What you should know about 1G + flash drives!

[James Emory]

After much aggravation and several conversations with B&H, Sandisk and ADS Tech (card maker), I was informed that all USB drives that are above 512 MB require additional power to operate with dedicated PCMCIA cards and combo cards (USB 2.0, 4 & 6 pin 1394). It's not the drive maker's or reseller's fault or responsibility but it is the card maker's. The typical voltage required to power a USB flash drive is 500 mA or 5v that comes from the PC and does power the 512 MB drives just fine in these combo cards but any drive above 512 MB is currently not supported with this current power output. The latest combo cards currently available such as the LaCie, ADS, IOGear, Medea, etc. do have a seperate power supply but it is 12v and only powers the 6 pin firewire port. The dedicated USB cards such as Linksys, Netgear and Belkin also have a power supply of 5v up to 10v to power these newer, high capacity USB drives but if you're in the field with no AC power, uh, your screwed. So, before you buy a combo card or dedicated USB card for use with a 1G + USB flash drive, make sure that it can power that device separately or carry an inverter or honda generator everywhere you go. If you have any further information or experiences such as solutions or workarounds with this issue please let me know.

Note: This information is accurate as of its post date

[Christopher Lefchik]

Wow, I never heard about that limitation with flash drives. Thanks for the info!

[James Emory]

Well hopefully these card makers will find a power solution quick because these drives just keep getting larger and larger in storage capacity and are going to require more power. Also, from what I hear, USB 3.0 is just around the corner and is eclipsing 1394 so every new generation of portable devices with USB, such as laptops, is always going to be behind and need I/O adapter cards.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by James Emory

Well hopefully these card makers will find a power solution quick because these drives just keep getting larger and larger in storage capacity and are going to require more power. Also, from what I hear, USB 3.0 is just around the corner and is eclipsing 1394 so every new generation of portable devices with USB, such as laptops, is always going to be behind and need I/O adapter cards.

That's odd because typically the higher the density of transistors on a chip, the less power it uses. The voltages have to be lowered to prevent electron crosstalk. Literally, electrons jumping from one trace to the other inside the chip. That's why newer devices are running on lower voltage power sources these days. Maybe I am misunderstanding your post, but I have a 1gb SD memory card on a Sandisk reader that is USB powered and I have no issues. Not sure about the PCMCIA stuff though.

-gb-

[James Emory]

The issue is only through PCMCIA slots and cards that don't provide power or not enough to these USB devices/drives. The USB ports that are built in get their power from the laptop and work fine with any drive as far as power requirements.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by James Emory

The issue is only through PCMCIA slots and cards that don't provide power or not enough to these USB devices/drives. The USB ports that are built in get their power from the laptop and work fine with any drive as far as power requirements.

Thanks for the clarification James. I haven't made use of the PCMCIA slot on my laptop yet. Who knows, maybe a P2 card will be inserted in there someday. ;-)

-gb-

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by James Emory

Also, from what I hear, USB 3.0 is just around the corner and is eclipsing 1394 so every new generation of portable devices with USB, such as laptops, is always going to be behind and need I/O adapter cards.

I’m curious, where did you hear about USB 3.0? I can't recall hearing anything about such a standard from the tech sources I frequent. I’d especially expect to hear about USB 3.0 if it were just around the corner, as you say.

As for IEEE 1394, the IEEE 1394b standard not only provides for an 800Mbps transfer rate, but also 1600 and 3200Mbps (1.6Gbs and 3.2Gbs) as well (see http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahxe.html?cust=237485.42118.30). Thus, unless there is some truly blisteringly fast new version of USB on the horizon, IEEE 1394 is nowhere near being eclipsed.

[James Emory]

I did know that 1394b is 800 Mbs but didn't know about it's faster speeds as you mentioned. I don't know much more about the other specs either. I heard what I stated from a tech head at Staples. He did say that it was about 8 months away though. He also said that he had seen information about a Sandisk 10 GB USB flash drive. I called Sandisk to find out about that and the sales rep didn't know anything about it. He said their highest capacity USB flash drive is currently 4 GB.

Thou shalt not shoot the messenger