Cool device! I'm looking for something along these lines so that I can back up photos from an SD card on the fly when I'm travelling next year.
I just came across the Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 which might be a cheaper option, it doesn't include local storage but you can plug USB drives into it. The Kingston seems to have a decent battery pack on it as well.
You may want to reconsider that, as the performance of the onboard SD reader is apparently abysmal. Unless you have the better part of a workday to spend waiting for a large capacity SD card to copy onto the internal HDD, it is probably best to offload to a small laptop or to use other devices which pair SD readers with USB ports and attaching it to a standard external drive.
AT: Any chance you can include a section on the SD card copy performance? For photographers looking for a way to offload SD cards into secondary storage, this would be valuable information on whether or not this device is capable of serving that requirement. Impressions elsewhere seem to be generally unfavorable at best when it comes to this feature.
I tested out the SD card copy performance with the following setup:
Card: Patriot LX Series 8 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card PSF8GSDHC10 Contents: 873 photos / videos (mostly photos) from a Nikon Coolpix P7000 Point & Shoot Camera Total Transfer Size: 7.20 GB
Time Taken for Copy Import : 10 minutes Average Speed of Import : 12.30 MBps
Average Power Consumption during Import Process : 5.90 W
I am not sure whether the 12.3 MBps limitation is because my SDHC test card is pretty old or it is because of the inherent speed limitation enforced by the SoC's SDIO interface.
The class designation indicates (minimum) write speed. In this test, the drive is merely reading from the card and read speeds are typically much higher than write speeds.
The AM335x family of CPUs has an MMC interface good for 24MBytes/s in 4-bit high-speed SD card mode. The limitation could be a combination of the Patriot LX series SD cards not being the fastest in the world, the Sitara being busy talking to both the SD card and hard drive, and SD card protocol overhead.
I got a RavPower 5-in-1 FileHub for $40 that does most of the same stuff this does (except it has no built-in HDD, so you provide your own SD card, USB stick, or USB hard drive). The battery on it lasts somewhat longer than the WD thing. It works pretty well, but the max wireless speed for streaming seems to be about 16 Mbps. I use it to watch videos on my iPhone/iPad using the Infuse app (any app that supports SMB/CIFS would work).
For these prices you can also by a cheap laptop/netbook, which will have less disk space, but will have a display and many other useful advantages. When I was searching for an intermediate storage solution for my vacations I found a cheap laptop to be an excellent solution.
A laptop also a lot larger than a disk... If someone both wants to take their iPad on a cruise AND wants to take a large number of movies to watch, this is a more convenient solution.
That may not be what you want to do (it's not what I want to do) but I think it's silly to immediately say "I don't need this product therefore nobody does". I'm not in the market for maternity jeans, but that doesn't mean that there is NO market for maternity jeans, or that people who buy maternity jeans are stupid and don't realize what they really want to buy is miniskirts.
But this is not it's designed use case as already stated. A friend at work bought one as it's ideal for him, instead of taking a bulky laptop/notebook on holiday he takes this and a tablet for viewing photos. Less bulk than he used to carry around.
A similar product but with an SSD might be better. Much less space - but still a lot - and much less power and weight; these matter more in a portable.
SSD requires substantially higher power than a mechanical disk when writing. That's why very few SSDs run reliably off a single USB2 connection. And the disk is not performance limited by the mechanicals anyway --- in the expected usage model it is limited by WiFi.
SSDs are DRAMATICALLY more expensive.... to get 2TB of storage in an SSD would cost over a grand... $200 is only going to get you 256GB... you can get that in an SD Card nowadays.... the point of this is to provide LOTS of storage that your mobile device doesn't already have!
But honestly, who needs 2TB of writable storage for their phone or tablet? How many movies can you possibly watch? How much music does the average person have in mp3 format? How many photos can you take, and how much storage capacity will it require, especially when you're talking lower resolution cameras on phones and tablets?
Personally, I put a 128GB SSD into an external drive case, and can plug it into the micro-USB port of my tablet or phone. Even if I'm loading 720p videos on it at home, it would allow me to bring more movies or TV shows on vacation with me, than I'd ever have time to watch. If I want to write to something, I'll bring along extra micro-SDHC cards, or USB jump drives.
Patriot came out with a wireless drive case a few years ago (called the Gauntlet Node), that works great with wireless devices, and allowed you to put your own 2.5" drive inside. You could run it plugged into a USB power source (>1 amp) or run it up to a couple hours on its own internal battery. Cost of the case was usually around $100, so dropping a drive you already had into it would be less expensive than this offering from WD. Too bad it seems they never sold well, so Patriot stopped making them, because I'd consider that a much better idea than this WD drive.
You have to use their app (supported by Amazon's Fire tablets, as well as Android and Apple), but if you're looking for a simple way to allow your kids to watch movies on their tablets, while you're traveling, this is worth looking at. I also forgot to mention that it supports up to 3 different wireless streams at one time.
I'd like to point you to a similar comment given already... if a device isn't something YOU need, don't assume that there is noone else who needs it!!
There ARE people who need more storage.... hence this 2TB solution - and plenty of others.... If you are only in the market for 128gb, go buy one - but don't comment here saying noone needs this!
"But honestly, who needs 2TB of writable storage for their phone or tablet? How many movies can you possibly watch?"
Completely missing the point. The use-case is not to have 5000 hours of movies/MP3s/etc. to stream straight through; it's to have *your entire media library* with you wherever you go. So you don't have to guess 'Oh, I'm going out of town for the week, which movies am I going to want to see?' - you've got them all. All your songs, so you're not missing that one song your friend in Indianapolis wanted to hear. No need to pick and choose. Simple.
The 'cheap laptop' post is also completely missing the point. This is something my sister can pack along in her purse, turn on, and let the kids stream from on long road trips - no muss, no fuss, no maintenance, and the battery lasts a lot longer than that cheap laptop will.
Hey, more power to you, if that's what you're looking for. My point was rather to state that there are less expensive (and more effective) solutions, IMHO.
By using this WiFi drive from my laptop, I am effectively disconnecting my machine from the internet, unless I am missing some core concept here? I mean this guy creates it's own network with no internet connection and I abandon my usual network connection in favor this new one and that's it, right? Am I missing something?
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ThomasS31 - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Looks a painfully slow experience... :)ganeshts - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
It is good enough for the target market :) This is not to be treated like a real 'NAS'.ayejay_nz - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Cool device! I'm looking for something along these lines so that I can back up photos from an SD card on the fly when I'm travelling next year.I just came across the Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 which might be a cheaper option, it doesn't include local storage but you can plug USB drives into it. The Kingston seems to have a decent battery pack on it as well.
Slash3 - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
You may want to reconsider that, as the performance of the onboard SD reader is apparently abysmal. Unless you have the better part of a workday to spend waiting for a large capacity SD card to copy onto the internal HDD, it is probably best to offload to a small laptop or to use other devices which pair SD readers with USB ports and attaching it to a standard external drive.AT: Any chance you can include a section on the SD card copy performance? For photographers looking for a way to offload SD cards into secondary storage, this would be valuable information on whether or not this device is capable of serving that requirement. Impressions elsewhere seem to be generally unfavorable at best when it comes to this feature.
ganeshts - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
I tested out the SD card copy performance with the following setup:Card: Patriot LX Series 8 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card PSF8GSDHC10
Contents: 873 photos / videos (mostly photos) from a Nikon Coolpix P7000 Point & Shoot Camera
Total Transfer Size: 7.20 GB
Time Taken for Copy Import : 10 minutes
Average Speed of Import : 12.30 MBps
Average Power Consumption during Import Process : 5.90 W
I am not sure whether the 12.3 MBps limitation is because my SDHC test card is pretty old or it is because of the inherent speed limitation enforced by the SoC's SDIO interface.
Tbonelml - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
Class 10 SD cards have a constant transfer rate of 10mbps, that why its class 10, class 6 is 6mbps and so on.hbarnwheeler - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
The class designation indicates (minimum) write speed. In this test, the drive is merely reading from the card and read speeds are typically much higher than write speeds.artemisgoldfish - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
The AM335x family of CPUs has an MMC interface good for 24MBytes/s in 4-bit high-speed SD card mode. The limitation could be a combination of the Patriot LX series SD cards not being the fastest in the world, the Sitara being busy talking to both the SD card and hard drive, and SD card protocol overhead.Guspaz - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I got a RavPower 5-in-1 FileHub for $40 that does most of the same stuff this does (except it has no built-in HDD, so you provide your own SD card, USB stick, or USB hard drive). The battery on it lasts somewhat longer than the WD thing. It works pretty well, but the max wireless speed for streaming seems to be about 16 Mbps. I use it to watch videos on my iPhone/iPad using the Infuse app (any app that supports SMB/CIFS would work).jann5s - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
For these prices you can also by a cheap laptop/netbook, which will have less disk space, but will have a display and many other useful advantages. When I was searching for an intermediate storage solution for my vacations I found a cheap laptop to be an excellent solution.name99 - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
A laptop also a lot larger than a disk...If someone both wants to take their iPad on a cruise AND wants to take a large number of movies to watch, this is a more convenient solution.
That may not be what you want to do (it's not what I want to do) but I think it's silly to immediately say "I don't need this product therefore nobody does". I'm not in the market for maternity jeans, but that doesn't mean that there is NO market for maternity jeans, or that people who buy maternity jeans are stupid and don't realize what they really want to buy is miniskirts.
probedb - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
But this is not it's designed use case as already stated. A friend at work bought one as it's ideal for him, instead of taking a bulky laptop/notebook on holiday he takes this and a tablet for viewing photos. Less bulk than he used to carry around.Arbie - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
A similar product but with an SSD might be better. Much less space - but still a lot - and much less power and weight; these matter more in a portable.name99 - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
SSD requires substantially higher power than a mechanical disk when writing. That's why very few SSDs run reliably off a single USB2 connection.And the disk is not performance limited by the mechanicals anyway --- in the expected usage model it is limited by WiFi.
frodbonzi - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link
SSDs are DRAMATICALLY more expensive.... to get 2TB of storage in an SSD would cost over a grand... $200 is only going to get you 256GB... you can get that in an SD Card nowadays.... the point of this is to provide LOTS of storage that your mobile device doesn't already have!marvdmartian - Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - link
But honestly, who needs 2TB of writable storage for their phone or tablet? How many movies can you possibly watch? How much music does the average person have in mp3 format? How many photos can you take, and how much storage capacity will it require, especially when you're talking lower resolution cameras on phones and tablets?Personally, I put a 128GB SSD into an external drive case, and can plug it into the micro-USB port of my tablet or phone. Even if I'm loading 720p videos on it at home, it would allow me to bring more movies or TV shows on vacation with me, than I'd ever have time to watch. If I want to write to something, I'll bring along extra micro-SDHC cards, or USB jump drives.
Patriot came out with a wireless drive case a few years ago (called the Gauntlet Node), that works great with wireless devices, and allowed you to put your own 2.5" drive inside. You could run it plugged into a USB power source (>1 amp) or run it up to a couple hours on its own internal battery. Cost of the case was usually around $100, so dropping a drive you already had into it would be less expensive than this offering from WD. Too bad it seems they never sold well, so Patriot stopped making them, because I'd consider that a much better idea than this WD drive.
marvdmartian - Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - link
Looks as though there's still some new units out there for sale, if anyone wants to check out the Patriot WiFi enclosure:http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Gauntlet-Hard-drive-...
~$60 now, free shipping.
You have to use their app (supported by Amazon's Fire tablets, as well as Android and Apple), but if you're looking for a simple way to allow your kids to watch movies on their tablets, while you're traveling, this is worth looking at. I also forgot to mention that it supports up to 3 different wireless streams at one time.
frodbonzi - Thursday, December 11, 2014 - link
I'd like to point you to a similar comment given already... if a device isn't something YOU need, don't assume that there is noone else who needs it!!There ARE people who need more storage.... hence this 2TB solution - and plenty of others.... If you are only in the market for 128gb, go buy one - but don't comment here saying noone needs this!
marvdmartian - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
In the immortal words of Sergeant Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pA1h1FjBZg
tbutler - Monday, December 15, 2014 - link
"But honestly, who needs 2TB of writable storage for their phone or tablet? How many movies can you possibly watch?"Completely missing the point. The use-case is not to have 5000 hours of movies/MP3s/etc. to stream straight through; it's to have *your entire media library* with you wherever you go. So you don't have to guess 'Oh, I'm going out of town for the week, which movies am I going to want to see?' - you've got them all. All your songs, so you're not missing that one song your friend in Indianapolis wanted to hear. No need to pick and choose. Simple.
The 'cheap laptop' post is also completely missing the point. This is something my sister can pack along in her purse, turn on, and let the kids stream from on long road trips - no muss, no fuss, no maintenance, and the battery lasts a lot longer than that cheap laptop will.
marvdmartian - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
Hey, more power to you, if that's what you're looking for. My point was rather to state that there are less expensive (and more effective) solutions, IMHO.name99 - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
OMG it's running an A8.CONFIRMED: Apple is selling CPUs to third parties!!!
:-)
michaelbbateman - Friday, January 23, 2015 - link
By using this WiFi drive from my laptop, I am effectively disconnecting my machine from the internet, unless I am missing some core concept here? I mean this guy creates it's own network with no internet connection and I abandon my usual network connection in favor this new one and that's it, right? Am I missing something?