From: Goodwin, Greg (GoodwinG_at_aafes.com)
Date: Wed Apr 28 2004 - 07:45:09 PDT
Disclaimer: I would like to thank Paul for his work on the ATA drivers
and making the Microdrive and other ATA devices possible. This message
would not have been possible without his efforts. Note that I tinker
with the Newton, not out of neccessarity. It already does all I need it
to do. I just like to see what else I can make it do. This message may
seem negative, but it is only a means to seek solutions from other
people's experiences. Since I want solutions, I am giving my factual
experiences with the Microdrive and the ATA drivers on a Newton 2000
upgraded.
@><-->--------------------------------
Would love to get a conversation going on this, especially for those
that would like to get a microdrive for the Newton or have one already.
I received the Microdrive from Doug yesterday, and a big public
thank you to him. Well shipped and so forth. The microdrive was
displayed on...
http://six5535.org/newton/1gb.php
Real briefly my experiences with this drive:
IT WORKS!
---------
Yes it works. Whoo hoo! I got the ATA drivers on it, and bammo,
one gig of space. That was nice. For a bit. Then I realized a few
things.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "0" K?
-----------------------
The Newton reported it as zero in the memory manager. Which means
that when I went to upload MP3's to the Newton, it saw there was zero,
and said couldn't be done. I then cut it to two 512 meg partitions,
which it still didn't see, and then finally four 256 meg partitions. It
saw those.
OH GAWD IT'S LIKE CRAMMING HONEY INTO A BRICK....
-----------------------------------------------
Well, nothing new.. I have yet to find a quick way to get MP3's on
a Newton and especially on a ATA store. Over a appletalk/Ethernet
connection, uploading from the Mac to the Newton onto ATA storage, (say
a 3 minute, roughly a 4 meg MP3 that was cut at half normal compression)
takes about 45 minutes to a hour. Transferring that from card to card
takes about nine minutes.
WHAT IT DOES, WHAT IT DOES NOT
------------------------------
Doesn't seem to access fast enough for Mods, and MP3's at like 64
compression (verses the usually 128 or 160) play for two minutes and
then start skipping. This is what the typical linear flash did at the
regular 128 or 160 compression.. play for a few minutes, and start
skipping. Reducing to 64/32 worked great to solve this. The microdrive
apparently is not quick enough for this?
Played the Lost in Space movie quite well though. Maybe movie
files work better?
I've learned that ATA in general is not a good option for doing
voice recording. The recording didn't even get off the ground.
Wouldn't even start recording. :)
TEN ONE THOUSAND, ELEVEN ONE THOUSAND... DIRECTORY!!
-----------------------------------------------------
Large media like this at this point in time seem great for long
term storage. Do you get tired of accessing a PC or Mac to get a Newton
file? Throw it all on a large file. The only drawback to this is with
the large amount of files, it really bogs down the Newton when reading
the directory to the point that a gig worth of 50K on average files gets
to be too much for the Newton to work effectively. So many folders are
used within multiple partitions. The hope here is to cut it all up so
that it doesn't have to take in so much.
Heaven help you if you select all files in all stores... geezz!!
I downloaded EVERY NEWTON game and sound file on a ATA store once.
Cut that up with like A-F, G-K, ect amoungst multiple partitions.
The nice thing is that the MP3's are under MadMax and don't slow
down the directory listing. That is one thing I like about them. I was
hoping to be encroaching on the iTunes' domain with the megadrive.. well
a bit. But apparently I need to compress the Mp3's more to work? I
don't know.
HOW MUCH ABUSE CAN IT TAKE?
---------------------------
It's a small small hard drive.. it's so cute. And they tell you to
be careful with it? But they knew this would be made small to travel
with. So what are some definite don'ts and care suggestions that people
have heard?
If it is like a laptop drive I would have to say for starters...
1) Try not to move or walk around with it on.
2) Dropping it while on is bad.
3) Dropping or it hitting with great force while off or parked is bad.
4) Temperatures and moisture more a factor than a flash card.
What else? Should you travel with the drive in the Newton, or
remove it and put it in the travel case when traveling?
THE TALL AND THE SKINNY OF IT ALL
---------------------------------
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong.. and I want to be wrong here trrruuustt
me!
1) It takes an enormously long time to transfer onto a ATA store,
even over Ethernet/appletalk.
(The only solution around this is to transger the MP3's to a
linear flash card, and then duplicate it within the Newton to the ATA
card... since transferring within the Newton goes much much quicker, and
the linear flash is still a much quicker way to receive information.)
2) For MP3's to work effective they need to be a compression greater
than 64?
3) Mods are a bad idea.
4) (Still looking for solutions for making the file directory not be
as bogged down).
5) The highest partitions that the Newton memory manager can
actually see (and iTunes work with) is 256 meg or lower.
6) Large memory like this good for storing of hundreds of files not
immediately needed on the Newton but needed from time to time or for
curiousity. Or for movie files (which seem to work well) or MP3's.
7) Voice recording is a bad idea.
8) In general, it would be advisable to have a large ATA card and a
large linear flash card. Use the linear flash for immediate operations,
and then transfer to the larger storage after receiving.
Ok, this is what I have learned from personally tinkering with all
this. Now what I want to hear is "Doctor Clu, well written review, but
I am able to transfer MP3's in five minutes over a network to ATA
storage. To matter the fact, I have hundreds on my microdrive and they
work great."
That is what I hope someone will tell me. And I will say "Oh darn!
That's what I was doing wrong" ect ect.
The network specs...
Macintosh All-in-One running 9.22 and iTunes.
Through a lynksys router (Appletalk connection.)
To a Newton 2000 upgraded with 589e Ethernet card.
Newton has OS patch 717260-1 on it.
Prior to the Microdrive, my experience with ATA was with a
SanDisk 40 and 64 meg ATA compact flash card. (And a few dablings into
smart media which did fine but I don't trust smart media for storage
longer than a week or so...)
IF YOU ASKED ME RIGHT NOW...
----------------------------
I would say to stick with flash cards. I know I worry about
bumping this microdrive way more than I like to and crashing it. ATA
flash seemed to run more at the speed that the Newton needs for file
accessing (mods, MP3's, ect). But impressive to have a gig of space all
the same. Impressive to say I am running a HARD DRIVE on the Newton.
:)
THE HOPEFUL FUTURE
------------------
And for the record, Paul mentions that there is a possibility of
having the Newton be able to read PC format partitions with the ATA
drivers.... to me that would make the Newton enormously usable. Think
of it. Go to a Mac/PC/Amiga/ST anything else that can read a PC format
and use a compact flash reader. Transfer the MP3's to the compact
flash... take only a few minutes. Or maybe block select a lot of Newton
packages and drag them to the card. It transfers. You remove the card
from that dock, put in the Newton. And voila! Done. Ohhhhhh yehhh...
I am really really really really really (x32^5) looking forward to that
day. :) In my mind forget USB, or even Firewire would not even be
needed. At one point the lack of storage space was a limiting factor,
the greatest limiting factor to the Newton perhaps. Now we have the
space, but unless I'm doing it wrong it takes a lot of time to get
information to those large stores.
Being able to read PC format would eliminate the one area that the
Newton is nortorious for being bad at... connectively. To me that is
not so much an issue since I like to use the Newton by itself 95% of the
time, but when I do have to connect it to another machine... well, let's
just say I don't think a Newton is another computer's best friend. More
like a loose business associate. :)
Make it possible to have PC format partitions on the ATA cards, and
we may have to tell the Newton and that other computer to get a room.
;)
So please.... comments... experiences... suggestions...
questions....
I want to get this microdrive working effectively for me. Thanks for
Doug Augustyn for selling me this drive, and Paul Guyot for the drivers.
Keep up the good work & thanks for making this experience possible!
Doctor Clu
@>><-->----------------------------
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Apr 28 2004 - 15:00:04 PDT