Accessing external Firewire/USB HD with iPaq?

[dacs29]

I currently store all my MP3s on a small external HD that supports firewire, USB 1.0, and USB 2.0. Now I would like to find a way to hook the HD to a iPaq so I could wire up something so I can listen to my massive MP3 collection in the car using the iPaq as the player.

I read about the iPaq Storage Brick at http://www.tjotala.com/hardware/storagebrick/default.htm but I would like to access my HD without changing it to a PCMCIA kit. Could I just get a PCMCIA sleeve and add a USB PCMCIA card? Are there drivers? and would the iPaq support it?

Also, I'm not worried about battery life since I'm going to power this externally.

David

[Chris Hendriks]

I am glad to see someone else has tried to do this!

Unfortunately, I can find no Pocket PC drivers for any USB 2.0 / USB 1.0 PCMCIA cards. Of course, as you already indicated, the external drive would have to receive external power - no PS2 powerplug and the card ports won't power the drive.

[dacs29]

Unfortunately, I can find no Pocket PC drivers for any USB 2.0 PCMCIA cards.
Well, I don't really need USB 2.0, USB 1.0 would work fine. Does anyone know of any USB 1.0 PCMCIA card with PPC drivers?

David

[Gen-M]

There are no 16bit PCMCIA USB cards. :evil:

Only 32bit Cardbus USB cards. These will not work with PPC :twisted:

I wish that HP would support USB Host. If you want to use a USB drive, you will have to get a Toshiba or Casio or NEC PPC - they support USB Host and DeJe's driver http://www.deje.gmxhome.de/ will work with them. :?

[uncola]

My Axim hasn't arrived yet so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. But can't you plug a usb drive into the bottom of the axim where it goes into the cradle? or if it's a different type of plug, plug the cradle into the usb drive with a plug adapter? and then windows would detect the drive..

uncola

[bmhome1]

Sorry, but your Axim won't ever work with any USB devices. It uses USB to Activesync but doesn't provide "host" USB functionality to allow USB mice and USB hard drives (even PDA's with USB "host" barely function at all hooked up to USB hard drives, the driver is alpha experimental and not useful for any large data reading/writing).

Basically one is limited to 16bit PCMCIA card hard drives that only iPaq 3600-3900 series currently support with accessory sleeves for them.

The only other path is to use a PCMCIA>CF adaptor that plugs in the CF slot and provides a PCMCIA socket. There are serious issues of power draw from a CF slot (typically 100mah) hooked up to a drive consuming 500-2000mah. Read here first for warnings:

http://www.sycard.com/tech165.html

This could VERY easily fry your PDA, so be fore-warned!!!
Here is a source for one of those adaptors for the brave and/or foolish:

http://semsons.com/comflastopcc.html