iPAQ Storage Brick

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.tjotala.com/hardware/storagebrick/default.htm">http://www.tjotala.com/hardware/storagebrick/default.htm</a><br /><br />Iacopo Cricelli sent me a link to this rather enterprising iPAQ owner who managed to connec his iPAQ to a modified Addonics hard drive case. I have the 6 gig model, and it's quite cool. 20 gigs? Awesome!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/storagebrick.jpg" /><br /><br />"I have created a 20GB "storage brick" from a IBM Travelstar 20GN drive mounted inside an Addonics Pocket ExDrive enclosure kit. The drive is connected to my Compaq iPAQ H3630 using a PC Card Expansion Pack and the Addonics PCMCIA adapter/cable..."<br /><br />(we covered this a while back, but it's quite cool still...)

[usbnuts]

Hmm... I have seen this ages ago.

But it's still very interesting.

Hey, if someone comes up with a CF USB card, it could host tons of USB devices.

[James]

hmm...somehow I just don't portability and a harddrive going together...

[Gerard]

November, 2000. That's when I started using my Accurite 6GB external hard drive with my EG-800. It hasn't lost or corrupted a bit of anything since, in hundreds of daily operations. Fastest backup rates I've experienced by far, with a write-to speed better than twice that of a Lexar 4x CF card. And in all this time, I've still only half filled it. I'm pretty diligent about maintenance, as I want to slowly build collections of important files rather than pack-ratting just anything. I use the third partition to backup my notebook PC... with room left over. Not media stuff, just programs and user configuration, system things.
The Li-Ion battery offers independence (mobility?), and the size is on the same sort of scale as my EG-800 (a brick, sure). If I were a 'suit' of course this would not be suitable (heh), but I carry stuff in pockets and/or a shoulder bag, and an extra pound doesn't bug me at all. Sure beats carrying around my 7 pound notebook!

[Perry Reed]

I would LOVE to be able to connect my 6GB Archos Jukebox to my iPaq or Jornada. It's USB-based, so I guess what I really need is a USB (host) CF card or something similar.

Is the Casio the one with the USB host built in? I wonder if it would be able to connect to the Jukebox...

[st63z]

Yeah we've all seen this mentioned a long time ago. I also have one of the Addonics 2.5" enclosures, with an old 10gig IBM Travelstar in it...

By some weird coincidence, I've recently been rambling on and on (and on...) about Addonics's products over at the StorageReview.com forum :)

( http://forums.storagereview.net/viewtopic.php?t=1185 )

[spg]

hmm...somehow I just don't portability and a harddrive going together...


Yeah, not much use for it sitting on the desk.

~Spencer

[Dave Conger]

hmm...somehow I just don't portability and a harddrive going together...


But I do feel there are some applications where a "brick" would be ok. Such as in my car. Embed the drive somewhere and just plug the PCMCIA card into my iPAQ, and my iPAQ into my car when I get it...hours of music. Better yet, you got small kid that doesn't like long car rides, granted 6gb is a lot, you could let them watch a movie on it in the car. PDA's don't always need portablility to be useful. I would like to see more connectivity for mass storage units (CD, Hard drives, DVD drives). There definatly are some uses for them.

[spg]

hmm...somehow I just don't portability and a harddrive going together...

But I do feel there are some applications where a "brick" would be ok. Such as in my car. Embed the drive somewhere and just plug the PCMCIA card into my iPAQ, and my iPAQ into my car when I get it...hours of music. Better yet, you got small kid that doesn't like long car rides, granted 6gb is a lot, you could let them watch a movie on it in the car.

Hmm, that is a fairly good idea. But still, once you connect to that drive you are no longer portable. It becomes a set machine, however if you have the ability to disconnect (which you would) it does have some potential! 8)

[Dave Conger]

Hmm, that is a fairly good idea. But still, once you connect to that drive you are no longer portable. It becomes a set machine, however if you have the ability to disconnect (which you would) it does have some potential! 8)


I wasn't saying it would be portable when you connected it, but in certain situations you might not really need that portability. Does it matter how many attachments your devices has when it is on your desk, or being moved with you in your car? This isn't a solution to carry around with you, it is a hard drive...you wouldn't carry around your laptop using it. Since everything has to pluged in to your PDA, you can always unplug it right? So the potability potential is always there.

[James]

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.

[Dave Conger]

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.


That is all possible...just takes a little work. I would like to have something that is either an LCD or a small projector that would be between the driver and the passenger. The idea with a small projector would be the image would appear on the windshield, though low, small, and in a place where it wouldn't be distracting.

I have considered building an MP3 player into my car (hardware in my trunk), but never could figure a great way to control it from the front. For me, I would just like to stick the hard drive in the bay below my radio, get an extender for my cup holder that will hold my iPAQ, and then just plug in my iPAQ when I want to play the music.

[spg]

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.


Very well said. The Pocket PC is not really designed for that type of use. While it would work, I have a feeling it will have to be a seperate piece of equipment in the car. Then once in there, if you wanted to use your Pocket PC you could hook it up to a cradle, or for your passengers, bluetooth enabled systems 8).

I have considered building an MP3 player into my car (hardware in my trunk), but never could figure a great way to control it from the front.

One word for you - "Voice control". Ok so that was two words, but I think that is what it will take before in-car systems will become a very viable option. And I don't mean voice control that sorta works, like we have now. I mean real innovative voice control, the kind they have on Star Trek. Ok so maybe not that good, but it definitely needs to improve.

All right with all that said, I've got to get this out of my system- "Beam me up Scotty" :wink:

[Dave Conger]

And I don't mean voice control that sorta works, like we have now. I mean real innovative voice control, the kind they have on Star Trek. Ok so maybe not that good, but it definitely needs to improve.


....so hence why I don't really want voice control right now. I don't want to say "Pop Music" and have it stop playing because it thinks I say "Stop the Music". I just want to use my PDA as the MP3 deconder to play a randomized play list...I don't really care if I can talk to it or not.

[James]

I have considered building an MP3 player into my car (hardware in my trunk), but never could figure a great way to control it from the front. For me, I would just like to stick the hard drive in the bay below my radio, get an extender for my cup holder that will hold my iPAQ, and then just plug in my iPAQ when I want to play the music.


Using the Microsoft Agent technologies, me and a couple of the guys I work with built a voice controlled MP3/WMA player that we're slowing expanding. One of 'em is working on putting it all into a form factor to fit on his motorcycle...

[James]

One word for you - "Voice control". Ok so that was two words, but I think that is what it will take before in-car systems will become a very viable option. And I don't mean voice control that sorta works, like we have now. I mean real innovative voice control, the kind they have on Star Trek. Ok so maybe not that good, but it definitely needs to improve.

All right with all that said, I've got to get this out of my system- "Beam me up Scotty" :wink:


The technology is around to do voice control that really works (a la Star Trek). It's just a matter of getting the costs and size down to a portable form.

[Dave Conger]

The technology is around to do voice control that really works (a la Star Trek). It's just a matter of getting the costs and size down to a portable form.


Well when the technology gets put to use in usable places, then I will adopt it...but right now I would rather have technology that could talk back (read back) to me rather then input through my speech.