PC Show 2004 Product Launch: CompactDrive Portable Storage Device

[wudabao]

one question about the power

since it uses AA batteries instead of Li-ion batteries, which means the voltage will reduced with the power comsuption. it will cause the unstable speed of HD rotation. since the HD disk all design for constant voltage, linear speed up or speed down is fine for the harddisk, but the unstable voltage will cause non-linear speed changes.

I wonder whether this will damage the harddisk?

 

[EastGear]

Can I know the model of hard disk sold with this? Is this the series?

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/5k80/5k80.htm

I need to know if this works with 1.8" or 2.5" hard drives, or both.

No ours is the latest Hitachi 4200rpm series, it only works with 2.5" HDD. There is no significant speed difference between 4200rpm & 5400rpm on this device.

 

[Sausage]

Thanks.. just fitted it with a Hitachi 2.5" hd, and I'm having problems reading it in win 98. The chinese driver (actually, it seems more like an exe file than a driver) can't detect anything, so I can't even format the disk. Any idea how I get started with win98?

 

[EastGear]

one question about the power

since it uses AA batteries instead of Li-ion batteries, which means the voltage will reduced with the power comsuption. it will cause the unstable speed of HD rotation. since the HD disk all design for constant voltage, linear speed up or speed down is fine for the harddisk, but the unstable voltage will cause non-linear speed changes.

I wonder whether this will damage the harddisk?

There is no need to worry.

There is a voltage regulator within the device to regulate the voltage output of the AA batteries to a constant level.

 

[MoriMori]

Thanks.. just fitted it with a Hitachi 2.5" hd, and I'm having problems reading it in win 98. The chinese driver (actually, it seems more like an exe file than a driver) can't detect anything, so I can't even format the disk. Any idea how I get started with win98?

You don't need to use the setup file and can probably uninstall that utility it installed.

Basically:
1. Unzip the drivers into a directory
2. Connect and turn on the device to HDD mode
3. windows will detect the drive and prompt you for drivers, just select the folder where they were unzipped.

 

[Sausage]

Just got a mail from their support people. This is how to use the battery charging function:


*** To charge Ni-MH battery :
*** 1, Install Ni-MH battery into PD6A
*** 2,Push "POWER SWITCH" to "OFF" position
*** 3,Plug AC Adapter to PD6A
*** 4,It will spend about 6 hours to fully charge 1600mAh Ni-MH battery.

*** If any question contact to us.

Lu Kang
SANHO Digital.


Might want to add this to your english manual.

 

[ken00]

*** 4,It will spend about 6 hours to fully charge 1600mAh Ni-MH battery.
fully charge how many battery? 4? even 4 also too long!
cannot imagine charging 2300mAh 10 hrs?

Just got a mail from their support people. This is how to use the battery charging function:


*** To charge Ni-MH battery :
*** 1, Install Ni-MH battery into PD6A
*** 2,Push "POWER SWITCH" to "OFF" position
*** 3,Plug AC Adapter to PD6A
*** 4,It will spend about 6 hours to fully charge 1600mAh Ni-MH battery.

*** If any question contact to us.

Lu Kang
SANHO Digital.


Might want to add this to your english manual.

 

[MARTIN1023]

Aiyoh, why charge the batteries using the PD6A??? :dunno: A much smarter and faster way is to use external battery charger which can get it done in 1 hr.

 

[crazypaladin]

Aiyoh, why charge the batteries using the PD6A??? :dunno: A much smarter and faster way is to use external battery charger which can get it done in 1 hr.

During the PC Show, one of the promoter actually had the guts to tell me this is a quick 1 hr charger!!! Actually one of the reason why I was tempted to get it back then was because of the build-in charger, which probably can save me lots of weights when traveling as I need not carry a separate heavy charger along and can use this storage device to charge my flash batteries and other batteries. Luckily I did not get this device back then. ;p

 

[obviousdude]

probably one way is to still bring your regular quick charger, you'll still need that for your flash batteries, or for N5700 users, for the batteries in your vertical grip.

and the charging function in this is as a back up only, or to charge in parallel.

and yeah, 2300 could take ages to charge (based on the stats quoted here)

that'll be more time then you have in your hotel room, on a typical trip.

 

[EastGear]

During the PC Show, one of the promoter actually had the guts to tell me this is a quick 1 hr charger!!! Actually one of the reason why I was tempted to get it back then was because of the build-in charger, which probably can save me lots of weights when traveling as I need not carry a separate heavy charger along and can use this storage device to charge my flash batteries and other batteries. Luckily I did not get this device back then. ;p

I apologise for the misinterpretation of information. We did told our promoters that the CompactDrive has a built-in quick charger. The "quick charger" feature was coined by the manufacturer. In essense to some people, a 6-8 hour charger is a quick charger. As we were also selling Sanyo & Energizer AA 1 Hour Chargers during the show, probably in his/her zealousness, the part-time promoter got confused with the different products.

Nevertheless, the built-in charger is still quite useful to charge overnite the AA batteries for the CompactDrive, as 4 pcs of Sanyo 2300mAh AA does go a long way to store up to 20GB of data, definitely more than a day's worth of shoot.

I suppose the main driving point in getting the CompactDrive is that the transfer speed is 8 times faster and the battery life is 8 times longer than the next popular portable storage device, the X's-Drive Pro series. The built-in battery charger is just another additional feature.

Once again I apologise for the confusion.

 

[agape01]

So in reality, could I take it that with 4 Sanyo 2300mAh AA batteries, it would take an average of 6 to 8 hours to charge on the CompactDrive Portable Storage Device?

 

[EastGear]

So in reality, could I take it that with 4 Sanyo 2300mAh AA batteries, it would take an average of 6 to 8 hours to charge on the CompactDrive Portable Storage Device?

If you extrapolate, it would take 8.7 hours to full charge 4 Sanyo 2300mah AA batteries

 

[agape01]

Thanks for the explaination EastGear.

 

[likefunyouare]

May I know how stable the PD6A is compared to Nixvue Lite? From Sanho website, the firmware is not upgradable. If there is a bug, is there any way to update the PD6A?

 

[wudabao]

May I ask, wheather this 大嘴盘 can use batteries as a harddisk link to PC instead of using AC adaptor?

can it use batteries for all functions?

except charging the batteries, when we must use the adaptor?

Thanks :heart:

 

[Sausage]

Definitely possible to use it as a hard disk mass storage device with batteries. I agree that the transfer speed is really good.

 

[EastGear]

May I ask, wheather this 大嘴盘 can use batteries as a harddisk link to PC instead of using AC adaptor?

can it use batteries for all functions?

except charging the batteries, when we must use the adaptor?

Thanks :heart:

Yes, you can use the batteries for all functions, even when linking to the PC via USB.

The adaptor is only needed when you wish to the charge the batteries or when you wish to power the device via AC instead of batteries.

 

[Cyberian]

Saw my friend using one and found that u have to restart the system when ever a new compact flash is insert into it. Is this normal? If this is normal, then the Card-OFF-HDD switched will wear off fast.

 

[EastGear]

Saw my friend using one and found that u have to restart the system when ever a new compact flash is insert into it. Is this normal? If this is normal, then the Card-OFF-HDD switched will wear off fast.

Yes, it is normal to restart the device for it to detect the card. However, the shift switch (found normally in RC cars, radios) is quite sturdy, definitely good enough for normal wear and tear. No one else actually mentioned that the switch would wear out fast.