What does Compact Flash Adapter do?

[stso]

I can't find much information about, can anyone point me a site that has the info? Thanks a lot.

 

[Freejack2]

http://www.compactflash.org/ is the official site for all compact flash information. Not the easiest in the world to read though. Basically compact flash as far as I understand it is a memory chip that doesn't lose data when there is no power to it. When you plug compact flash into a system the system treats it as an ata hard drive and reads/writes data to it like a normal hard drive. However in order to get a system to read it, it either has to come with a Compact Flash slot or you have to use an adapter. On desktops the most popular one is the adapter/readers that are usb, you plug the adapter/reader into your pc's usb (or firewire as an option now) port and then plug the cf into the adapter/reader. These adapter/readers usually cost about $25 - $45. For notebooks you can get an pcmcia adapter. You plug the cf into the adapter, then plug the adapter into your notebook's pcmcia port. From there it works the same as a desktop. I have both a usb desktop adapter and a pcmcia notebook adapter. Both work great.
Hope this helps.

 

[Salvador]

What do you need it for? A camera? Are you talking about a PCMCIA (PC Card) adapter? It basically turns your CF card into a PC card, so you can install it into a PC Card to read it in something like a laptop. CF adapters are cheap because the CF cards have onboard controllers. SM card adapters on the other hand are more expensive because the controller is built into the adapter and not the card.

I hope this is what you're talking about. You're not giving us much information to go on.

HTH. I don't have any sites for you other than doing a search on google.

Sal

 

[stso]

Basically I know NOTHING about the adaptor, that's why I ask such stupid question about it
By the way, I was thinking if I can get some of my desktop wallpapers into the compact flash memory card via the adaptor, so I could view them on my digital camera. Is it possible?

 

[Salvador]

<< By the way, I was thinking if I can get some of my desktop wallpapers into the compact flash memory card via the adaptor, so I could view them on my digital camera. Is it possible? >>


Yes. You can either get a CF adapter or a USB CF card reader. Do you have a desktop or laptop? I'm asking because you'd need a PCMCIA slot to use the adapter and these are usually found on laptops, not desktops. If you have a USB port, the reader basically turns the card into a mobile drive. You can download anything to it and transfer it if you want. Think of it as a portable storage solution like an external zip drive. Of course, you will only be able to view the images on your camera if they are a supported format (TIF, JPEG, etc..)

FWIW.. I have a 128 mb Smart Media card with a SM USB reader and a PCMCIA SM adapter. With the 128 mb Smart Media card, I basically have a small portable drive that I can use for basically anything. It's like having a small zip drive.

Sal

 

[stso]

Cool, I am going to buy of this and use it on my PC. (I sold my laptop )
I too have the 128mb compact flash card ... I guess I could store a lot of cool pix on my camera in the future
Thanks guys

 

[Salvador]

If you just have a desktop, a card adapter will not help you without a PCMCIA slot.

What you need is a USB Compact Flash card reader. It comes with a disk of drivers and once they are installed on the pc, you treat the reader like another drive. Actually, it gives you a new drive letter when it's attached. Just like a small zip drive.

BTW.. If you are ever worried about carrying the drivers remotely to use on another machine, grab yourself an account on a freedrive site, store the drivers there and if you ever need to install the drivers on someone else's computer away from home, just download them from your site. That's what I do.

Of course, you could burn them onto a disk and carry a copy along with you in your camera bag or briefcase if you want. Whatever works for you.

Sal

 

[EricHagen]

Just in case you didn't pick up on it, CompactFlash and SmartMedia are quite different.

SmartMedia is much smaller because the controller is inside the device instead of in the card.

There are really 4 different common formats for Flash media like that.

CompactFlash (probably the most common)
SmartMedia
Multimedia Card (similar to CF cards but smaller)
Memory stick (only for Sony devices)

=-)

i just bought a Philips Nino PDA that takes Compact Flash, but my MP3 player is SmartMedia. Fortunately, my camera also uses CF media. =-)

Now I need to get one of those combination CF/SM USB readers =-) but they're so expensive!! lol

Eric