Hi all ! actually i know both CF and IDE interfaces are quite similar or have something in common. i know that the CF to IDE converter is quite simple circuit (if at all) and also devices which use CF can also accept microdrive (HD) what i want to do is: take an IDE HDD (2.5" or 3.5") power it somehow (not the problem) and connect it to a CF device (my canon 350D reflex camera). so the images will be written on a HDD..... (well, extra low cost !!! a 40gigs 2.5" HDD costs ~80$ ! this is 2$ a gig ) will that work in any way ? is that simple as it is ? or need a controller involved ? does the CF to IDE commercial converter has a contrller inside ?
One of the modes of CF cards is indeed an ATA emulation mode but there are two other modes that arnt anything like ATA and the chances are pretty good that your camera uses one of these. Find the Compact flash specification and have a read (i think i found it on the Sandisk site) Best of luck Moriquendi
I got an answer from the CF association... I'm not sure he understood exactly what i want to do, but..... anyways it won't be easy.....
What he wants to do is go the other way than usual. Most of the time you just want to plug CF into IDE to boot your system and whatnot. What he wants to do is take a laptop HDD, and plug the mini IDE connector there, through adapters, into a CF slot.
Even if he could get the interface right, I doubt the camera's firmware would be able to recognize anything above 1GB at best.
There is an 8GB CF type II card, and I believe 12GB is available for specialty applications. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1827222&CatId=0 BTW, large Flash has been around for quite a while. The iPod mini has a 4GB or 6GB Flash memory card in CF type II form factor, although it often has some unusual pinouts.
There are adapters available for PCMCIA to CF so you have the option of using PCMCIA drives, but IDE drives would be too difficult to implement. Alternatively you could put a 2.5" HDD in a USB enclosure that has it's own external power supply then interface that with the camera using a swapping device that will mirror or feed the contents of the camera onto the drive. Something else to look into that could be much simpler, although not as portable.
yea, but how should i connect the enclosure's usb connector to the CF ? i will still need a complicated controller...
