which card reader for smartmedia ??

[zelda_pinwheel]

i bought a memory card reader to use specifically with my smartmedia card from the eb1150. it is a generic "read every existing card format available" type reader, with 4 different slots. sadly, it does not work for the smartmedia card. see this other post for details about that if you have any ideas.

i have given up on that card reader but i would still like to be able to access the memory card directly via windows file explorer.

i have not found a way to do this while the card is in the device : via usb connection, the device can communicate with filament books bookshelf or GEB Librarian bookshelf, but it is not visible to the pc as a removeable drive.

my 2 questions are :
1. is there any way to make the pc see the card while it is in the reader ?
2. which card reader will DEFINITELY read the smartmedia cards ? preferably one not too expensive please ! available on ebay would be perfect, or else from a shop which will ship to France for not too much shipping fees.

thanks for any advice.

[Stephanos]

I bought a PNY smartmedia card from ebay and it works well. The store on ebay is called "batteryspace". See here for details.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Stephanos

I bought a PNY smartmedia card from ebay and it works well. The store on ebay is called "batteryspace". See here for details.

any card reader will work so long as it specifically says SMARTMEDIA card in the list of cards that is supports.

GEBLibrarian will load anything you wish directly to the card so you do not really need a card reader. The internal erase command on the eb1150 can remove any thing you no longer need. I have occassionally found some really large files that choke in GEBLibrarian but it is not usual. Most of the time I prefer GEBLibrarian since I can manage things with real titles instead of file names.

Dale

[zelda_pinwheel]

thanks for the info ! i will buy one of those.

the card reader i bought had a list of about 50 different formats it could read, smartmedia was supposed to be one of them, it has the correct size slot and the led for that slot lights up when i insert the card, but it doesn't go any farther than that... very annoying, since it seemed more interesting to have one reader for all formats than to buy (potentially) several different ones for individual formats (not that i have very many different cards to read, at the moment anyway... it does work with my camera's sony memory stick at least, so i guess it's not a total loss. although i usually just connect the camera directly via usb.).

plus, on a purely frivolous note, it's really stylie because the outer case is transparent so i can see all the circuits and such. i love electric circuits. i wish i could always see the composants of my gadgets.

I have been using the GEB Librarian to transfer files to my eb1150 ever since Stephanos explained to me how to do it, so i don't need the card reader for that, however before i figured that out i used the filament books "my bookshelf" feature so i have many books on my reader for which i don't have .imp files on my computer, and i want the card reader to retrieve them from the device and make backups (so that i can delete them from the device when i need to gain more space) without having to re-convert them (no point in doing that twice...).

also i was curious to examine the code of the filament conversions to see how it compared with my Publisher conversions. i found a program on the yahoo group which will un-explode the folder from the eb1150 and re-compile it into .imp files, i want to try it out.

anyway i will get one of the specific smartmedia readers, that way at least i will be sure of the compatibility !!!

thanks again for the help !!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

the card reader i bought had a list of about 50 different formats it could read, smartmedia was supposed to be one of them, it has the correct size slot and the led for that slot lights up when i insert the card, but it doesn't go any farther than that... very annoying, since it seemed more interesting to have one reader for all formats than to buy (potentially) several different ones for individual formats (not that i have very many different cards to read, at the moment anyway... it does work with my camera's sony memory stick at least, so i guess it's not a total loss. although i usually just connect the camera directly via usb.).

Which card reader do you have?

I got a cheap (about $20) "21 in 1" USB 2.0 card reader from a local Korean PC clone shop. It has slots for Secure Digital, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, and Multi-Media Cards. (Smart Media cards have the same form factor as Secure Digital cards, and are read in the SD slot.) I already had a Dazzle CF card reader (for my digital camera and old Handspring PDA with a CF card adapter), and a SanDisk SD card reader. The "21 in 1" is less than the size of a pack of cigarettes and easy to carry around.

It works, but price matters. I've started to have problems reading SD cards in it, which are still handled fine by my SanDisk reader. It seems that cheap price=flimsy construction, and the SD slot is beginning to fail from wear.

I'd be curious whether an SD card would work in your multi-function reader, or whether you simply have a bad slot.
______
Dennis

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Which card reader do you have?

i got one like this one on ebay (except mine is transparent : stylie !). i'm not sure if it was the same vendor, there are about a million of them. apparently you do get what you pay for, especially if you think 20$ for a 21-in-one reader is cheap...

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I'd be curious whether an SD card would work in your multi-function reader, or whether you simply have a bad slot.
______
Dennis

i would be curious too ; alas i have no sd card to test it with. the sony memory stick slot works fine, but that is the only other kind of card i have, so i don't know about the other slots.

i'm going to buy the dedicated card reader for the smart media card, it's not too huge an investment and i think i will use it enough to make it worthwhile. as for the other reader, at the worst i will just leave it lying around to admire the circuit boards from time to time...

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i got one like this one on ebay (except mine is transparent : stylie !). i'm not sure if it was the same vendor, there are about a million of them. apparently you do get what you pay for, especially if you think 20$ for a 21-in-one reader is cheap...

For the functionality, relative to other components, it is.

Mine is similar in size and design, but not rounded on the edges or transparent.

i would be curious too ; alas i have no sd card to test it with. the sony memory stick slot works fine, but that is the only other kind of card i have, so i don't know about the other slots.

I have CF, SD, and SM. I don't have (or want) anything that uses a Memory Stick.

i'm going to buy the dedicated card reader for the smart media card, it's not too huge an investment and i think i will use it enough to make it worthwhile. as for the other reader, at the worst i will just leave it lying around to admire the circuit boards from time to time...

Agreed that another reader is a good investment. Sounds like a bad slot on the one you got.
______
Dennis

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Sounds like a bad slot on the one you got.
______
Dennis

ironic that it's the only slot i actually need...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

ironic that it's the only slot i actually need...

did you try turning the card over?

Dale

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

did you try turning the card over?

Dale

yes, but it won't go all the way in if i turn it over, and i find it's best not to force electronic components

anyway, if i peer inside the slot i can see little metal tabs sticking up on one side, which i assume are the receivers (or readers, or whatever they're called), so it makes sense to put the card in with the metal circuits facing those tabs (which is the direction it fits properly).

i think it's just a bad slot. bad luck.

[kmack]

Smartmedia cards are formatted differently. Formatting a smartmedia card as Fat 16 or Fat 32 via WinXP or the Mac DiskUtility may cause the card to be unreadable in the EB 1150 and most Olympus camera's.

I had a similar problem and found the utilities and information at the OlyPan site invaluable.

[zelda_pinwheel]

my card reader finally arrived, and i could test it out : works brilliantly.

it is a PNY SmartMedia (ONLY SmartMedia) card reader, bought on ebay from batteryspace, as recommended by Stephanos (thanks !). their shipping to france is pretty ridiculous (grrr) but the dollar is low right now so overall it still is not too expensive.

it's not nearly as stylie as the original one i bought which does not work (i came across the notice from it a couple of days ago : i confirm, it explicitly lists smartmedia in the formats it will read, in two different places. ), but at least it works !

[RKnack]

I found a ZiO! USB SmartMedia-dedicated reader, **supposedly** new (without software) on Amazon.Com for $0.99 plus shipping ($5.00 total). Had to download the drivers from driverguide.com, but it works fine.