From: Dan (dan_at_dbdigitalweb.com)
Date: Mon May 31 2004 - 11:09:12 PDT
>
>-PCMCIA card slots can be slotted for either 5V cards only OR 5V and 3.3V
cards
>-My Compaq WL100 is slotted for 3.3V operation
>-The card slots in the 2x00 are slotted for both voltages
>-The card slots in the eMate are slottev for 5V *ONLY* - this is different
>from the card slots in the 2x00
>-The card slots in the eMate *should*be*the*same*as* the card slots in the
2x00
>-I was very angry at the above two points.
>
>Here's a photo of the inside of the card slot in my eMate, with the 5V only
>notch circled:
>
>http://www.chuma.org/crap/emate-slot/emate-slot-notch.jpg
>
>And a photo of a flash card (top) and my WL100 card (bottom), showing the
>difference in notch "width" that prevents a 3.3V card from being inserted
into
>a 5V only slot (blurry but it gets the point across):
>
>http://www.chuma.org/crap/emate-slot/pc-card-notches.jpg
>
>I confirmed with Paul Guyot that his eMate has the same 5V only type of
PCMCIA
>slot. He also said that his CompactFlash card is detected as a 3.3V card
and
>powered properly in his eMate. Since the eMate has the same OS, chipset,
and
>power system as the 2x00, there's no reason that it can't support 3.3V
PCMCIA
>cards. Yet Apple seems to have put the wrong kind of slot into it.
>
>I'm kind of surprised that no one has run across this yet. To get around
it,
>I'm considering modifying the WL100 card, except it's not really mine so I
>don't want to slip up and kill it. I could go and buy another card, of
course...
Yes that is very surprising. But perhaps as the emate was designed for use
in the classrooms, Apple figured they had better make it 5v only. If a
driver is not made to check the card beforehand, it is possible to fry a 3v
card and possibly your emate by trying to give it 5v when it can only take
3v. And if the slot is only made to take 5v cards, you eliminate that
possibility. If I remember correctly this came up on the list a few months
back.
-Dan
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