CF-to-SATA hardware interface for RAW recording (fork)

Started by Grunf, May 17, 2013, 03:10:09 PM

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AnotherDave

Shame it isn't thunderbolt :-/  hehe

Like the concept/design though... a CF card with a port.

AnotherDave

Quote from: bumkicho on May 30, 2013, 05:42:56 PM
I was wondering if there is a similar product with USB 3 support. Would USB 3 have sufficient speed?

USB 3 would be idle.  Much faster than the CF interface.


bumkicho

Even if there is a USB Host Adapter CF Card that supports USB 3, will Canon cameras be able to recognize it?

pascalc

@
Quote from: g3gg0 on May 30, 2013, 02:07:00 PM
can you run this plugin with your disk attached?
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5471.msg36699#msg36699

I can load it with the card in the camera but I can't do it using the CF extender, the camera do not turn on

g3gg0

can you plug in the card after the camera powered up and try then?
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pascalc

I tried but nothing happened it still says no card in camera
It's possible with the 1DC but unfortunately the 1DC is out of the game :)

g3gg0

uhm did you run the menu entry i quoted in my post?
what did it say?
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pascalc

1 ML may22 on a small SD card running
2 CF extender inserted with 32 Go Sandisk previously formatted by the camera
3 "Read CF details" launched
=>
1 ML menu close within 1 seconds
2 Screen turns black (working but showing nothing) in two other seconds and all buttons and wheels are frozen
3 Turn off the camera but screen remains black
4 Have to remove the battery to shut it down

But... now when I insert the extender without the SD card, the camera turns on after 5 seconds and ask to format the card. When doing it, it says it's impossible.

g3gg0

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Redrocks

http://www.amazon.com/Socket-Communications-100-Ethernet-Card/dp/B00005RZOZ

http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/08/20/aging.standard.is.still.ahead.of.most.core.networking/

There must be one company out there who can capitalise on our needs. Or maybe the product in my Amazon link could be modified to channel the cf readout (to sata) before it's converted to ethernet?

@pascalc Nice efforts, shame it didn't work out.

Redrocks

http://pcmonde.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=5&product_id=850009&mpnid=0

>Not only is the Instant Wireless network CF card easy to install and use, it's also powerful.
>You can send and receive data at speeds up to 11 Mbps.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000652LU6/?tag=trex0a-20

Possible candidates for modding?

ptunstall

Honestly I think something like this will require some custom made interface components.  I am getting an Arduino soon for another film related project so I will do some digging about on the web for anyone else who has tried creating an IDE controller with Arduino.

Found this already.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/725/creating-a-compact-flash-controller


ptunstall

I've also reached out to this guy: http://sbc.rictor.org/index.html since he seems to have a lot of experience with these types of devices.

This forum thread is where I found him. ay shed some new light on this thing: http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?p=8343&sid=a06dc948bd456b223cf8a93d175d37e1


ptunstall

So the guy replied.  Said Arduino wouldn't be the best bet due to speeds we are trying to achieve and suggested we use a faster chip board like raspberry pi which is more complicated in terms of software BUT has a simple distro of linux running on it and a 700MHz ARM chip.  However the guy did say that this type of thing was way out of his league.  I will research a bit more!

Question: How is the camera interfacing with the CF card? Is it IDE or one of the other types?

Binnyang

Hi all
I am a user to ML who is really interested in filming RAW video based on external storage.
I just like to mention that we actually have an COS solution from Canon :)
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/product/accessories/wft_e7_wireless_file_transmitter.do

With the wifi grip, just install a fast CF card to camera, and use 802.11n or Gigabit LAN to transmit file after the shoot. It is really easy to write a daemon service to handle this, and opens up a world of possibility in terms of hardware adaption.

Method 1. Get a 32 GB 1000x CF card, a wifi grip, and stream to the recorded picture to this either continously or after each shoot.
http://www.hypershop.com/CloudFTP-p/cftp-black.htm

Method 2. Same thing. With ethernet (NAS Anyone :))

ptunstall

802.11n is rated at max of 150Mbits a second that 150/8=18.75MB/s which is far to slow.  Gigabit LAN is theoretically possible to pass 125MB/s BUT would require about the same amount of work to make a CF to SSD controller to make it work at those speed continuous.

Grey_Sally

Not to mention that the WFT-E7 is plugged into the camera via its USB2 port... The older cameras (5D2, 40D, 50D) had proprietary connectors on the base, but I doubt those would be any faster... or easier to figure out

Binnyang

Ah
It's too bad that its USB based. I thought it was something faster.
I also want to clarify that I am not proposing real time capture into an external media. As a hobby film maker, I just want a cheap way to store my file in the field without forking over 10k worth of memory. I can do that with this grip attachment by grabbing picture from CF card when the camera is not in use. Much easier than carrying a laptop and swapping cards.

Samuel H

I still have a few parts missing, but I'm playing with what I've got. I've found that at least in some IDE-to-CF adapters there are a few extra connections beyond what this shows: http://rumkin.com/reference/aquapad/media/CFtoIDE.pdf
For example, in the one I've analyzed, in the CF connector, pins 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 25 are not "unconnected", but "tied to pins 1 and 50" (which then go to ground). Not the case for pin 24, though.
This may mean that there's something missing in that pdf, or, maybe more likely, that some parts are not actually made to exactly meet the full specification, which could explain the issues some here are having.
This http://pinouts.ru/Memory/CompactFlash_pinout.shtml says that those pins are used for the address bus; the CF-to-IDE connector described in the pdf would leave them unused, but if they're linked together and to ground the camera may freak out and shut down.

pascalc

Hi Samuel, Can I ask you which CF extender did you choose ?
On mine, the link between the card and the exterior socket is a 40 pins ribbon. Some connectors are merged (surely the grounds ones). It works in a Lexar usb 3 card reader on my computer (with slow transfer rate) I don't understand why it doesn't on the camera.
I would like to try something with all the pins directly connected to the external socket but it seems to do not exists.

Cigam

I am not only looking into increasing storage capacity but also into increasing possible write speeds.

Would it be possible that Magic Lantern writes a specific amount of frames onto the SD card?
Let's say we have a CF card with write speeds of 90MB/s and a SD card with write speeds of 30MB/s.

Now could ML use both interfaces? Writing 30MB/s to SD and the rest to CF? This way we could achieve much higher speeds.

Samuel H

Quote from: pascalc on June 01, 2013, 05:57:39 PM
Hi Samuel, Can I ask you which CF extender did you choose ?
On mine, the link between the card and the exterior socket is a 40 pins ribbon. Some connectors are merged (surely the grounds ones). It works in a Lexar usb 3 card reader on my computer (with slow transfer rate) I don't understand why it doesn't on the camera.
I would like to try something with all the pins directly connected to the external socket but it seems to do not exists.

I'm trying to build my own ribbon adapter. Crazy, I know: the CF connectors are SO SMALL!
I bought a cheap cf-card-on-ide-bus adapter to have as an extra reference where I can see what's connected to what in a working product.

pascalc

I was thinking to do the same thing, going directly from CF to IDE.
You have special equipment to solder such small pins ?

Samuel H

No, just lots of patience, some ingenuity, and a couple of CF cards to trash. I know the most likely outcome is a useless adapter...