I wasn't clear enough... I need to be able to write to this thing from a PIC
in a remote device. Megabytes of data. Then pick it up, pull the card
(Compact Flash, SanDisk, PCMCIA FLASH, whatever), push it into the Laptop,
copy the file or files to hard drive, erase, reinsert into device and leave.

Critical points:
A) ultra fast transfer speed. 16 Meg in several seconds.
B) standard unaltered laptop and no fancy software.
C) multi-meg storage ability.
D) fairly low power. will only fire up briefly, capture data, then shut down
so can't be ram or hard drive.

Basically, if I could buy that part of a digital camera...

---
James Newton mailto:jamesnewton@geocities.com 1-619-652-0593
http://techref.massmind.org
All the engineering secrets worth knowing

-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Mark Willis
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 13:53
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [OT][EE] PCMCIA (PC CARD) data xfer to laptop
Importance: Low


I do this ALL the time - Lots of good answers for this one, James;  Buy
a SanDisk (or Delkin, or Simple Tech., or or <G>) PCMCIA Flash card
(either Compact Flash with an adapter if needed, or a PCMCIA Type II
Flash Card) - install that into a unit like an SCM SwapBox (eBay has 'em
all the time - I have a spare, could ship it to you if you'll replace it
with a good unit.)  $35 should get you one.

http://search-desc.ebay.com/cgi-bin/texis/ebaydesc/results.html?query=scm+sw
apbox&dest=&cobrandpartner=x&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&SortOrder=&maxRecordsP
erPage=&srchdesc=y&category0=&category1=&category2=&category3=&textonly=n&tc
=&ht=1&st=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&ebaytag1=&ebaytag1code=&ebaycurr=&psURLSaveMe
thod=PersonalShopperSaveSearch&userid=&pass=&psreg=&psfreq=&psdura=
gives 10 hits <G>

I like these as the upper slot will handle a Type III HDD - can stack
that atop a Type II card and transfer data easily.

Other co's make these as well, in differing varieties too (DataBook has
a Parallel Port unit that's not bad - get the later one if you go with
those, TMD-650 or newer.)

Definitely check h/w and s/w requirements on the unit you plan to get
(the earlier ISA SCM's need an IRQ for the board, newer one's don't,
also these need one add'l IRQ for most installed cards.)

Another answer:  Get a NIC card (or parallel port NIC) for your laptop -
Pull the data down to the laptop's HDD, then transfer it onto the PCMCIA
Card if you still need to do that (may be able to do this directly if
you set it up right.)

Also, SRAM cards are pretty nice (leave them plugged into some power
source i.e. powered-up desktop when not in use, or yank the battery, as
otherwise the battery eventually dies from the slow drain of the card;
Flash cards are LOTS less pricey, though, an SRam 4Mb card costs the
same as a 175Mb Flash card roughly.

You'll usually need to initialize either card (CF / Flash or SRAM) -
sorta like "FDisk" for these media.

BTW: "instantly"??!?  <VBG>

  Mark

James Newton wrote:
> Does anyone know of a ready made embedded PCMCIA (PC CARD) writer that can
> write a format readable in the standard PC (laptop) like it was a drive?
>
> I have a friend who needs to instantly transfer mega-bytes of data to a
> standard laptop.
>
> ---
> James Newton mailto:jamesnewton@geocities.com 1-619-652-0593
> http://techref.massmind.org
> All the engineering secrets worth knowing

--
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