Apotop All-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writer

Apotop's 3R01 All-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writer supports nearly all modern flash memory media cards. Unlike many readers in its class, the 3R01 SuperSpeed USB reader's premium features don't command a premium price. With broad card support, the reader is plenty fast enough to support transfer hungry memory cards like speedy UDMA 7 CompactFlash cards used in high end DLSR cameras. Utilizing SuperSpeed USB's maximum theoretical speeds of up to 5Gbps, waiting for photos and videos to transfer off cards is now a thing of the past. This SuperSpeed USB 3.0 flash memory reader also supports the massive capacities of modern storage devices, currently supporting up to 2TB on some flash media cards such as SDXC. The 3R01 SuperSpeed USB memory card reader/writer is fully backward compatible with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 hosts. Its five open memory card slots can be used at the same time for data transfers and exchanges, even between cards. The reader supports Hot-Swap and Plug-N-Play, and utilizes USB bus power so no additional power source is required. The multi-platform reader is best used with systems that support SuperSpeed USB 3.0 in order to take advantage of its speed.

Apotop All-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writer

Benchmarks

Apotop 3R01-B USB 3.0 All in 1 SuperSpeed Card Reader with ATP ProMax CompactFlash 300X UDMA 16GB

Apotop 3R01-B USB 3.0 All in 1 SuperSpeed Card Reader with ATP ProMax SDHC Class 10 16GB

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Delock Multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writer

Wrapped in a compact aluminum case, Delock's All-in-One combines the capabilities of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and matches them to a versatile memory card reader. This multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB memory card reader/writer supports over 60 types of flash memory media cards. While broad card support is its forte, the reader is plenty fast enough to support transfer hungry memory cards like speedy UDMA 6 CompactFlash cards used in high end DLSR cameras. Utilizing SuperSpeed USB's maximum theoretical speeds of up to 5Gbps, waiting for photos and videos to transfer off cards is now a thing of the past. This SuperSpeed USB 3.0 flash memory reader also supports the massive capacities of modern storage devices, currently supporting up to 2TB on some flash media cards such as SDXC.

Delock's All-in-One doesn't trade practicality away for its high end features though. The memory card reader/writer is fully backward compatible with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 hosts. Its five open memory card slots can be used at the same time for data transfers and exchanges, even between cards. The reader supports Hot-Swap and Plug-N-Play, and utilizes USB bus power so no additional power source is required. The multi-platform reader is best used with systems that support SuperSpeed USB 3.0 in order to take advantage of its speed.

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Automating X4SD USB 2.0 SD Card Reader Four (4) Slot Operations

X4SD Operation Automation

The X4SD USB 2.0 SD Card Reader allows simultaneous access to four SD Card style media including miniSD and microSD in adapters and MultiMediaCard and its derivatives. The unit can be deployed as a card duplicator, since it presents all inserted cards simultaneously. This document is intended to provide users with ideas for deployment, but leaves the precise details of implementation up to the reader.

While it would be common for users to initiate file copies to the X4SD's individual slots manually in XFCE's Thunar, Mac OS X's Finder, or Windows' Explorer, we believe automating the process is the optimal method. To this end, we've explored a few ways to do this. First, we wrote a sample shell script that does the same thing without the benefit of visual feedback. Next, we created an example multi-threaded AppleScript that allows visual feedback of the file copies. Modifications would be required for it to be an actual production script. Last, we reproduce an article which discusses using the X4SD for creating byte-for-byte (binary images) copies of SD Cards via the Unix dd command line tool.

X4SD File Copy Shell Script

The following example shell script forks a separate process for copying to each of the X4SD's individual slots. The downsides to this script are that there is no visual feedback as to the progress of the forked processes or as to their status. We ran the top command in a separate terminal in order to watch the progress of each cp process. Removing the reader or inserted SD media before copies complete can cause a variety of problems, including corrupting the media. Forking from a shell script also has the disadvantage of not letting us see the exit results of the processes. Better parallelism and execution feedback are left as an exercise to the reader, GNU parallel and PRLL are suggested starting places. The script's ending comment provides information for converting it to sequential execution, which increases runtime significantly. The destination (target) path in this example uses Mac OS X naming conventions, see Determining Media Paths for how these mounts appear in OpenBSD and Xubuntu.

#!/bin/sh

TESTFILE="/Users/rds/Desktop/testfile680mb.m4v";

cp $TESTFILE /Volumes/NO\ NAME &
cp $TESTFILE /Volumes/NO\ NAME 1 &
cp $TESTFILE /Volumes/NO\ NAME 2 &
cp $TESTFILE /Volumes/NO\ NAME 3 &

# replace ampersands and preceding spaces with a
# semicolons for sequential execution

X4SD File Copy Multi-threaded AppleScript

Mac OS X users uncomfortable with using the built-in unix terminal do have the option of using AppleScript with the X4SD. This example takes advantage of the Mac OS X Finder's multi-thread capabilities and provides the added benefit of visual feedback of the copies and error dialogs in the case of problems. The illustration shows the simultaneous copies occurring in the foreground with a version of the script in the Script Editor in the background.

tell application "Finder"
 ignoring application responses
  duplicate "G5:testfile680mb.m4v" to "G5:Volumes:NO NAME" replacing yes
  duplicate "G5:testfile680mb.m4v" to "G5:Volumes:NO NAME 1" replacing yes
  duplicate "G5:testfile680mb.m4v" to "G5:Volumes:NO NAME 2" replacing yes
  duplicate "G5:testfile680mb.m4v" to "G5:Volumes:NO NAME 3" replacing yes
 end ignoring
end tell

X4SD SD Card Duplication Example

The following has been reproduced with permission from Using Synchrotech's X4SD USB 2.0 SD Card Reader Four (4) Slot for SD Card duplication.

There's various ways to do do device duplication or byte-for-byte copies of media. Whether we're duplicating CD-ROMs, hard drive disks, SRAM PC Cards, or other removable media, the Unix dd is frequently preferred for these types of operations. While we can execute card to card duplications from one X4SD slot to another, the most common use for the reader is to write an existing SD Card image to all four slots simultaneously. To that end we'll create a binary image of a master SD Card and then use that master to write to blank cards.

Creating an image of the SD Card

dd works with block devices, so we need to unmount the SD Card. To make this simple, we'll be using just one of the X4SD slots at this stage. We'll be using Mac OS X for our example and detail the difference for OpenBSD and Xubuntu. First, we need to identify the mount point of the inserted card. Calling mount in the terminal shows us the information we need (we're leaving out the rest of the output here).

/dev/disk1s1 on /Volumes/NO NAME (local, nodev, nosuid)

We use that information to unmount the mounted device.

[kyoto:~/Desktop] rds% sudo diskutil unmount /Volumes/NO\ NAME
Volume /Volumes/NO NAME unmounted

OpenBSD and Xubuntu would use umount /[devicepath]. Using the block device reference to the X4SD slot, we can copy the card to a binary file using dd.

[kyoto:~/Desktop] rds% sudo dd if=/dev/disk1s1 of=sdcard.bin
1951677+0 records in
1951677+0 records out
999258624 bytes transferred in 1203.276878 secs (830448 bytes/sec)

Writing the image to SD Cards

Inserting a new card into the X4SD, then unmounting it, we can create a duplicate of the original. We then test it using cmp to see if it is identical to the binary file.

[kyoto:~/Desktop] rds% sudo dd if=sdcard.bin of=/dev/disk1s1
1951677+0 records in
1951677+0 records out
999258624 bytes transferred in 1203.276878 secs (830448 bytes/sec)
[kyoto:~/Desktop] rds% cmp /dev/disk1s1 ~/Desktop/sdcard.bin
[kyoto:~/Desktop] rds% 

Here we write to all four slots simultaneously on a Xubuntu machine. It's feasible that using hubs and multiple X4SD, we could write to more than four cards at once on a machine with enough CPUs/CPU cores. However, there's a practical limit to the amount of I/O operations one would want to run at the same time. Perhaps writing to each bank of cards sequentially would be the best practice? Since I was only provided a single test unit, that remains an academic question.

rds@okinawa-lin2:~$ sudo dd if=sdcard.bin of=/dev/sdc1 & \
&& dd if=sdcard.bin of=/dev/sdd1 & \
&& dd if=sdcard.bin of=/dev/sde1 & \
&& dd if=sdcard.bin of=/dev/sdf1 &

1951677+0 records in
1951677+0 records out
999258624 bytes (999 MB) copied, 270.799 s, 3.7 MB/s
1951677+0 records in
1951677+0 records out
999258624 bytes (999 MB) copied, 423.987 s, 2.4 MB/s
1951677+0 records in
1951677+0 records out
999258624 bytes (999 MB) copied, 775.1 s, 1.3 MB/s
1951677+0 records in
1951677+0 records out
999258624 bytes (999 MB) copied, 860.479 s, 1.2 MB/s

---

Appendices

Determining Media Paths

Here's the abridged results of running mount on our various test systems with the X4SD plugged in and all four of its slot occupied. This output will look different based on what's connected to an individual system.

OpenBSD
sd0i on /mnt/s1 type msdos (local)
sd1i on /mnt/s2 type msdos (local)
sd2i on /mnt/s3 type msdos (local)
sd3i on /mnt/s4 type msdos (local)

Xubuntu Linux
/dev/sdd1 on /media/BF2C-1214 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdf1 on /media/02A3-1214 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sde1 on /media/3A3A-1214 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/5AED-1214 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)

Mac OS X
/dev/disk2s1 on /Volumes/NO NAME 3 (local, nodev, nosuid)
/dev/disk4s1 on /Volumes/NO NAME 2 (local, nodev, nosuid)
/dev/disk3s1 on /Volumes/NO NAME (local, nodev, nosuid)
/dev/disk1s1 on /Volumes/NO NAME 1 (local, nodev, nosuid)

Our Test Systems

Here's the results of running uname -a on our various test systems.

OpenBSD okinawa-bsd2.my.domain 5.1 GENERIC.MP#207 amd64
Linux okinawa-lin2 3.2.0-39-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 27 22:05:17 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Darwin kyoto 8.11.0 Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc

Code example disclaimer

Synchrotech grants you a nonexclusive copyright license to use all programming code examples from which you can generate similar function tailored to your own specific needs.

All sample code is provided by Synchrotech for illustrative purposes only. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. Synchrotech, therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

All programs contained herein are provided to you "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind. The implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are expressly disclaimed.

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Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer

Synchrotech's Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer is a must for pro photographers and other demanding users of high speed CompactFlash memory cards. Capable of exploiting the high speeds of the latest generation of CompactFlash memory cards, the FireWire readers 800 boasts incredible read speeds. The Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive reader supports all the recent high-speed CompactFlash standards including PIO Modes 0-4, DMA Modes 0-2, and UDMA Modes 0-6. it features a single CompactFlash slot for CompactFlash Type I and II including Hitachi Microdrives and other CFII+ rotating media. It supports FireWire 800 (and 400 with and optionally purchased adapter or cable) connectivity on both Macintosh and Windows Operating Systems. The FireWire 800 to CompactFlash uses FireWire bus power, so the CFFire800 reader plugs and plays with no external AC power. The Delock FireWire 800 to CompactFlash Drive requires no drivers and comes with a one year limited warranty.

Check out UDMA CompactFlash Reader Benchmarks over Various Bus Connections for benchmarks using the Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer.

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Two New Multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writers

Synchrotech introduces the RC530 and RC531 Multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writers.

Each model harnesses the capabilities of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and matches them to a versatile memory card reader. These multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB memory card reader/writers support over 50 types of flash memory media cards. While broad card support are their hallmark, the readers are plenty fast enough to support transfer hungry memory cards like speedy UDMA 6 CompactFlash cards used in high end DLSR cameras. Utilizing SuperSpeed USB's maximum theoretical speeds of up to 5Gbps, waiting for photos and videos to transfer off cards is now a thing of the past. These SuperSpeed USB 3.0 flash memory readers also supports the massive capacities of modern storage devices, currently supporting up to 2TB on some flash media cards such as SDXC.

They don't trade practicality away for their high end features though. These memory card reader/writers are fully backward compatible with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 hosts. Their five open memory card slots can be used at the same time for data transfers and exchanges, even between cards. The readers support Hot-Swap and Plug-N-Play, and utilize USB bus power so no additional power source is required. The multi-platform readers are best used with systems that support SuperSpeed USB 3.0 in order to take advantage of their speed.

RC530 Multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writer
RC531 Multi-in-1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader/Writer

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Coupon: 15% off USB to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot PCMCIA PC Card ATA Flash and SRAM U111-M

15% off USB to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot PCMCIA PC Card ATA Flash and SRAM U111-M Using coupon code 1296512192 in our online shopping cart. Online only, cannot be combined with any other offer, expires 02/28/2011.

The Elan U111-M is an external read-writer for PCMCIA PC Card SRAM, and ATA Flash memory cards. The U111-M works without additional software or drivers on supported operating systems, treating both SRAM and ATA Flash as standard removable USB mass storage devices. Used in concert with a Type II PC Card adapter, the U111-M USB to PCMCIA Memory PC Card drive will work with a variety of consumer memory cards including CompactFlash and SD Cards.

The U111-M comes with a USB 'Y' for use on rare systems with underpowered ports. Simply plug in the additional power only connection in order to provide necessary current. The U111-M provides an inexpensive, hassle free solution to deploying legacy PCMCIA PC Card memory SRAM and ATA Flash cards on modern Windows and Linux computers with USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 ports.

For more information on using the U111-M on Linux, see U111-M testing results on Unix-like operating systems

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U111-M USB to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot PCMCIA PC Card ATA Flash and SRAM

The Elan U111-M is an external read-writer for PCMCIA PC Card SRAM, and ATA Flash memory cards. The U111-M works without additional software or drivers on supported operating systems, treating both SRAM and ATA Flash as standard removable USB mass storage devices. Used in concert with a Type II PC Card adapter, the U111-M USB to PCMCIA Memory PC Card drive will work with a variety of consumer memory cards including CompactFlash and SD Cards.

The U111-M comes with a USB 'Y' for use on rare systems with underpowered ports. Simply plug in the additional power only connection in order to provide necessary current. The U111-M provides an inexpensive, hassle free solution to deploying legacy PCMCIA PC Card memory SRAM and ATA Flash cards on modern Windows and Linux computers with USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 ports.

For more information on using the U111-M on Linux, see U111-M testing results on Unix-like operating systems

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Drivers Released for 64-bit Versions of The Windows to Utilize OMNIDriveUSB2 Pro/LF Products

CSM/IPI have released drivers and software compatible with 64-bit versions of the Windows. Allowing use of OMNIDriveUSB2 Pro and OMNIDriveUSB2 LF PC Card Readers with both 32/64 bit versions of The Windows XP, and The Windows Vista.

OMNIDriveUSB2 Pro allows the deployment of PCMCIA PC Card memory devices including ATA Flash and SRAM. OMNIDriveUSB2 LF allows the deployment of PCMCIA PC Card memory devices including ATA Flash, SRAM, and Linear Flash. With many current notebook computers being sold with no PC Card slots, and 64-bit versions of The Vista, this new will be welcome to many end users needing to access legacy hardware devices.

Be sure to read the Readme.htm file within the directory containing the rest of the files before proceeding with installation.

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Note on Elan P-Series Controllers

The Elan P-Series card readers have switched CardBus controllers several times over the years. While they have used Texas Instruments and TI compatible controllers, the changes in specifics sometimes cause issues. While not completely chronologically accurate, the following rough timeline should be helpful. Elan P-Series devices prior to 2002 used the TI PCI-1420 for their two slot readers and either the TI PCI-1410 or PCI1211 (depending on availability at production) on their one slot readers. For a stretch of several years (roughly 2002-2006) Elan used ENE Technology Inc. CardBus controllers in place of TI. The CB1420 for two slot readers and the CB1410 for one slot readers. A reliable, and widely support TI PCI-14xx clone series, ENE's controllers actually fixed many of the errata from the chips they cloned. This, however, caused problems for systems coded around the problems with the original TI PCI-14xx series. Around the beginning of 2006 Elan switched back to TI PCI-1420 for their two slot readers and either the TI PCI-1410 on their one slot readers. However, there still is a lot of ENE based P-Series readers in inventory, and certain models of the P-Series will not be replaced with the TI based controllers until the existing stock of ENE devices are sold.

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Memory Card Reader Combination for Older Windows Installations Blowout Sale

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OMNIDriveUSB2 Line and EasyReaders USB 2.0 and Vista Ready!

Now entirely based on the USB 2.0 standard, Synchrotech's OMNIDriveUSB2 and EasyReader provide fast access to PCMCIA PC Card memory technologies. Additionally, OMNIDriveUSB2 readers allow use of legacy memory PC Cards with Windows operating systems, including The Windows Vista. OMNIDriveUSB2 LF provides read/write access to the following PCMCIA PC Card Memory cards: Linear Flash, SRAM, and ATA Flash. OMNIDriveUSB2 Pro provides read/write access for PCMCIA PC Card SRAM, and ATA Flash. For fast and reliable access to PCMCIA PC Card ATA Flash memory alone, the EasyReader is the professional choice. The OMNIDriveUSB2, like its predecessors, still includes extensive PC Card support software allowing for complex PCMCIA PC Card memory device operations such as binary copies, single byte access, hex viewing, and more. Want to mount FAT formatted SRAM as a Windows drive letter? OMNIDriveUSB2 provides that functionality as well! Need to create exact duplicates of existing Linear Flash PC Cards? OMNIDriveUSB2 LF's powerful PC Card Manager software can create binary images of existing cards for duplication in a snap. As before, these readers are created for operation in real world conditions. OMNIDriveUSB2 and EasyReader feature robust metal casing, electrostatic discharge safeguards, low voltage monitoring with power failure detection, and continuous checksum monitoring to ensure maximum data security.

For more information and full specifications for this product line, please see:

OMNIDriveUSB2 LF USB 2.0 to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot Linear Flash/SRAM/ATA Flash
OMNIDriveUSB2 Pro USB 2.0 to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot ATA Flash/SRAM
EasyReader USB 2.0 to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot ATA Flash Cards

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Synchrotech Releases CFFire800 Pro, World's First UDMA 6 FireWire 800 to CompactFlash Reader

Synchrotech unleashes the fastest CompactFlash memory card reader to date with its new CFFire800 Pro FireWire 800 to CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer! The first UDMA Mode 6 (ULTRA ATA/133) device on the market, CFFire800 Pro is capable of taking full advantage of today's highest speed CompactFlash Cards, with throughput to spare for future CF advancement. CFFire800 is a must for pro photographers and other demanding users of high speed CompactFlash memory cards. CFFire800 Pro FireWire 800 boasts incredible read speeds of up to 43MBs with Lexar's new UDMA 300X and 39MBs with SanDisk's Extreme IV CompactFlash cards. Requiring no drivers on supported Macintosh or Windows systems, CFFire800 plugs into 9-pin FireWire 800 (1394b) ports and utilizes bus power for excellent portability.

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$219 USB 2.0 to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot ATA Flash EasyReader Sale!

July sale on the USB 2.0 to PC Card Read-Writer 1 Slot ATA Flash EasyReader for only $219. Offer Expires Midnight on July 31, 2007. Synchrotech's IPI EasyReader is an external read-writer for ATA Flash PC Cards and ATA Hard Drive PC Cards. Used in concert with a Type II PC Card adapter, it will work with a variety of memory cards including CompactFlash, SD Cards, and others. EasyReader employs USB 2.0 for high speed transfer rates, providing excellent performance in storage applications with PC Card hard disks or ATA Flash Cards. Designed for harsh industrial applications and heavy duty loads, the robust aluminum case protects the reader and PC Card. EasyReader provides exceptional data security electrostatic discharge safeguards and features low voltage monitoring with power failure detection. Additional data security provided via continuous checksum monitoring during data transfer.

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Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista Solutions for PCMCIA SRAM and Linear Flash PC Cards

This FAQ discusses PCMCIA PC Card SRAM and Linear Flash with Win32 systems. While we intend for it to be all inclusive, we hope a discussion thread started here can address any issues.

The PCMCIA SRAM PC Cards Memory Card Devices FAQ and PCMCIA Linear Flash PC Cards Memory Card Devices FAQ are important reads as well.

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DEXIS Digital X-ray System Requirements and Elan PSeries PCMCIA PC Card Readers FAQ and Information

This new FAQ discusses DEXIS deployments with Elan and other PC Card readers. While we intend for it to be all inclusive, we hope a discussion thread started here can address any issues.

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