Ipaq + Cheap PSD?

I like the idea of a PSD wth a screen since it would give me comfort that the pictures are really there. The PSD-with-screens are rather expensive, though. Since I already carry around an Ipaq with a very good screen, is there a device that connects a cheap PSD into it so I can use the Ipaq as a browser to the contrents of the disc?
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I'd rather add life to my years than years to my life.

I am just geting together my outfit to do what you propose - but with a Loox 720. Both Dell and HP PDAs have a weakness which iwould have been cheap to fix. It has to do with USB which is the thumb shaped conctor now almost universal.

There are two kinds of USB devices hosts (usually computers) and clients - all the accessories. . Dell and HP PDAs have only a client- so they cannot connect to other clients. I got a Loox shipped from London to US 'cause it has a USB host.

Designers descovered that people wanted to connect two accessories as a card reader and a hard drive so they developed a new standard called OTG (on the go) which is a partial host.

I use a large cheap US reseller Newegg and will use them as an example (there might well be other OTG devices where you are)
They have four devices. One is over $200 and has a screen.

One is a USB Bridge ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16800704302 )
It has no external power (another USB problem) and I would pass that

Then there are two small (2.5") portable cases wth OTG
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146609
(macally) This has an internal battery
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145367

(Bytecc) which seems to have a 4 AA cell battery pack which can be changed. I prefer the latter. Then you need a 2.5" hard drive of whatever size. 4200rpm are cheapest and fine. Hitachi is said to draw the least power.
The Ipaq soft ware is your problem.
If you get battery powered get 2200-2500mha Japanese.
You should be out the door for less then US$1500

I use a iPAQ h2210 which has SD and CF slots.

I have two 4Gb MD's that I use for storage. I take my D70 images on SD (using a Panasonic SD-CF adapter, USD50), and then copy them to MD with the PDA. Of course, you can view them as well. This process is pretty slow, so you need enough cards for a day's shooting, and do the copying while having dinner.

I have two 2Gb CF flash cards, once they are full I revert to the SD card and copy them to the MD's when full. This gives me a total storage space of 13GB which is usually enough (for me).

I have a 4 AA battery extender for the iPAQ, this has lots of vooma with high capacity NiMh batteries.

It's not ideal because of the speed, but I also use the PDA for a lot of other stuff (GPS, WiFi, Scuba downloads) and find this setup to reduce my gadget load.

Sounds like a good (albeit slow) setup.

I have an Ipaq RX3715 which has only an SD slot so your workflow wouldn't work for me.

Thanks.
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I'd rather add life to my years than years to my life.

Interesting project.

But my Ipaq is an RX3715 which doesn't have a USB port.

Still, connecting the Compact Flash reader to an OTG device with a 2.5" hard disc is tempting.

Thanks.
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I'd rather add life to my years than years to my life.

Try an find Toshiba 805 (and 405 I think is the same) and, either USB host cable or presentation pack and you can then plugin most USB devices (some need drivers, which are difficult to find and all need to be self powered). The best solution is to forget using USB cables and buy a PDA with 2 slots (either CF and SD or find an old model and an expansion sleeve). For software try PocketLoupe (can't remember source now just Goggle it), this is a nice piece of software which even enables you to view RAW files (many cameras supported check their webpage) on the PDA with no manipulation. Never seen PDA as a good storage device myself as memory limited (or you have to copy back and forward to multiple card, battery drain is high). Also if you're looking to use it to transfer imapes to a portable hardrive then you still end up carrying the PDA, a portable drive and a power supply of some kind (PDA on 805 does not provide enough power to drive a bus powered HD) so you're in the same boat as carrying a PDA and something like P-2000. Cost does not work out much different any way (PDA + HD=P-2000). My solution until I got P-2000 was to use PDA, multiple cards and portable self powered HD. Now its just P-2000, I still carry a PDA (not the Toshiba) as well but for other reasons, its my mobile phone and also used as GPS unit (love it if someone made a PDA phone, with GPS, I know HP has one coming soon, with 6G harddrive, like in mini iPod and a CF and SD card slot - one unit does all but)

Glass Lantern has the image viewing software (including support for some raw formats) for Pocket PC.

http://www.glasslantern.com/

It's really too bad that no PDA maker has figured out that a large (20-60 GB) hard drive paired with a PDA display and flexibility would be an immediate hit with digital photographers. The drive could be built-in with extra battery capacity, or it could be offered as a piggy-back module (but using modern small drives, not the pcmcia drives the old iPaq expansion pack offered).

A USB host adapter and a USB OTG self-powered drive should work, but there's no clear path to what hardware and software available now is really workable.

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BJN

I ran across a Macally OTG 2.5" encloure with a built in battery.
Tech support told me that

Subject: PHR-250OTG enclosure

PHR-250OTG use 1200mAH battery.

The battery last 2 ~ 2.5 hours for continue copying
It takes about 6 ~ 8 hours to fully charge the battery by USB bus power
It takes about 4 hours to fully charge the battery by power adapter

You can see it at

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146609
'~$40
You need a hard drive. 20 mg 4200 run about $60
see

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&description=laptop&InnerCata=380

I do not know if this will work but I found a ipaq USB synch cable
shown here http://pc-mobile.net/compaq.htm which might work.

BTW the whole reason for OTG protocol it to provide power without using a computer
Good lock.

You may want to read this thread

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1023&message=13306050

balarila said:

Interesting project.

But my Ipaq is an RX3715 which doesn't have a USB port.

Still, connecting the Compact Flash reader to an OTG device with a
2.5" hard disc is tempting.

Thanks.
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I'd rather add life to my years than years to my life.

Click to expand...

That is what OTG is all about.

Ronald