MP3 Flash Module as External HD Interface?

otter42 asks: "Has anyone thought about using a portable MP3 player's flash module port to interface with an external hard drive? I think the major obstacles are: how to find the protocols and write the interface, how to build a interface port to IDE card, and how to power the external drive. Having a 10 GB HD for $100 sure beats the heck out of 32 MB for $90! I'd be willing to pay an extra $100 so that my Rio could carry a worthwile amount of music." I'm sure someone has looked into something like this...if so, please share your experiences!

Wouldn't it get confused?

[awx]

Wouldn't the MP3 player get confused? If the filesystem space is hard-coded in, imagine if the hardware finds 10Gb space instead of 32 or 64mb - what would it do? This seems like the same situation with the Sony Playstation memory cards - sure, they could supply memory cards with loads more capacity than they originally anticipated, but as the size (15 'blocks') is hardcoded into the psx, the memory cards had a little button on them so they could switch between 'pages' of blocks. If you did this, only with a 'page' size of 32 or 64mb and had a button to flip, it's doable. (Sounds bloomin' hard though.... )
alex

Power is the main concern

[pacc]

There are already expensive harddrives in PCMCIA-format, though as someone pointed out their need for 5V power supply makes them useless for simple memory replacement for portable units. Another thing with the 40 mb Clic' drive was that it apart from that needed local processing power to be able to do the controlling to read the disk. Everybody is waiting for something to replace the unneccesary expensive and small flashes, though I don't think mechanical drives will do it. Can anyone fill in with promising optical storage methods?

It is possible...

[Betcour]

First you need an MP3 player that support CompactFlash format. The Smartmedia is crappy and limited, but unfortunately it is the most widely used on portable MP3 players (but I know the RCA/Thomson Lyra does use CompactFlash and is widely available).

Once you have the CompactFlash-ready player, use a CompactFlash to PCMCIA adapter... they are cheap because CompactFlash is basically PCMCIA in a smaller form factor and lower pin count. Then use a PCMCIA harddrive or harddrive adapter, and here you are ! Or even easier, you can use the minidrive from IBM which is already in CompactFlash form factor, then you just put it in and use it. It is limited to 340 MB but then it is still cool...

That's the beauty of CompactFlash : since it is in fact PCMCIA, it supports right out of the box all kind of devices, not just Flash memory :)

Re:It is possible...

[Bryan Andersen]

You missed one of the most important features of CompactFLASH. You set one of the pines on it's interface, and it now behaves as an IDE disk drive. Can you say solid state HD. FLASH memory based Type I CompactFLASH cards are available up to 192MB and Type IIs go up to 300MB (from SanDisk [sandisk.com]). IBM HD version dosen't have much on them except higher power draw and slightly faster write speed.

Ack.

[Wakko Warner]

The whole point of an MP3 player is portability. Do you _really_ want to carry around an MP3 player, a hard drive, _and_ a power supply for that hard drive? For the money and time invested (assuming your time is worth money, like mine is), you could buy yourself a hard disk-based MP3 player.

- A.P.
--

"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

Re:Wouldn't it get confused?

[fliplap]

Actually, i know power would really be the concern here. The amount really isn't an issue, people modifed Palm Pilots meant to have only 1meg or memory to have upto 10megs

Power issues...

[Helix150]

First, how would you power a IDE hard drive? It would take a LOT of juice. I suggest the PJB-100 player. It has a 4.86GB IBM laptop hard drive, and 10MB RAM so it only spins the drive about every ten minutes. With its rechargable lithium battery it gets 10 hours of playtime. Display shows ID3 info. I have one of these and I only have to charge it about once a week. I would be interested to see if anyone has had any luck replacing the drive with a bigger one... www.pjbox.com www.thinkgeek.com (they sell it too, $20 less)