View Full Version : Camera to NT PC help
Hi
I'm not sure if this is more applicable to the computing forum, so if mods feel required please move.
We have been tasked with buying a compact digital camera for work use but have a couple of problems. We are currently using NT workstations that will not support USB. I've looked around for a solution and have managed to find a couple possible but would like to hear from anyone that may have an alternative. We must use a high street store also.
1 - Sony produce a 2 megapixel camera that will store images to 3.5 in floppy but its fairly expensive (£250 from Jessops) and old compared to what we could get within budget. Personally, another dept here already had one and it was crap.
2 - Buy a 3.5 in adapter that will take Smartmedia cards. Jessops have one and they have the NT drivers on their website at £20 but do not have any cameras that will use smartmedia. Fuji also do one at about £45.
3 - Buy a JVC 3.5 in adapter (again from Jessops @ £60) that will use either SD or MMC Cards. Problem here is that software specified does not include NT but does 95/98/98SE/ME/2000.
I don't know if its possible to get a USB to parallel adapter to be able to plug a USB camera into the parallel ports on our PCs. I'm presuming not as I can only fine parallel to USB at maplins.
Anyone here got any other ideas? :?:
you can get usb - serial convertors. There are "hacked" drivers kicking around the net to enable usb support in nt as well.
you can get usb - serial convertors. There are "hacked" drivers kicking around the net to enable usb support in nt as well.
Cheers bumfrog I'll ahve a poke about for the convertors. Dont think IBM will be too pleased with us dicking about with drivers...if we had access of course
Had a look around but can only find adapter that will allow a serial device to connect to a computers USB port. Not a USB device that will allow connection to a serial port. :(
Anything you buy will more than likely require drivers to be installed. If you don't have admin access to your pC's then you won't be able to install.
As mentioned you can get 3rd party USB drivers for NT.
You could get a parallel or serial port card reader, this would be very slow but would do the job.
I don't know of any devices that allow you to connect a USB device to a serial port only the other way around.
Cheers wseed.
We'd be able to get software installed but any new drivers that possibly weren't compliant would be a definite no-no.
Had a look for parallel port card reader but the only one I could find was one that took Smartmedia and then I'm back to point 2 in the original mail re getting a camera that takes Smartmedia.
I used to have a serial or parallel port reader (can't remember which) that took both smart media and compact flash. I guess there isn't much demand for this kind of accessory now. If you have a laptop then a PCMCIA (PC Card) adaptor is a possible. This is the only one I can see on ebay (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-582776-9479574?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26category%3D167%26item%3D5213495032%26rd%3D1%26ssPageName%3DWDVW) It may not have NT support though.
thelocalman
28-06-2005, 13:19
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=2SRJ&searchphrase=compact%20flash%20to%20floppy
out of the question?
I used to have a serial or parallel port reader (can't remember which) that took both smart media and compact flash. I guess there isn't much demand for this kind of accessory now. If you have a laptop then a PCMCIA (PC Card) adaptor is a possible. This is the only one I can see on ebay (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-582776-9479574?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26category%3D167%26item%3D5213495032%26rd%3D1%26ssPageName%3DWDVW) It may not have NT support though.
Cheers wseed, I'll try to dig further on the possible serial connection. Found plenty of smartcard readers that'll use serial but no camera memory card readers.
The laptops the company uses are XP based and USB wouldn't be a problem. But we dont have one.
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=2SRJ&searchphrase=compact%20flash%20to%20floppy
out of the question?
the memory card reader goes into the usb port on the mobo, so nt still won't recognise it.
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=2SRJ&searchphrase=compact%20flash%20to%20floppy
out of the question?
Cheers localman. Unfortunately IBM would charge us an absolute fortune to buy, install or even look at something like that. IF they would do it at all which from experience is unlikely.
You can get an IDE->Compact flash thing which sits in a spare slot on the machine that makes them appear as a harddisk to the bios (and hopefully NT). Only problem is you have to shut down your comp when you want to change card so it isnt really easy access.
You could also look at a PCI->PCMCIA adaptor then a PC card CF reader for that too.
The thing from dabs uses USB2.0 so I assume wouldn't work with NT.
Edit: if you have to pay someone to install it then both the above are probably useless.
Thanks tawsi
Changing or adding any internal hardware config is definitely out of the question.
An external card reader using either parallel or serial ports would be the best option but I have been unable to find any.
Searching "parallel compact flash reader" brings up some candidates no idea about NT drivers. Apparently Datafab make one that does have NT drivers http://www.compactflash.org/guide/datafab.htm no idea if you can get it in a store though (costs about 30 quid online).
Another alternative is to build your own from standard bits. You used to get Parallel IDE boxes for CD drives and the like, this was back in the NT era so you may stand a chance of finding drivers too. It may be possible to put an IDE CF reader in its place but I wouldn't like to comment on how easy it would be to make work if at all possible.
A different way of looking at this could be if you can boot from cd, ie the bios isn't disabled and locked. You could use something like pe builder Bart PE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) or a linux bootdisk that would let you use a USb device and also write to the local HDD or a network share.
AdminSpod
28-06-2005, 14:57
Do you actually need to store the images on the PC at work or just print them?
If you just need to print them you could get a printer with a built in card slot or both camera and printer that are pictbridge compatible so that you could print straight from camera to printer.
EDIT - If you need backup storage but not connected to your PC you could consider an x-drive: http://www.xs-drive.com/xsdrive2/
I doubt you will find anything serial port compatible. That is old and slow technology.
Most USB->Serial converters are designed to allow you to add serial ports to new PCs with USB ports and not the other way round. I know that they should work both ways, but I haven't seen any with drivers to allow NT to use USB through serial ports and I can't imagine the market is big enough to make the development of the drivers worthwhile.
Parallel is probably not much better. Devices that used to be parallel (CD writers, scanners, etc.) have increasingly gone over to USB as that technology is faster, cheaper and easier to drive.
Unfortunately for you, NT is old technology - superceded 5 years ago by Windows 2000. You will find very little support now and most new devices don't have drivers written for it - and Microsoft's support for it is virtually non-existant.
Just for interest, why does your company insist that you stick with it?
homerjhandley
28-06-2005, 15:10
just going to ask RE the NT kit.
even a cheap old pc with 98 on will suffice for getting images, though not for any big work on them!
Thousands of businesses still use NT4. This is sometimes due to an it works so don't fix it but usually it's a financial decision. The cost of a refresh is massive OS software, new hardware people to deploy kit, retraining, 3rd party software that no longer works...
Thanks for all the reponses guys. Its given me a fair bit to think about. Tinkering with the PC is out of the question. It would have to be an 'off the shelf' solution.
As stated, the reason we're sticking (for the time being) with NT is that its is a large organisation and its cost prohibitive at the mo to change. There are various laptops and offices around the country that may use XP but our offices dont.
I work in I.T Support, when I was at one large corporate running NT they used flash path adapters to get over this issue, check out this link
http://www.streettech.com/archives_hardware/FlashPath.html
Thats just one I found of many knocking about, worked a treat and resolved many issues.
I work in I.T Support, when I was at one large corporate running NT they used flash path adapters to get over this issue, check out this link
http://www.streettech.com/archives_hardware/FlashPath.html
Thats just one I found of many knocking about, worked a treat and resolved many issues.
Cheers yonmons but mentioned these in my first post. They only take Smartmedia cards and trying to get hold of a current camera that uses smartmedia is a bit of a bugger........ unless anyone has any suggestions.
Searching eBay (http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-582776-5826355) I found this Reader (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-582776-9479574?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26category%3D51082%26item%3D5211989268%26rd%3D1%26ssPageName%3DWD2V) which says it supports NT on the box. Theres lots of others around it seems but you will pay quite a bit more to get it from a shop.
Thanks tawsi. You guys are really digging around and its much appreciated.
RooterRotor
30-06-2005, 14:32
They only take Smartmedia cards and trying to get hold of a current camera that uses smartmedia is a bit of a bugger........ unless anyone has any suggestions.
Don't know how sophisticated or capable a camera you're seeking, but Morgan Computers are selling brand new Olympus C220Z's - 2.2 MP, 3x optical - which use SmartMedia, for £58.74.
Morgan C220Z (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump.php?url=http://scripts.affiliatefuture.com/AFClick.asp^QS^affiliateID=17278^QA^merchantID=9^QA^programmeID=54^QA^mediaID=0^QA^tracking=^QA^url=http%3A//www.morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/detail.asp%3FProductID%3D1851%26CategoryID%3D16%26SubCategoryID%3D)
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