Bluetooth Hard drive

17 replies · 6,956 views · Started 27 November 2002

spikeymike 27 Nov 2002, 12:57

TDK have announced their first Bluetooth hard drive. Just as we all starting shouting "woop-de-doo", we saw how much it's going to cost - $400 for a 5GB HDD? Are they MAD? So, I thought of another option. I'm putting this idea down in the hope that someone with the right facilities reads it and thinks "hey, what a cool idea, i'm going to build this". I don't expect royalties if you use the idea, but some recognition would be nice!

Here's my idea - forgive me if it's not explained very well, but you should get the idea!

Imagine a standard hard drive - they all look pretty much the same. You have a rectangular piece of metal which contains the platters, and at one end you have the socket to plug in the IDE cable, and a socket leading to the power supply. Everyone with me so far? Good. If you're not, look at <a href="http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/pc/images/harddisk.jpg"> this</a>.

Now, what I'm thinking of can be described in it's simplest form as a condom for the Hard drive - but instead of providing contraception, it provides Bluetooth! Imagine a device that is the same width and depth of the hard drive, but only about an inche long. This device would fit on top of both the IDE pins and the power supply pins.

So, can everyone imagine this so far? We've got a hard drive with a little plastic gimmick on top. Now sit back, relax, and see where the bluetooth comes in...

Inside this little device is a BT sender/receiver, with a range of about 5 meters. This device is just intelligent enough to know the formatting of a hard drive - it knows only very few commands, enough to query the data on the drive, get files, see file structure etc. It can also read and write files. When this device is clipped on to the top of the hard drive, it fits on top of the IDE pins - this means it can query the hard drive in the same way that a PC would. The power pins would lead to a battery, which provides the power for the unit (it can also be mains powered).

The drivers for this device would also be relatively simple - they would simple need to send the exact same data that an IDE controller would send to perform the current operation (delete file, save file etc), but instead of sending it to an IDE device, send it via Bluetooth. My device would then take your request, query the hard drive, and send back information in the same way a standard IDE controller would.

Technically, I believe this idea is a good one (although I say it myself!). The only limitation I can see is Bluetooth transfer speeds - but they will eventually improve. This device would essentially make any hard drive Bluetooth compatible, just by clicking in this device. Imagine... you go and buy an 80GB hard drive for about �120, stick this device on the top of it, and BAM, it's BT enabled. Copy all of your mp3s accross on to it, then put it in your bag. Who said a 7650 wouldn't make a good MP3 player!

Something else that I would probably recommend to anyone making this would be to have a cover to put on the whole hard drive, as they are quite fragile little things!

So, what does everyone think? I mean, yeah it would be useful from a 7650 point of view, but imagine the possibilities... you could put a Hard drive in your bag, take it to work, copy some mp3s on it from your fast work network, then take them straight back home. Now that is truly the definition of transportable data!

I posted this in the misc forum yesterday, but I figured it would get a better audience and be slightly more relevant here.

sanjay2402 27 Nov 2002, 13:28

Spikey...
While what u have described it good, that's precicely what these (TDK and Toshiba) have in them. In pretty much the same way. Only, they have been designed to
1. Work on a lower voltage (normal HDDs take a higher power that would drain a regular battery in matter of minutes)
2. Shockproof (imagine carrying a regular or even laptop HDD tossing around :black: )
3. They would have atleast one chip as a firmware to hold the min IDE drivers, and required BT - Harddrive interface software - This would be most trickiest part for a Homebrewed BT HDD
4.Then ofcourse the not so important..but also important housing, weight and other such factors.

Presently, considering a Laptop Hdd for ..say.. 50$, then add say... 50$ for the BT. It already makes for 100$. Now..for the adapters, Battery, The housing, the firmware..another 50 - 60$ ( Most conservative (Approx) estimates. This brings it to 150..atleast. And its gonna be delicate, heavy.

Agreed the price is too high, but a couple of months should really see the price comedown (as with most gadgets). Would the reduced margin of the said these (two) devices then be justified?

😊 😊

NightSpider 27 Nov 2002, 13:41

so let me get dis stwaight ........

Can the toshiba work with the 7650 or has it not been tested.

and will it be possible to stream stuff or browse it via the 7650 if it actually works with the fone.....

😮

Marw 27 Nov 2002, 13:46

Is there any link where I can find more informatio about it?

spikeymike 27 Nov 2002, 15:21

[quote="Marw"]Is there any link where I can find more informatio about it?[/quote]

The Toshiba drive or the one described above?

spikeymike 27 Nov 2002, 15:22

[quote="NightSpider"]so let me get dis stwaight ........

Can the toshiba work with the 7650 or has it not been tested.

and will it be possible to stream stuff or browse it via the 7650 if it actually works with the fone.....

😮[/quote]

I don't believe it's been tested, but there is no reason why it won't work - someone will need to write drivers/software for the 7650, but once that's done it should expand your memory to about 5GB minimum!

spikeymike 27 Nov 2002, 15:27

[quote="sanjay2402"]Spikey...
While what u have described it good, that's precicely what these (TDK and Toshiba) have in them. In pretty much the same way. Only, they have been designed to
1. Work on a lower voltage (normal HDDs take a higher power that would drain a regular battery in matter of minutes)
2. Shockproof (imagine carrying a regular or even laptop HDD tossing around :black: )
3. They would have atleast one chip as a firmware to hold the min IDE drivers, and required BT - Harddrive interface software - This would be most trickiest part for a Homebrewed BT HDD
4.Then ofcourse the not so important..but also important housing, weight and other such factors.

Agreed the price is too high, but a couple of months should really see the price comedown (as with most gadgets). Would the reduced margin of the said these (two) devices then be justified?

😊 😊[/quote]

Sanjay,

Thanks for your comments, I think most people got bored of reading that damn essay! 😉 I don't think I was entirely clear... I was not talking about the manufacture of a new BT hard drive, but the adaptor itself. I was thinking of a device that just clips on top of any standard hard drive. But your point about the delicacy of hard drive units is definitely important... the average hard drive is able to survive being carried around in a bag, but any impact other than a feather hitting it will tend to mis-align the platters! One advantage that this would have over theTDK unit would be that it would also fit on a CD/DVD/CDR/DVD-RAM drive, theoretically meaning that your phone could then burn and read CDs/DVDs!

JyriK 27 Nov 2002, 15:39

but you would have to carry a backpack full of batteries for it 😃

naivri 27 Nov 2002, 15:53

bluetooth hard drive is a great idea

pretty daft for a nokia 7650 though!

i for one wouldnt carry around such an expensive device just to expand the memory on my phone.

a bluetooth memory card....now thats an option!!!!

Mental Blank 27 Nov 2002, 17:13

spikeymike - a laptop hard disk (2.5"😉 would be much more able to resist knocks and bumps. Alternatively, I think you can get shock-absorbing cases for standard hard disks?

The main advantage of a device like this over the Toshiba one is that Toshiba have no plans to release their HD outside of Japan, and they apparently use proprietary software on both ends of the connection.

I volunteer to write the software for the adapter and the phone if someone produces the hardware - and lets me have one 😊

sanjay2402 27 Nov 2002, 17:20

Mental Blank,

Meanwhile, can we request you for a software for streaming PC<> Phone. It would be so exciting. I think this is on the wish list of many ppl here. Also it would perhaps be a nice first step towards the more Mature Plain Harddrive BT software. 😊

spikeymike 28 Nov 2002, 10:08

[quote="naivri"]bluetooth hard drive is a great idea

pretty daft for a nokia 7650 though!

i for one wouldnt carry around such an expensive device just to expand the memory on my phone.

a bluetooth memory card....now thats an option!!!![/quote]

Not sure if daft is the write word... over-zealous perhaps! As this is a conceptual device, no one knows how much it is yet, so you can't say it's expensive. It's got to be cheaper than the TDK option though!

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but using this device with my 7650 wasn't just what I had in mind... think of the other possibillities... I mean, I could expand the paltry 128MB on my mp3 player to 10,20,50GB, assuming it's BT enabled, of course.

Because BT is a new technology, there are uses for it that we wouldn't even think of... I think BT is going to be extremely hot property in years to come, and will probably become almost as ubiquituous as modems/NICs.

spikeymike 28 Nov 2002, 10:10

[quote="Mental Blank"]spikeymike - a laptop hard disk (2.5"😉 would be much more able to resist knocks and bumps. Alternatively, I think you can get shock-absorbing cases for standard hard disks?

I volunteer to write the software for the adapter and the phone if someone produces the hardware - and lets me have one 😊[/quote]

See, that's what we need, people who can see a problem, and get straight down to coding it! Right, now we've got a coder who can handle this challenge... now we need someone who owns an electronics factory, has a few hundred hard drives to mess about with, and a degree in electronics. Oh, and at least �50,000 to get this going. Back to the drawing board...

J2theIZZO 28 Nov 2002, 10:43

[quote="Mental Blank"]spikeymike - a laptop hard disk (2.5"😉 would be much more able to resist knocks and bumps. Alternatively, I think you can get shock-absorbing cases for standard hard disks?

I volunteer to write the software for the adapter and the phone if someone produces the hardware - and lets me have one 😊[/quote]

Stuff the BT HD, you'll all wonder what all the fuss it over soon 😉

BUT! if you can make a BT filemanager, I would pay good money for it.

A few suggestions (Not sure if they are possible but maybe worth looking it to)

Would I be able to browse someone's phone if they didn't have the same program installed?

Is there a way to by-pass the "Do you want to accept this connection" for the BT connection?

You all know what I'm hinting at and it would be a great program to have 😉

spikeymike 28 Nov 2002, 12:19

[quote="J2theIZZO"][quote="Mental Blank"]spikeymike - a laptop hard disk (2.5"😉 would be much more able to resist knocks and bumps. Alternatively, I think you can get shock-absorbing cases for standard hard disks?

I volunteer to write the software for the adapter and the phone if someone produces the hardware - and lets me have one 😊[/quote]

Stuff the BT HD, you'll all wonder what all the fuss it over soon 😉

BUT! if you can make a BT filemanager, I would pay good money for it.

A few suggestions (Not sure if they are possible but maybe worth looking it to)

Would I be able to browse someone's phone if they didn't have the same program installed?

Is there a way to by-pass the "Do you want to accept this connection" for the BT connection?

You all know what I'm hinting at and it would be a great program to have 😉[/quote]

Yeah... how much fun could you have browsing someone's picture directory! I for one know that my girl would absolutely kill me if people could do this (if I need to explain why, you're too young to know what she was doing!)...

I can see what you're saying Hova, and I think it's definitely possible. I can't think of a way of bypassing the "Accept BT?" prompt without having the program installed on both phones. So, when phoneA sends the request to browse from phoneB, the program on phoneB could automatically accept it... that would work, but then you've got to convince someone to install it in the first place! But if someone posted this program as "Seleq1.5Cracked.sis", "HantroVideoWithSound.sis" and "MobiGirlWithFreeGirls.sis", I'm sure all of the newbies who don't know the AAS attitude to warez would have it installed and running in about 5 minutes! 😊

sanjay2402 28 Nov 2002, 12:34

[quote="spikeymike"]
if someone posted this program as "Seleq1.5Cracked.sis", "HantroVideoWithSound.sis" and "MobiGirlWithFreeGirls.sis", I'm sure all of the newbies who don't know the AAS attitude to warez would have it installed and running in about 5 minutes! 😊[/quote]

😃 Did u work with the KGB or CIA?? You will make a nice Strategist 😃 😃

spikeymike 28 Nov 2002, 12:44

[quote="sanjay2402"]
😃 Did u work with the KGB or CIA?? You will make a nice Strategist 😃 😃[/quote]

Yeah... applied for the job... but I wrote out my application form wrong, and the message self-destructed in 2 seconds instead of 10, meaning they didn't have time to read all of it!

Mission:Implausible 😉

J2theIZZO 28 Nov 2002, 13:02

[quote="spikeymike"][quote="sanjay2402"]
😃 Did u work with the KGB or CIA?? You will make a nice Strategist 😃 😃[/quote]

Yeah... applied for the job... but I wrote out my application form wrong, and the message self-destructed in 2 seconds instead of 10, meaning they didn't have time to read all of it!

Mission:Implausible 😉[/quote]

😃 😃 😃

I hope someone can make this, so they don't have to have the other program installed, it would be the app of the year 😃