eMagic 6 in 1 USB combo memory card reader review [Archive]

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Jason Dunn

07-12-2002, 11:10 PM

<a href="http://www.handheldcanada.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=H&Product_Code=MS0049&Affiliate=ppcthoughts">http://www.handheldcanada.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=H&Product_Code=MS0049&Affiliate=ppcthoughts</a> Late last month I was <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1877">looking for a USB 2.0 compliant combo memory card reader</a>. I wasn't able to find one that matched my needs, but HandHeld Canada contacted me about a USB 1.0 combo unit that they had. Since I was still using an old CF card reader that had a habit of shorting out every D-Link hub I attached it to, I jumped at the chance to check out the eMagic combo reader (affiliate link above). <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/6in1small.jpg" /> With a retail price of $45.65 US / $69.99 CND, this is a very capable 6 in 1 card reader. I put together a mini photo review with my impressions about the unit, but for those that want to skip to the end, here's the short version: it rocks. <!> Although I only tested it with CompactFlash, Secure Digital, and Multimedia Cards, the reader officially supports the following types of cards: 1. Type I/II CompactFlash™ Card (CF) 2. Smart Media Card™ (SM) 3. MultiMedia Card (MMC) 4. Secured Digital Card (SD) 5. Sony Memory Stick Card (MS) 6. IBM® MicroDrive (MD) <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/6in1-fig1.jpg" /> Figure 1: The eMagic 6 in 1 USB Combo Card Reader - not much in the box! I've always loved those cute little CDs...and to think I didn't even need it! The USB cable was a generous six feet long, twice as long as the cable on my previous reader. It may seem like a small thing, but there's nothing worse than being restricted on where you can place your peripherals. As you can tell by the size comparison with the mini-CD, the card reader is quite small. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/6in1-fig2.jpg" /> Figure 2: A close up shot of the card reader. Four different slots for cards. MMC and SD cards fit in the upper left slot, the upper right is for Memory Sticks, the slot in the middle is for Smart Media, and the lower slot is for CompactFlash cards and Microdrives. The eMagic unit looks really slick - I like the design and colours on it. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/6in1-fig3.jpg" /> Figure 3: The indicator lights. When plugged in, Power is lit, and when a card is plugged into the slot the appropriate indicator is also lit. There is an activity light indicator, so it's important to let the reader finishing reading/writing before pulling the card out. Even with Write Caching disabled in Windows XP, I saw an error once when pulling the card out before it was finished writing - watch the light, or wait 5-7 seconds for it to finish. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/6in1-fig4.gif" /> Figure 4: When I plugged the reader into my hub, it immediately recognized it as a generic memory card reader and added four new icons to My Computer - one drive letter for each drive. Talk about easy! I didn't even need the included CD-ROM for drivers. Ease of use is important to me, as is the ability to bring this over to another computer, plug it in, and go. It assigned the drive letters in order, and since I don't use Smart Media or Memory Stick cards, I right-clicked on drives L and N, went into the hardware properties, and disabled the drives. I like things nice and clean, no clutter. All in all, I couldn't ask for anything more from a USB 1.0 card reader. By late this year USB 2.0 will be more common, and once I get a motherboard with USB 2.0 support (or a USB 2.0 PCI card) I'll be on the lookout for a card reader with blazing speed, but until then, this is exactly what I needed. For the specification-minded among you, here's your nourishment: 1. USB Specification Reversion 1.1 2. CompactFlash Specification Version 1.4 3. SmartMedia Electrical Specification Version 1.1 4. Support MultiMedia Card specification Version 2.2 5. Support SD Memory Card Specification Version 1.0 6. Support Memory Stick specification Version 1.3 • Host Transfer Rate for SmartMedia/ CompactFlash: 16.6MB/s(PIO4) • 4 cards simultaneously can be accessed on the PC • Transfer Rate for USB Interface: "Full Speed" Up to 12Mbits/sec • Power Saving feature is implemented • Power-down mode • Idle mode • Support Windows 98/SE/2000, Mac OS v9.0+ (with USB Driver) • Support Window ME/XP and Linux Driver for kernel version 2.4.0+ (without USB driver) • Provide LED indicator while CF/MD/SM/MMC/SD/MS USB Port Reader/Writer is busy. • Plug & Play

innersky

07-12-2002, 11:11 PM

I like the short version of your review :wink:

Perry Reed

07-12-2002, 11:18 PM

Jason Dunn

07-12-2002, 11:20 PM

So, given that it adds individual drive icons in windows for each of the "drives" in it, does that mean you can insert multiple cards in it at the same time and have it read them all? For example, a CF card and a Memory Stick and an SD card, all at once?

Hmm. The answer would be "yes" (in the screen shot I have both CF and SD in the reader), but I didn't try any simultaneous transfers. It SHOULD work, but the bandwidth would be cut in half...

RickP in AZ

07-12-2002, 11:55 PM

Since I was still using an old CF card reader that had a habit of shorting out every D-Link hub I attached it to, I jumped at the chance to check out the eMagic combo reader (affiliate link above).

Jason, Which CF card reader would that be? Recently my D-Link USB hub tanked. It will run "ok" on bus power but as soon as I plug in the AC adapter for it to be self-powered it loses all of the USB connections on the hub. (I'm convinced that it is just a cheap hub which decided after 4 months of light use to just walk off the job.

RickP in AZ

Jason Dunn

07-13-2002, 12:17 AM

Jason, Which CF card reader would that be? Recently my D-Link USB hub tanked. It will run "ok" on bus power but as soon as I plug in the AC adapter for it to be self-powered it loses all of the USB connections on the hub. (I'm convinced that it is just a cheap hub which decided after 4 months of light use to just walk off the job.

It's one of these: http://www.microtechint.com/qs-usbcmate.html

Problem is, I lost the AC power adaptor for it. Now it shouldn't NEED it, but (no joke) I've gone through FOUR of the D-Link 7 port USB hubs. It works with my Linksys 4 port USB hub, but every so often the CF card reader would be "off" and I'd have to unplug and re-connect it to the hub. Turns out that this is what happens when a USB device is drawing too much power - the USB hub wil disconnect it. The problem is that the D-Link hub wasn't doing that, and the CF card reader was frying it. :?

D-Link products are generally quite good, but in this one case, the hub wasn't giving the smackdown to the CF card reader like it should have. :-) Needless to say, I'm THRILLED with the new eMagic reader - it's works perfectly.

Ed Hansberry

07-13-2002, 12:21 AM

Looks like a good product, and not to take anything away from it, but many (all?) 5-1 products do the same thing without listing the Microdrive as a separate product but lumping it in the CF-II category.

Jason Dunn

07-13-2002, 12:25 AM

but many (all?) 5-1 products do the same thing without listing the Microdrive as a separate product but lumping it in the CF-II category.

Yeah, it's "really" a 5 in 1 - cheesy marketing effort, but I suppose that a Microdrive *is* a unique type of card... :roll:

Ed Hansberry

07-13-2002, 12:34 AM

I have the Kingston 5-1, and it is a bit smaller, but it only allows you to access 2 cards at once, creating 2 removeable drives on the PC, not 4. The CF and SM slots are combined, and the SD/MMC/MS slots are combined. Given the price is the same (~$45-50 US) I'd be inclinded to get this one if I were buying today.

Very cool with XP. Just plug it in, wait 5 seconds and all drivers are automagically installed. :)

klinux

07-13-2002, 12:36 AM

Only if this exists in the firewire version too. :cry:

st63z

07-13-2002, 12:55 AM

Just curious Jason, have you tried approaching Addonics for some affiliate partnership? I *don't* have any relationship with them, I just happen to be using quite a few of their products in several categories (because many of them are great). Check out their Pocket & full-size CD & HDD enclosures (multi-interface) and USB flash drives. In case I need to buy more stuff later, a PPCThoughts discount would be cool (just kidding, just kidding, I meant, the opportunity to support a great site like this would be cool).

Back to topic, this particular reader sounds great, like the best of other quad-slot readers. My Addonics Mini Digidrive (of which I seem to have been mentioning all too often) advertises only 1MB/sec total transfer rate. But I like the Mini Digidrive as the smallest portable quad-slot.

In regards to dual-slot "4-in-1" readers, I thought most of them have a combo SD/MS/SM slot and a single CF slot by itself? SD/MS/SM apparently seem easy enough to combine (hence the various SD/MS/SM PC Card adapters), whereas CF has a different plug in interface (like PC Card).

Personally, I count all CF types as one, SD/MMC as one, and MS (MemStick and MagicGate) as one, plus SM -- so 4 different types. With today's reader models, you just don't see MMC-only (but not SD) support, for example. Nor do you see CF-I only and not CF-II/CF+ (in discrete readers).

RickP in AZ

07-13-2002, 01:51 AM

[It's one of these: http://www.microtechint.com/qs-usbcmate.html

Problem is, I lost the AC power adaptor for it. Now it shouldn't NEED it, but (no joke) I've gone through FOUR of the D-Link 7 port USB hubs. It works with my Linksys 4 port USB hub, but every so often the CF card reader would be "off" and I'd have to unplug and re-connect it to the hub. Turns out that this is what happens when a USB device is drawing too much power - the USB hub wil disconnect it. The problem is that the D-Link hub wasn't doing that, and the CF card reader was frying it. :?

D-Link products are generally quite good, but in this one case, the hub wasn't giving the smackdown to the CF card reader like it should have. :-) Needless to say, I'm THRILLED with the new eMagic reader - it's works perfectly.

That's *interesting* as mine is a ZIO! CF adapter: http://www.microtechint.com/qs-zio.html

I wonder if there is some kind of relation? Hmm... Maybe just the USB Gremlins letting me know that I'm mortal.

RickP in AZ

Chad

07-13-2002, 02:34 AM

After seeing how the multi-card reader created drive icons and names for each new drive, it reminded me of an issue that I am having. I had read a discussion thread on how to edit the registry to rename the CF expansion pack for my Ipaq (to "CF Card") for example. I did that by adding a new string entitled "folder" with the label "CF Card". I did the same under the SDDisk key. When I insert a CF card, it is displayed as CF Card, but when I insert my 128 mb SD card, it is shown only as "Storage Card Space".

Does anyone know what I did wrong? or how to correct this?

Thanks.

jeff

07-13-2002, 04:28 AM

It's one of these: http://www.microtechint.com/qs-usbcmate.html

I had a problem with one of those and an old MSI-6167 Athlon motherboard. The reader must be seriously power hungry, because the board just couldn't supply enough power for it. All my reads would cut out after a few seconds. It worked fine on other machines and now it's okay on my new Soyo Dragon+ board.

I have one question about the "6 in 1" reader. Does the driver allow for running a chkdsk /F on the flash cards? Pulling media from the drive while it's active and it will corrupt the card. Checkdisk will bring the data back.

Jeff

Newsboy

07-13-2002, 05:01 AM

Only if this exists in the firewire version too. :cry:

Does anyone know if there is a firewire card reader, be it CF, SD, or anything else?

I ask b/c I'm upgrading my HUGE Antec tower w/ a K6-2 400 in a month, to a Shuttle SV24 barebones "mini-pc" with a 1.4 ghz celeron. The Shuttle SV24 has firewire and USB 1.0 built in (and ports on the front to boot!), but not USB 2.0 as yet.

UPDATE: Lexar and Zio! (among others), make Firewire CF card readers...but no luck on SD/MMC, SmartMedia, or Memory stick Firewire readers. And they ain't cheap, bout $90 for the CF Firewire models!

UPDATE NUMBER TWO!: ADS Technologies makes a line of Pyro firewire card readers for SmartMedia, CF, and Memory Stick. But still no MMC/SD or combo readers...still on the hunt. Crikey mate, I feel like Steve Irwin!

BevHoward

07-13-2002, 05:33 AM

fwiw, www.tigerdirect.com (I gave up on trying to insert links) has an Imation 6 in one that is about half the size of this one for $49. I has only a cf type II slot but comes with three adapters that allow sm, mm, sd and memory stick.

Jason Dunn

07-13-2002, 05:49 AM

I have one question about the "6 in 1" reader. Does the driver allow for running a chkdsk /F on the flash cards? Pulling media from the drive while it's active and it will corrupt the card. Checkdisk will bring the data back.

Hmm - it never occurred to me to try a command line process on a CF card. You can right-click and do a scandisk and format from the GUI, but it looks like it will work from the command line - though I received a strange warning about it being locked by another process. It asked me if I wanted to force a dismount on the volume - so I think it would work.

Jason Dunn

07-13-2002, 05:51 AM

klinux

07-13-2002, 06:18 AM

Hey Newsboy: You got to it before I did. I own both a SV24 and a Lexar firewire CF reader. The firewire reader is incredible. I can take pictures and movies all day and upload the results in literally sceonds.

The SV24, however, is LOUD. Be prepared to do some modding (I have yet to) if you want it to be quiet.

st63z

07-13-2002, 06:30 AM

I'm waiting on the SV51 to give to a relative (for bedroom)...

In regards to salvaging photos from flash cards, you might try:

http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/

Newsboy

07-15-2002, 02:57 AM

Yup, I know the SV24 is going to be loud, I've heard it many times!

Try this link (http://www.pcpowerzone.co.uk/reviews.php?id=85) for info. on SS50 case mods intended to improve cooling and reduce the noise. Should run under $50 (plus a bit of time...). Should aslo work for the SV24 since the case designs are almost identical