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  Q1: Will such a device be more cost-effective than simply buying extra high-capacity memory cards? (2 pieces of advice)

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  by Muza 

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  12.02.08 | 04:04 PM

  "electronic memory will remain more expensive compared to the magnetic media"
  now that i read it, i can see that the terms are oversimplified, and start to confuse
  please read as
  "flash memory" vs "conventional hdd"
  
  apologies

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  by Muza 

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  12.02.08 | 04:01 PM

  No, in a long run!
  The thing is that electronic memory will remain more expensive compared to the magnetic media. And I believe it will remain so for at least half a decade.
  With the flash media getting down in price, it is just a bit more affordable, but not yet cost-effective.
  And logically, high capacity memory cards, will never be cheaper than the same capacity Solid State Disk/Drive (never mind the current fuss around SSD, the prices always normalize once the "hot-gadget" status cools down, that's the market force).
  There will of course be a minimum which will define whether or not u need such a device and how efficient it will be solely based on how fast you fill your cards up, and how many of them you filll while being "on the go" (away from a laptop with a card reader or in extreme conditions)

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• Advise

  What advice do you have to help me grow my idea?
       (2 pieces of advice)

   

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  by Muza 

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  12.02.08 | 03:52 PM

  Get into Embedded world: MCUs, 24 or 32bits are better. There are lots of development boards to start with. A huge community. Tons of working SD/CF examples, both hardware and software (using SPI for instance). A bit less, but enough info on IDE/ATA interaction and control. On top of that, some basic info on analog part would be helpful for the design of the power part (to run the electronics and the harddisk), as well as the battery maintenance electronics.
  As for the final product, consider a thin rubber coated aluminum alloy casing, 1.8" HDD (they are mostly ATA, which is a lot simpler to manage, but slower. Still a lot faster than any CF/SD cards can handle, so that should be okay, and they are 3.3volts). A small segment glass LCD (graphic LCDs are a lot more expensive, price will be noticable when buying in batches of thousands), a single thin flat Lithium Polymer battery (that'll give 3.7volts), of the HDD dimensions, and a sheet of thermal insulation in between.
  Thanks to the integrated circuitry available, you will find several building blocks to play with incl…moreuding the USB controller, Glass LCD drivers, One-chip Battery Monitors/chargers etc. The PCB will not be complex as well, most probably just 4 layers, which is in a reasonable price range compared to "bigger sandwiches". With a smart layout of electronics and CF/SD slots, USB plug (which at the same time can be used to charge the battery) the overall size can easily be around a size of 10 credit cards stack! Estimating the size and imaging the battery cell to be around 2-4mm thick, that might as well give you more than 1200mah. at a rough 500-600ma peak consumption of the unit (basing on the 500ma rating of the HDD itself) your looking at 1.5-2h of battery life on non-stop copying (these calculations are very rough, rough as in "+/-33%")
  Hope that helps.
  Muza

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  by buscan1 

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  10.30.08 | 09:30 AM

  I know how that can go when you're out somewhere taking pictures. Then all of a sudden....."Out of memory??!!"
  
  This does seem like a pretty useful tool for those types of situations, but I'm not sure if this device will be any cheaper than buying a bigger memory cards, or multiple cards. Because this standalone device would require power, as well as also including electronics to support a few buttons like a TRANSFER button, as well as a little display to show you the progress and to let you know that it is ok to eject your memory card, it just doesn't seem like it will be cheaper than buying more cards
  Especially at the rate that they come out with bigger cards, the smaller ones keep getting cheaper and cheaper.
  
  But I will say that you are on to something here. Instead of making a standalone memory card transferable hard drive, maybe you should develop an external hard drive that has ports on it for your memory cards.
  This way, people that don't have those special slots on their computers (some laptops, desktops and Macs) can now have a …moreway of connecting their cards without having to use their camera's usb cable.
  Using this usb hard drive with these slots now frees up a whole usb slot for people that don't have memory card slots on their computers.
  
  Here is a usb memory card reader that you can take a look at:http://www.supermediastore.com/cardreader.html
  This might help you develop this technology into the usb hard drive, since it can run off of usb power.

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