There are currently 53 responses to “Launched : iFlash Ipod Compact Flash Adapter (mk II)”

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1. 1 On January 16th, 2008, Modding : Apple Video Ipod (5g & 5.5g) - The Compact Flash Version - Tarkan Akdam’s BORED said:

   [...] UPDATE: iFlash iPod Compact Flash adaptor has been launched. More information can be found here. [...]

2. 2 On January 17th, 2008, Corey said:

   After restoring your iPod with iTunes did you need to connect your iPod to an external power source? I have found this is necessary for the iPod mini but it would save me a trip to Walmart if it is not needed on an iPod video.

3. 3 On January 18th, 2008, Tarkan said:

   No need for external power.
   Once you restore the iPod with iTunes, the iPod will work exactly like before and charge via the usb - data lead.

4. 4 On January 26th, 2008, Christian said:

   Thanks Tarkan! I just got the adapter and put in a 32GB compact flash card in my girlfriend’s iPod! Everything seems to be working alright.

5. 5 On January 26th, 2008, Tarkan said:

   Hi Christian, You’ve stolen my thunder - I am publishing my 32GB CF Ipod article on Saturday. and you’ve beat me to it!!!

   Thanks for the feedback regardless and enjoy….

6. 6 On January 26th, 2008, The 32Gb Compact Flash Ipod - Tarkan Akdam’s BORED said:

   [...] Launched : iFlash Ipod Compact Flash Adapter (mk II) [...]

7. 7 On January 31st, 2008, kareem said:

   Would this connector work for hdd camcorders? I have a Sony HDR-SR1, and it is extremely easy to replace the hard disc drive with another hdd that has a ZIF connector.

   http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-cameras/how-to-add-more-storage-to-your-sony-hdrsr1-camcorder-223903.php

   Could this work? or is the ZIF connection specific for iPods?

   Thanks!

8. 8 On January 31st, 2008, Tarkan said:

   The circuit and the ZIF connector will work in your Sony camcorder. Just need to make sure the camcorder has enough space for the adaptor.

9. 9 On February 3rd, 2008, Benson said:

   Does this work with 4G 40Gb ipods??

10. 10 On February 3rd, 2008, Tarkan said:

    No sorry only the 5g 5.5g Video Ipods - for 4g read this instructable. It covers modifying the 4g iPods.

    http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-your-4th-Gen-iPod-to-use-Flash-Memory/

11. 11 On February 10th, 2008, Nick said:

    i have to say this is the best mod you could do. i have been using this adapter with a 32GB x133 card for almost a month in my ipod video it is incredible, very fast, reliable & i get a lot more battery life!

12. 12 On February 10th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Nick, which 32Gb card are you using? Also do you have any timings for the syncing / transfer speed from Computer to iPod?

13. 13 On February 26th, 2008, Command-Tab » iPod 5G Hack: Bluetooth and CompactFlash said:

    [...] attached to the ever-shrinking connectors inside the iPod. You can get the full details and photos here, and see more hacks at [...]

14. 14 On February 27th, 2008, Robert said:

    I’m anxious to buy please answer my e-mail
    Thanks
    -Robert

15. 15 On February 28th, 2008, Alqvimista said:

    What about a 3G Pod?

    Thanks.

16. 16 On March 7th, 2008, Jurriaan said:

    You can order a adapter for your 3G iPod at http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/767/put-flash-memory-into-almost-any-ipod .
    Tarkan, is does your adapter work for the iPod Classic?

17. 17 On March 14th, 2008, Tom said:

    Would it be possible to fit the 60/80GB battery into the case of a 30GB when using cf??

18. 18 On March 14th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Not sure, but I doubt it. The 60/80Gb battery is a few mm thicker than the 30Gb, but several companies now supply greater capacity 30Gb batteries and combined with the iFlash adaptor - you will get very good battery life.

19. 19 On March 18th, 2008, Woot! My 30gb RWA iMod is now 32gb flash based! - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio said:

    [...] Posted by Than What adapter did you use? This guy in the UK developed a very slick adapter. Works great! And, yes, it is fully functional. I’m listening to music as I type. [...]

20. 20 On March 19th, 2008, Mike P said:

    Hello Tarkan,

    The adapter is working great! Many thanks for a high quality product. I am spreading the news about this
    mod and expect to see some demand for it as the Summer approaches. Will keep you posted.

    I have a question for you regarding the iPOD Classic and 3rd Gen Nano. As you know the front case is aluminum cast
    and is extremely difficult to seperate from the back case without damage. I am wondering if you have found anyone
    out there that has been successful in removing these cases without damage or replacement required?? This seems to
    be a huge comodity right now, and I am willing to pay for the services for those that can open in a high quality
    method. Or better yet, have a “fixture” that can be purchased that would allow for opening them. Let me know if you
    can help or have a line on someone I can contact. Appreciate your time and reply.

    Best regards,

    Mike

21. 21 On March 19th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Hi Mike, Glad the adaptor has worked out for you.

    Apple have really moved bar in terms of the fittings on the Classic and 3rd Gen Nano. Few weeks back I had to fix someones Nano that had been dropped and I had destroy the case back to get it open.

    I am not sure it can be done as the clips cannot be accessed, but I would need to study the case back some more - so if you have a case back that you can send me that would be a good start.

22. 22 On March 20th, 2008, New hard drive for video ipod or buy Sansa Fuze? - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio said:

    [...] OR, you can get a CF card and install it in your iPod (5th gen) using this adapter…. Launched : iFlash Ipod Compact Flash Adapter (mk II) - Tarkan Akdam’s BORED [...]

23. 23 On April 5th, 2008, Scott said:

    First off - terrific adapter. Very well thought out and took me all of 10 minutes to do the switch. I haven’t had any real issues with the player but if my player is off for more than 24 hours, when I go to turn on the iPod I get the screen telling me I need to connect it to my computer and restore it through iTunes. If I do a reboot then it works fine. This is a very minor annoyance but I thought I would ask if you’ve experienced this and know any possible work arounds. Otherwise, it is working flawlessly.

    I’m using A-Data’s 32gb CF if it matters.

    Thanks again for a great product!

    -Scott

24. 24 On April 5th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    The issues you noticed is sadly a bug in the apple firmware.

    When you turn the iPod off it goes in to a sleep mode - it stays in this sleep mode for anything from 8 hours to 36 hours (time is dependent on battery level and battery condition), after which it switches to a deep sleep.

    When the iPod is resuming from the deep sleep it reloads the operating system from the drive, I’d say something like a soft reset - however it is this which is the problem. The firmware polls the CF card and does not wait long enough or is not told to wait by the CF card - so it throws an error. The funny things is this problem sometimes occurs with the hard drives as well, it seems the time-out for the resume from deep sleep is very aggressive.

    I am still experimenting with this issue but I think UDMA and certain very fast CF cards have the speed and communication skills to ask the iPod to hang on while it gets ready (like the hard drive would do). So they do not seem to be effected by this bug.

    As a side note, when this restore message occurs the iPod will switch off after a few seconds and hitting the menu button will get it to restart normally - you do not have to initiate a hard reset.

    I will have an article up once I have investigated this further.

25. 25 On April 5th, 2008, Scott said:

    I see. Makes total sense. Thank you for the response - it is much appreciated.

    Keep up the great work!

26. 26 On April 5th, 2008, Adam said:

    With regard to the comments made by Scott on the 5th April, I cannot agree more, a fantastic product. I too have the same issue when the iPod has been left off for more than 8 hours, I have just been reseting until now. I did wonder if this was the PEAK 16 Gb I have been using or the iPod itself.

    I have had another problem where I can operate the iPod but no tracks actually play, every track I try just sits at 0.00, however a quick reset fixes this and all is normal again, this has only happened twice in two weeks use. This could be fault with the iPod itself, I bought the iPod used on ebay, it had a faulty drive and drive cable.

    Thanks for a great product.

    - Adam

27. 27 On April 5th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Like my response to Scott, restore message is a combination of the apple firmware and slow CF cards.

    I never seen the ipod not playing tracks and just sitting at 0.00 - that would occur if it cannot find the track. I would to run a chkdsk command on the iPod drive (you may need to enable disk use in iTunes). You could have a corrupt filesystem.

28. 28 On April 6th, 2008, david said:

    would the ipod appear on my computer as a mass storage device so i can add music with out the need for itunes?

29. 29 On April 6th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    No, the iFlash only changes the storage medium - the iPod operates exactly as normal versions.

    However, if you want to avoid the use of iTunes than I suggest these two options.

    one option is ml_ipod plugin for Winamp which can be found here http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/

    second options is to install the rockbox operating system which would allows your ipod to be used as a mass storage device where the music is dropped in to directories on the drive.

    Hope this helps…

30. 30 On April 12th, 2008, Edmond said:

    Is it possible to use compact flash in 1st Gen iPod?

31. 31 On April 16th, 2008, Adam said:

    Looks like my 16Gb PEAK card was flaky, the iPod decided it wanted to be restored but the 16Gb card was not having it. I popped the suspect card into an iPod Mini that was using a 2Gb CF card and into numerous card readers but nothing could access the 16GB card.

    I have never encountered a dodgy CF card before ( have I just been lucky?) but the supplier has agreed to replace the PEAK card so I will see how it goes when I get a new CF card.

    I have put one of your adapters and an A-Data 32Gb CF card into a friends iPod, and so far so good. Their only comment was it took about 3 hours to sync 26Gb of music, hopefully they won’t have to do this too often. To be honest I don’t know how long it takes to sync this amount to blank HD based iPod.

    Adam

32. 32 On April 16th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Dodgy CF cards are rare. Having said that I have had about 2 cards fail on me in the last few years.

    Yeah the A-Data is not the fastest tool in the box. I measured the A-Data transfers topout at 3MB/s where as the hard drive can achieve 11Mb/s.

    Good news, modern UDMA cards can transfer as fast as the hard drive. My old Sandisk Extreme III card has the same transfer speed as the hard drive.

33. 33 On April 25th, 2008, Mike H said:

    My adapter came a couple days ago - nice job on fast shipping! I immediately tried it with two different 1-GB CF cards I have: a plain old Sandisk, and a Sandisk Ultra II. The plain Sandisk refused to work - I couldn’t even read or write to it in disk mode, all I/O errors. I figured it was just too old to be recognized properly, so no big deal. The Ultra II card worked perfectly, like a dream. So I decided to order an 8 GB Transcend card (133x).

    The Transcend card came today, and I’ve spent the last 6 hours banging my head against the wall trying to get it to work. I/O is fine - I can read and write in disk mode with no corruption. But any time I restore the iPod from iTunes, I get the dreaded recovery mode loop. Even though the firmware appears to copy over just fine, the iPod is absolutely convinced that it still needs to be restored after rebooting.

    I have scoured the internet and I’ve tried everything I can possibly think of. Different computers, old firmware, newest firmware, Windows format, Mac format, disk mode, normal mode, reset iPod. I even repartitioned it to move the firmware partition to different blocks on the card to see if that would do it. Everything I tried worked like a champ in the Ultra II card, failed on the Transcend card.

    Again, I/O to the card while it’s in the iPod works just fine. From the computer I can partition it, format it, copy files, low-level block copy the firmware, everything without corruption or errors. I’m stumped!

    I’m sending the card back to the vendor for a replacement in the small hope that I just got a bad card with a really obscure glitch. If the replacement doesn’t work, I’ll either settle for the 1 GB Ultra II (a bit small!) or shop around for another card. I hate to keep buying different cards, as this was supposed to be a low-cost replacement to hold me over for a while after I dropped and broke the original hard drive from this iPod.

    Anyone else have good or bad luck with the Transcend cards? Aside from that issue, the adapter itself seems to be great!

34. 34 On April 25th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Hi Mike,

    I have had a couple of people mention they had issues with the 16Gb 133x Transcend, but also people who I know are using them with no problems.

    Interestingly someone in the USA sent me a 8Gb Transcend 133x for testing ( picture here:- http://www.tarkan.info/images/Transcend8Gb_133x.jpg )

    This card has been working ok in a 5g Video iPod with the latest 1.3 firmware, is this the same card as yours?

    It could be that Transcend just have bad quality control.

    At least you know the iFlash and your iPod are working ok!!

    Let me know how you get on.

35. 35 On April 25th, 2008, Mike H said:

    Hi Tarkan,

    Yeah, that’s exactly the same card I have. Good to know that it’s been working for you, gives me hope that a replacement will work. The odd thing is that everything else seems fine with this card - if I were using it in my camera, I’d probably notice nothing wrong at all!

    It goes back in the mail today, hopefully the replacement comes next week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

36. 36 On April 25th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Mike, have you tried the diskpart command in windows to delete the partition table - and then re-attempt the restore process?

    I have had issues where iTunes would not bother rewriting the partition table if it can see the small 40Mb partition it creates to store the iPod O/S.

    By deleting the partition table will force iTunes to do a complete restore.

37. 37 On May 3rd, 2008, Dave Marcotte said:

    Hi Tarkan,
    I wanted to share with everyone my experience using your CF adapter for my broken iPod.

    I have a G5 Video iPod and it started having the click of death a week or so ago. I tried everything to get it to restore, but perhaps because the battery also ran down, I was having no luck. So I decided to try your adapter.

    We’ll, I’m completely satisfied with it. I received it the other day and last night I followed your installation video and within less than 5 minutes my iPod was restored and working using a 4GB CF card I had. I’m stoked!!!

    I’ll eventually get a 32GB card, but for now, it runs much faster than it did with the HD, and from what I’ve read it will use less battery power as well. But even better, I can now go jogging with it, which I couldn’t have done with the HD in it without risking the click of death again.

    So I wanted to give you the kudos you deserve for bring to market something that works so flawlessly and much improves the original design of the HD based ipods.

    For anyone who’s hesitating, I can say that I had a flawless experience ordering and even installing the adapter and hope this encourages others out there to spend the few bucks for a much better upgrade to their iPod.

    Thanks Tarkan.
    Dave Marcotte

    PS, shipping was also quick, even coming from GB to USA. Thanks for being so responsive.

38. 38 On May 3rd, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Dave,

    Thank you for your kind words and for the feedback - I am glad you like your iFlash’ed iPod.

    That is the beauty of flash storage is no more click of death. As memory capacity goes up and prices go down - it is easy to swap out the CF card when necessary!!

39. 39 On June 2nd, 2008, Alex said:

    Hi !! I just got a new gen Ipod Nano..(8G) and I wonder if I could use your product to fit in it or is it just for the larger video ipod ? hope so..

    thanks a lot

    regards, continue your great work
    Alex

40. 40 On June 5th, 2008, Rob said:

    Hi, thanks for the adapter, it works great. I bought an iPod classic 80gb on ebay and the hard drive was faulty. With care i managed to open up the ipod classic and fit your adapter inside. It fits perfectly. Not tried getting the lid back on yet!! Shud be ok. I had a 1gb lying around so i used that but im going to buy a larger capacity CF card. The casing has to be bent out to release the clips, hope i can put it back together to make it look as good. The interface is really fast now, no more waiting around for cover artwork to load. Coverflow is much better.

    Here are some pics:
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02854.jpg
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02855.jpg

41. 41 On June 6th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Alex, Sadly it is only designed for Video iPods (5g, 5.5g, and 6g Classics). The new Nano’s are very problamtic - to open up you need to damage the rear casing and also the flash memory is soldered - so any upgrading would need major solder reworking skills.

    Rob, Thanks for the feedback!!! I am glad the Classic has worked for you - I have had a Classic here for the last few months and having tested around 8 different CF cards I could only get it to work with the Sandisk Ultra / Extreme range.

    You have been very lucky to get it working with a cheapo Jessops card!! To save you some time and money I have tried the following cards with no joy.

    32Gb Adata
    16Gb Adata
    8Gb Samsung 150x OEM
    16Gb Samsung 280x OEM
    8Gb Transcend
    16Gb Transcend
    16Gb Peak Technology

    I would be really interested in knowing what the iPod reports about the CF card you are using. To do this enter test mode (press back and select buttons during boot up, scroll down to i/o and select hard drive).

    Can you tell me the info displayed on the hard drive screen.

42. 42 On June 7th, 2008, Rob said:

    Thankyou for the advice about the CF Cards. I actually bought an 8gb sandisk ultra II on ebay but when i put it in it only showed 2gb (it seemed to work with the ipod though), so i checked it in my PC and its only got 2gb. Im pretty sure its a fake, so im getting a refund. This is bad news, i was thinking of getting a 16gb if the refund works through and the 16gb sandisks are expensive. Maybe ill get a real Sandisk 8gb instead cos they are a good quality brand. Anyway, i just pulled up the HDD Specs and heres what i got:

    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02856.jpg

    Doesnt mean much to me but hope it helps. Do you know why the compatibility for 6g should be different to 5g.

43. 43 On June 9th, 2008, Rob said:

    Hi again, what is the problem with those cards btw? Do they get past the restore process??

    Anyway, do you think a Lexar premium II 80x will work?

44. 44 On June 10th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Hi Rob,

    Thanks for the screenshot. I just wanted to see what information the Classic was reading from the CF cards.

    For example the Sandisk cards caused an error on the HHD Spec screen, where as all the other cards I tested reported their serial numbers and firmware correctly.

    Before your posting and testing, I had assumed the sandisk worked because they did not report the fact they are CF cards.

    Now I am thinking maybe this is not the case - all my Sandisk cards are 4Gb and below, where as all the other cards I tested were 8Gb and above.

    The problem with the cards I listed is that they work fine in disk mode and through the iPod you can read and write on to them, but they do not get past the restore screen.

    I think it is either the Apple firmware which is not happy with you using a CF cards or that firmware is not happy with the partition table or byte layout on CF cards.

    Sadly, I gave up with the classic so returned it to the owner - if I can get hold of a 16Gb Sandisk Extreme card maybe you can try it for me.

45. 45 On June 18th, 2008, Rob said:

    Hi Tarkan,
    The refund came through and i bought an 8gb Lexar Platinum 80x from mymemory for £20.99 bargain!! Anyway, it works like a charm. So far ive tried Jessops 1gb, IBM 1gb Microdrive and Lexar 80x 8gb. All of them have worked for me. For you it may have been a problem with your ipod, or maybe the ribbon cable, or even you adapter. Anyway, just to let you know that im working with iPod Classic with 8gb Lexar.

    Rob

46. 46 On June 18th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Hi Rob,

    Thanks for the feedback. The Classic I had was fine with the Sandisk cards.

    Having said that I would class Lexar to be equal to Sandisk in quality and technology for CF cards - so maybe all the larger capacity budget brand cards are out of the question for the iPod Classic.

47. 47 On June 24th, 2008, Chris said:

    This looks great. Will it work on the iPod classic. Just thinking ahead for a drive failure.

48. 48 On June 25th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Chris,

    Yep!! the adaptor fits and works in the new iPod Classic (6g).

    The firmware is fussy about the CF cards that can be used - I hope to have an article up once some more testing has been done.

49. 49 On June 26th, 2008, Desi (Norway) said:

    Tusen takk, Tarkan! [Thank you, very much!] The 2 adapters arrived in all haste, but I had to chew my nails 9 days longer for the 32GB Transcend CF card to arrive from the U.S. The wait has paid off. I installed both adapter and card, restored the iPod and synched 687 songs and 52 podcasts in 35 minutes (Windows XP). Yes, slower than the hard disk, but reliable. I look forward to seeing how this works out over time and usage. Great work!
    One glitch, however: the first of the 2 adapters which I tried to fit into my iPod would not seize hold of the ZIP connector strip. After closing the clamp bar, the connector persisted in slipping out. The 2nd adapter (not bought backup purposes, but for a 2nd iPod - yet, thankfully (!) available right away) held onto the connector and fit as it should. [It seems that the slot does not open deep enough to accommodate a sufficient length of the connector. This was true of the drive connector for the 2nd iPod as well.] Any suggestions?

50. 50 On June 26th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Hi Desi,

    Glad you like the adaptor and it is working for you!!

    I wonder if the ribbon connector backing plastic has moved, could I ask you to email me a photo of the connection front and back.

    Have you tested the 2nd adaptor yet? if it is faulty let me know and I will have another one sent out to you.

51. 51 On June 28th, 2008, Rob said:

    Hi Tarkan,
    Received your 32GB today, good news is that it seems to work ok for me in the classic!! Before i started, i did a fat32 format with gparted to make sure it wasnt confused by the firmware already on the CF card. I slotted it in and it said restore, so i did and hey presto it works. Ive taken a couple more pictures as proof. Interestingly when i go to HDSpecs in the diagnostics mode, the serial no contains the “CF CARD”. I will send it back, asap for you, unless theres any other testing that you wish me to do. It is very strange how it did not work for you. Its a shame you still dont have your classic.

    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02913.jpg
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02914.jpg
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02915.jpg
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02916.jpg
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02917.jpg
    http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/rob2910/DSC02918.jpg - Diagnostics mode “SMart Data” comes up with an error, but that happened with the previous CF cards too.

    Thanks ,Rob

52. 52 On June 29th, 2008, Tarkan said:

    Rob, this is excellent news. With your testing it is beginning to look like the same cards which work on the 5g will work on the 6g Ipods.

    I will email you directly shortly.

53. 53 On June 30th, 2008, Repaired iPod, iPod Repair - passion is disorder of the mind, madness said:

    [...] converting from HDD to Flash [...]

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