.

i guess i'm just waiting for the cheaper alternative.

[Tim]

Wayne I think you're the only taper I know of who consistently uses 4 microphones...

[Nick's Picks]

I've tried a bunch of different things.
the most promising was a very bare-bones PCMICA > IDE converter that housed a notebook drive of your choice.  It recieved power from the bus, just like the Toshiba cards.
the FR-2 saw it...but couldnt' figure out what to do w/it so it wouldnt recognize.  All sorts of error messages.
I would have to think that a firmware upgrade would take care of that...but I dont see it happening.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Thanks for the update.

[bhtoque]

Maybe it's time for each of us to e-mail fostex and ask for it. They'd be crazy to turn down so many potential sales.

At least for me this is the only thing keeping me from getting one.

JAson

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Yeah, them and edirol and tascam.  It seems like there are a lot of companies out there that have capable product development teams.