744t with CF adapter instead o the hard drive

[RadoStefanov]

In my pursuit to have the RF spread lowered I am trying a CF adapter instead of the internal hard drive.

look at the pictures

I have not tried to test my wireless next to the 744t yet but I will report later.

[imagist]

Great idea to test, didn't know it was possible, thanks for posting, as a 744T owner I'm interested to know if it reduces RF, and possibly power consumption.

Where is the CF / ATA IDE adapter from please?

[RadoStefanov]

Great idea to test, didn't know it was possible, thanks for posting, as a 744T owner I'm interested to know if it reduces RF, and possibly power consumption.

Where is the CF / ATA IDE adapter from please?

Have not tested the wireless yet. Busy at today and tomorrow.

Will test on sunday.

Adapter from amazon. syba ide to cf.

Will post link later.

The speed is a little less. But 4.1mg/s should be fine

I am very happy with the weight.

A lot lighter.

I bet power consumation is a lot less.

[Nic Stage]

Interesting solution. If this setup is at all comparable to an SSD then the affect on current draw will be nominal and not necessarily better. The difference in current draw is just as likely to be nominally more than it is to be nominally less (keyword: nominal. i.e. No big deal).

[RadoStefanov]

Its power consummation is the same as a CF card. Definitely a lot less then a ssd!

Interesting solution. If this setup is at all comparable to an SSD then the affect on current draw will be nominal and not necessarily better. The difference in current draw is just as likely to be nominally more than it is to be nominally less (keyword: nominal. i.e. No big deal).

[RadoStefanov]

I very briefly tested the wireless.

It seams better then before. When I put the rx next to the 744t with the tx off I get blinks in rf pollution.

Before I use to have 1-2 solid bars.

This test might not be very scientific but I notice one very important thing.

When I press record the RF pollution does not increase!!!!

[Edwardo Santiago]

Hello,

I love the idea of placing a compact flash adapter into the hard drive compartment. Power consumption is the most important thing to me. I've been burning through my batteries pretty quickly lately. Other than power I'm happy with the results of my 744T. I replaced the original 40G PATA HD for a 160G PATA HD last year for a grand total of $60.00 + tax, and It works really well. I've mixed a few large projects since the switch and I'm glad I had the large capacity of the 160G, but as I said, my batteries go quickly when working out of a bag. On the cart I don't worry about power.

The CF adapter looks like a great idea, and it seems that the cost is less than a SSD. It's certainly more durable than a standard hard drive, and write speeds are not a real issue, but I don't think there are CF cards available above 32G. I personally need a larger capacity for some jobs. I wonder what the difference in power consumption is between a PATA, SSD, and a CF adapter. I'll have to read through the Sound Devices website to see if they have any information.

In any case, thanks for the post and the great pictures.

Have fun making sound for movies,

[RadoStefanov]

32gb gives me 15+ hours of 4 channels 48khz 24bit audio.

Plenty for a day work that you can backup in the end of the day.

There are a few 64gb out on the market but kinda expansive.

32gb for $50 is great and it serves  me well.

Hello,

I love the idea of placing a compact flash adapter into the hard drive compartment. Power consumption is the most important thing to me. I've been burning through my batteries pretty quickly lately. Other than power I'm happy with the results of my 744T. I replaced the original 40G PATA HD for a 160G PATA HD last year for a grand total of $60.00 + tax, and It works really well. I've mixed a few large projects since the switch and I'm glad I had the large capacity of the 160G, but as I said, my batteries go quickly when working out of a bag. On the cart I don't worry about power.

The CF adapter looks like a great idea, and it seems that the cost is less than a SSD. It's certainly more durable than a standard hard drive, and write speeds are not a real issue, but I don't think there are CF cards available above 32G. I personally need a larger capacity for some jobs. I wonder what the difference in power consumption is between a PATA, SSD, and a CF adapter. I'll have to read through the Sound Devices website to see if they have any information.

In any case, thanks for the post and the great pictures.

Have fun making sound for movies,

[Marc Wielage]

Rado, is this the Syba interface you're talking about?

Syda SY-IDE2CF

Looks very cool, and not that hard to install. I wonder if there's any speed trade-offs, since a 133X CF card is bound to be slower than a 40GB hard drive, even a little 2.5" laptop drive (which is what many portable sound recorders currently use). I bet it helps the battery consumption, plus might reduce errors due to vibration in turbulent situations.

The 64GB Transcend Compact Flash cards are down to about $165, which is really cheap. I just discovered they're now making 256GB thumb drives (!!!), but they're currently $750, which is not quite in the universe of affordability yet.

--Marc W.

[RadoStefanov]

http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connectivity-44-pin-Compact-Adapter/dp/B0036DDXUM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1290492613&sr=1-3

This is the one.

About the speed I tested the internal Sound devices installed 40gb hard drive before the instalation.

It gave me 6.8mg/s.

With the CF card adapter I get 4.1mg/s

I do not think the speed reduction is important at all. 5400rpm 2.5 hard drive was an overkill anyways.

Rado, is this the Syba interface you're talking about?

Syda SY-IDE2CF

Looks very cool, and not that hard to install. I wonder if there's any speed trade-offs, since a 133X CF card is bound to be slower than a 40GB hard drive, even a little 2.5" laptop drive (which is what many portable sound recorders currently use). I bet it helps the battery consumption, plus might reduce errors due to vibration in turbulent situations.

The 64GB Transcend Compact Flash cards are down to about $165, which is really cheap. I just discovered they're now making 256GB thumb drives (!!!), but they're currently $750, which is not quite in the universe of affordability yet.

--Marc W.

[Peter Mega]

Rado,

Do you intend to record to both CF cards in your modified 744T or just your new "internal CF"?

If you're recording to the internal CF only, I'm just curious why you wouldn't just disable the 744T internal drive (in the menu) and record to its CF only without modifying your machine?

Power consumption would be reduced also.

Thanks

Peter Mega

[RadoStefanov]

Both. No Doubt.

Very often I hand production the external CF card with a firewire or USB  reader and do not trust them with the files.

Especially on apple pcs.

I wish I could have a 3rd backup like a Fire wire drive or a DVDRam burner but is a little out of my budget at the moment.

Rado,

Do you intend to record to both CF cards in your modified 744T or just your new "internal CF"?

If you're recording to the internal CF only, I'm just curious why you wouldn't just disable the 744T internal drive (in the menu) and record to its CF only without modifying your machine?

Power consumption would be reduced also.

Thanks

Peter Mega

[RadoStefanov]

Too expansive.

http://www.excaliberpc.com/597513/wintec-filemate-professional-3fmcf128gbp-r-128gb.html

[RadoStefanov]

More like 10 times as expansive.

It seams a little better to me.

Before when I press record the RF polution increased in the bars of my RX

life is short :-)

its only 2.5 times expencive then your card and its much fuster one , so if you stuck with your 5d you can take that one out :-)

by the way , shutting down the hdd doesn't really help to rf spray  short your wireless range which could be down up to 30-40 % depends on block you use and the position of your receivers in the bag

[RadoStefanov]

You are correct Oleg. I just can not justify $499 for 128 gb when $50 32gb card serves me just fine.

500/128=3.90625

50/32= 1.5625

3.90625/1.5625= 2.5

back to school :-)

[RadoStefanov]

I made a habit of backing up on my NAS Raid every night.

So in my case it is all the same.

I would never trust 1 drive backup anyways

the only reason i see to have bigger internal drives  aheve ability keep the data  for back up on multiply day shoot , without need to dump every time to computer ( the secondary media is dumped  by production anyway )

so i will suggest you go a bit higher then 32 gb to 64 at least which holds up to 128  hour /track and in normal situations its about  full length movie , of course if you in comertials buisness  then 8gb will be just fine :-)

[soundchris]

Delock makes IDE-adapter cards with two CF-card-slots:

http://www.delock.com/produkte/gruppen/Card-Reader/Delock_25_Drive_IDE_2_x_Compact_Flash_Card_91662.html

[Robert Buncher]

Rado:

I wish I could have a 3rd backup like a Fire wire drive or a DVDRam burner but is a little out of my budget at the moment.

I use this Sandisk firewire reader as an external backup rather than a fw drive or dvd burner. It is a cheap solution and I don't have to pull the recorder to hand off the card.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDDRX4-CFR-Sandisk-Extreme-FireWire/dp/B000I04WWY/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1290524157&sr=1-1

Bob

[Edwardo Santiago]

Both. No Doubt.

Very often I hand production the external CF card with a firewire or USB  reader and do not trust them with the files.

Especially on apple pcs.

I wish I could have a 3rd backup like a Fire wire drive or a DVDRam burner but is a little out of my budget at the moment.

A few months ago I placed a Sound Devices XL-DVD Ram in my bag for a show that I knew was going to need me to have film breaks ready every afternoon, then start shooting right away. Fortunately it was a 2nd Unit gig, so I didn't need more than the 4 channels of my 744T to record FX, explosions, screams, etc. Having the DVD Ram drive in my bag worked so well I haven't yet taken it out the bag.

During the show I was able to record to Internal HD (160G PATA), CF (4G), and DVD Ram (4.7G), all in real time. I set up the 744T to create daily folders and I would reformat the CF Card every morning, so the CF card would mirror the DVD Ram each day; or each sound roll when I had a film break. If I needed to go back three weeks to a certain day of shooting to check a file for post, it was always on my shoulders on the internal HD to check on. *And If I needed to replace a corrupted file on the DVD Ram I would retrieve it from the CF Card*.

*Explained*: There was a slight failure rate on the DVD Ram when recording in a an upright position, but because of the time I had in between setups I was able to check the files on the DVD Ram and replace corrupted files from the CF if needed, before I handed out discs. I noticed that the DVD Ram would cause a corrupted file at a rate of around 1 out of every 25 files recorded. When Viewing your files on the DVD Ram, a corrupted file will show as "Unrecognizable". Upon finding an Unrecognizable File, I would just delete it, then Copy the same file from the CF card to the DVD Ram and everything was perfect for post.

Since then I've been recording to Internal HD and CF only, then copying to DVD Ram from CF in between setups, just to save the time of checking for Unrecognizable Files. So far it's worked out well. I did notice that after three months of repeated real time recording in an upright position, the XL-DVD Ram started telling me it didn't like it too much, So it's reserved predominantly for copying files on the fly rather than real time Recording. But It will record in real time if I really need it to. Just as long as I don't do it all day. I found some short right angle 6 Pin Firewire cables that keep the XL-DVD Ram nice and low in the bag so it sits at the same level of my 744T and 442; real nice...

[Edwardo Santiago]

As you all can see, Lectrosonics receivers are placed right on top of my 744T. It's been this way for a year and I haven't yet had problems with RF spray or any other issue relating to the receivers being so close to the recorder.

[JimMansen]

Bob, are you using the firewire reader you mention as a reader to transfer files only, or does it act as a back-up disc/card during record as well?

Jim Mansen

[imagist]

Bob, are you using the firewire reader you mention as a reader to transfer files only, or does it act as a back-up disc/card during record as well?

Jim Mansen

Yes it's confusing as it calls itself a reader but it does write as well and has worked reliably for me. I use sticky tape around the the firewire lead to make sure it stays in, but on the 744T end its protected to some extent by the adjacent BNC connectors so it stays in place. Also quite nice as it's compact with low power consumption. But for the 744T I needed a Firewire 400 to 800 lead.

[RadoStefanov]

I have the same reader and I have thought about it.

The Sound devices fire wire filter is what I can not afford at the moment.

I use this Sandisk firewire reader as an external backup rather than a fw drive or dvd burner. It is a cheap solution and I don't have to pull the recorder to hand off the card.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDDRX4-CFR-Sandisk-Extreme-FireWire/dp/B000I04WWY/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1290524157&sr=1-1

Bob

[Robert Buncher]

I use the Sandisk reader as a backup writer while recording. I do not use the firewire filter and have not had any problem as of yet. I just hook it up with a firewire cable. I have been keeping it in a Petrol wireless pouch hanging on my Petrol 302 bag.

Bob

[RadoStefanov]

WOW. That is very good to know!

I use the Sandisk reader as a backup writer while recording. I do not use the firewire filter and have not had any problem as of yet. I just hook it up with a firewire cable. I have been keeping it in a Petrol wireless pouch hanging on my Petrol 302 bag.

Bob