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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] parallel port memory card reader
  • Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 04:08:08 +0000 (UTC)

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, David Moberg wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>

Can the parport adaptor be used somehow with BL2 as an external
hard drive? If not, DOS is fine.

I bet it uses paride or a similar driver. It probably acts like a
parallel port hard drive. Try the relevant HOWTOs for paride, or
maybe the Parallel HOWOT.

Our problem is that the camera did not seem to like the format that
came on the 10MB card which was in the PCMCIA adaptor. What format
would a camera want? We could try to format it with BL3 fdisk via
the PCMCIA adaptor. The camera told us it was formatting but it
did not succeed.

It may not take that size/type of card. Is the card writable? Usually
cameras like one partition that fills the whole disk, formatted as
msdos or vfat. Usually they prefer FAT16/32 formats from DOS or Windows
tools. If the card has nothing that you want, use dd if=/dev/zero to
wipe it clean, then use DOS or Windows format, Windows preferably.

The problem may just be low batteries - I will hunt up a 6V power cube. When it said it was reformatting it could have just been making its own directory and subdirectory where it puts the photos. This is Type I compact flash, which is thinner than Type II. People kept telling us they were 3.3 and 5V (like cpus?) but they are 3.3 and 5 mm. Type II adaptors can handle both thicknesses.

One website said FAT32 was needed on cards over 1G (this is 10MB) and cameras could not all handle FAT32. These cards are now made up to 8GB. The Type II run 170MB - 4GB and you can use them instead of hard drives in PCMCIA slots. We have to learn to access the card before we can determine the format. Might start with the PCMCIA adaptor in BL3 then proceed to learn paride in BL2 (assuming the kernel handles it, otherwise bare.i). They consist of memory plus controller (unlike the Smartmedia cards which are memory only but for some perverse reason cost more).

The datafab site had lots of info on parallel port memory card readers, such as you need to set the parport to LPT1 IRQ7 and ECP mode in BIOS (but then there was something about the slower SPP and not-quite-as-slow EPP also working). The pass-through may not work with a dot-matrix printer so use an A-B switch box if so. You have to unplug the keyboard and plug the adaptor into the keyboard port for power, then plug the keyboard into it. Odd creature, heavier than the camera and not ideal for travelling.

I will go read about paride - external hard drives and CD-ROM drives too? The parport zip drives appear to be treated as scsi not ide - still have to set mine up.


David
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