Bluetooth Harddrives. Why Not?

[VictoNight]

I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to these things but I think it sounds like a good idea. Imagine a single hard drive that could be accessed by your computer, PDA, and cellphone all the time. I’m not sure of the portability or the battery life but as long as it could be decent. I did some short research and found that Toshiba released one in Japan in 2002 with 5 gig but other than that I couldn’t find anything else about it. What am I missing here?

[Jason Dunn]

Why not? One word: bandwidth.

Bluetooth 1.2 just doesn't have the bandwidth for serious file transfer. Bluetooth 1.2 is 768 kbps max, which in real-world speeds means about 96 KB/s. Toss out 1/3rd of that for overhead, and you've got about 63 KB/s. That would mean roughly three minutes to transfer one 10 MB file...that's slow.

[Ed Hansberry]

Yup. I access a HD via 802.11B sometimes and it is brutal.

[Darius Wey]

Yeah - it's a somewhat dead concept. While there are models out there, its lack of gunning features hasn't pushed the concept any further. I think even pushing it to BT2.0, it's still brutal. I can vouch in Ed's statement of "brutality" in this sense. We're talking a theoretical 11Mbps on an 802.11b connection - and it's still not bliss.

[Menneisyys]

Why not? One word: bandwidth.

Bluetooth 1.2 just doesn't have the bandwidth for serious file transfer. Bluetooth 1.2 is 768 kbps max, which in real-world speeds means about 96 KB/s. Toss out 1/3rd of that for overhead, and you've got about 63 KB/s.

I'd say toss out about 2/3rd of that for overhead... current BT 1.2 devices only have 270-290 kbps real-world BT transfer speed. Just measured this (file stransfer speed to main memory with Resco in a BT PAN) with my BT1.2 PL720 and MSI USB BT stick in a desktop. BT1.1 devices may even have slightly less practical speed of 160-250 kbps; at least that's what I used to measure with my BT1.1 2210.

The solution is, as has already been pointed out, Wi-Fi capable hard disks. E.g. that of ASUS, the WL-HDD25 ( http://usa.asus.com/products/communication/wireless/wl-hdd25/overview.htm ), or the wl-500b ( http://usa.asus.com/products/communication/wireless/wl-500b/overview.htm ), if you need an additional router with the HDD.

(I wish someone produced an access point with USB2 hosting functionality so that I could share my MamboX USB2 battery-powered 60G hard disk without connecting it to any desktop computer...)

[frankenbike]

The solution is, as has already been pointed out, Wi-Fi capable hard disks. E.g. that of ASUS, the WL-HDD25 ( http://usa.asus.com/products/communication/wireless/wl-hdd25/overview.htm )

I read about some guy trying to use one of those for his CarFi system, but I don't remember if he succeeded.

Not exactly inexpensive though...

[V-iPAQ]

it's an interesting idea anyway, but really what's wrong with just swapping cards

[Menneisyys]

it's an interesting idea anyway, but really what's wrong with just swapping cards

The capacity and the price. The price of a 60G 2.5" hard disk is the same as that of a (more) decent 1G card.

[Menneisyys]

The solution is, as has already been pointed out, Wi-Fi capable hard disks. E.g. that of ASUS, the WL-HDD25 ( http://usa.asus.com/products/communication/wireless/wl-hdd25/overview.htm )

I read about some guy trying to use one of those for his CarFi system, but I don't remember if he succeeded.

Not exactly inexpensive though...

Under 100 bucks, I'd say. A Ratoc CF USB host card costs more (if yur PDA doesn't contain USB host functionality), and you have to fuss around with cables...

[frankenbike]

The solution is, as has already been pointed out, Wi-Fi capable hard disks. E.g. that of ASUS, the WL-HDD25 ( http://usa.asus.com/products/communication/wireless/wl-hdd25/overview.htm )

I read about some guy trying to use one of those for his CarFi system, but I don't remember if he succeeded.

Not exactly inexpensive though...

Under 100 bucks, I'd say. A Ratoc CF USB host card costs more (if yur PDA doesn't contain USB host functionality), and you have to fuss around with cables...

I've made my opinion known that I think USB host capabilities should have been a standard spec for PPCs, with no more deviation than you see in desktop PCs.

Anyway, if you have only an SD/SDIO card, I don't even think there's a USB host adaptor available to PPCs that don't have USB host capabilities, so WiFi is pretty much your only choice.