WiFi CF cards

Anyone tried to use one of the WiFi enabled CF type one cards, you know the ones where you slot in an SD card for the actual storage and the CF card itself just provides a WiFi access point that’s an http (or ftp on some of the expensive ones) a file server?

I have one somewhere but can’t for the life of me find it. I ordered one ‘cause they’re wicked cheap and I got a camera that can use it if it doesn’t work in the palmtop. Just curious if anyone’s tried it.

In all my tinkering with CE devices, I've never seen a CF WiFi card with a built-in SD slot. SanDisk made a CF WiFi card with an internal 128 MB storage module (Connect Plus). There are also newer SD cards that have both internal storage and WiFi, but AFAIK they're not compatible with Windows CE.

I see that there is something close to what you're talking about, but it takes TF (MicroSD) cards:

Here's a cheap one on Amazon:

It doesn't look like the one I can't find, that was something by SanDisk (I think?) and as I recall it stuck out the side of my camera. I remember paying just way too much for it but it worked really well. I used it in my Cannon camera (can't remember the model, A10 maybe?) and my Handspring Visor Neo. I figure it worked in the PDA with only two AAA batteries for power so it ought to work in the palmtop, or at least the power requirements wont be the reason it doesn't work...

I saw those MicroSD one's but my smallest MicroSD is 16GB and I got a couple sub 2GB SD cards laying around.

I think that Joval was playing with one.

That's just a cf card to sd card adapter...it has no wifi. However, I wrote several posts on the FlashAir which is an sd card with both storage and wpa2 wifi and it works quite well. It just needs to be formatted to Fat32 to be recognized... and their software needs to be placed on the first partition and setup/modified for uploading files. I have both 32 GB and 64 Gb versions, very cheap too.

Look here: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18764&po...

https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18648&po...

or do a flashair search on hpcFactor. Enjoy!

Joval

Edited by joval 2021-02-19 1:56 PM

That was it, FlashAir, I couldn't for the life of me think of the name!

Well now I really gotta find that old card, I'm running out of corners and boxes to look in though!

I have one of those adapters in that Amazon link. joval is right that it doesn't itself have a WiFi receiver. And the SD cards I mentioned were in fact FlashAir cards - I just couldn't recall the thread joval mentioned.

A CF card with two functions exposed to device would be very funny because it would need to emulate USB hub or any other interface which allows exposing more than one function.

Can confirm that this exceedingly cheap (and cheaply made) CF microSD WiFi card works in my HP 320LX. You have to use this terrible app called WiFi@SDCF (available for Android and iOS) to configure it, and the default password is the un-crackable secret code 99999999, but it does work. I'd have liked it if it let you store some configuration files on the microSD card sort of like the FlashAir does, but I'd also like a unicorn so...

Worth getting? Maybe. If you're in a situation where you need to get some files off the palmtop and onto a WiFi capable device but have zero cables or adapters then sure it's a solution. Is it a better solution than using a CF card adapter to just plug it into whatever device you want to put the files on? Probably not if you have a laptop or Android device (any USB OTG cable will work). Is it better than springing for a $30 Apple branded ('cause not all the no-name ones will work) lightning to USB OTG cable? In my mind, yes.

Security is WPA2 (fixed), channels 1-11 (selectable) with a max simultaneous connection of 1-3 clients (selectable), and you can specify it's IP, as long as it's 192.168.xxx.1 SSID is WIFI@CF by default. It can operate in AP or STA mode. That's a nice feature but I doubt I'll ever use STA mode.

Yes you can change both the SSID and password, but why would you want to, as I said it's so obscure no one would ever guess it! The app, at least on iOS doesn't appear to allow for files to be uploaded to it, although it seems like the functionality is there it didn't show any of my local files to allow for any uploading.

Pointing a browser at it's address doesn't load anything, which is a bummer but again, this is super cheap. An EZ Share is around $25, an eye-fi is about $20, and a FlashAir over $100 (?! what the heck that's gotta be a typo Amazon!). This is $17 and has the advantage of taking a nice 2GB or less microSD, that's more appealing to me that partitioning a 4GB WiFi SD card that might not enjoy being FAT16.

Edited by yeek 2021-02-23 11:13 PM






Attachments
----------------
Screenshot_2021-02-23_17-41-44.png (7KB - 3 downloads)

A year or so ago I paid $40 or so for a 65 Gb Flashair card...although there were 16 Gb going for over $100. It pays to look around for a good deal IMO.

$100 USD ouch. That's crazy!