Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Forum for Fantom-S/S88, Fantom-X6/7/8, Fantom-XR and Fantom-Xa
oregonfantom
Posts: 14
Joined: 18:53, 11 September 2008
Location: Florence, Oregon USA

Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by oregonfantom »

I'm wondering if anyone has had any success using Compact Flash cards larger than the recommended 1-Gigabyte ? If so, what is the largest card that the Fantom X will recognize and have you had any problems with using these larger capacity cards (i.e. 4GB, 8GB & up Type II) ?
Thanks in advance for your input !
bassman
Posts: 2509
Joined: 22:30, 5 September 2004
Location: Anchorage, Alaska

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by bassman »

Hello oregonfantom,

I've been using 2gig cards for years with no problem. Lexar and Kingston brands.
Haven't tried anything larger because I regularly backup to PC.
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PauloF
Posts: 4201
Joined: 02:35, 16 January 2006
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by PauloF »

Hi oregonfantom,
As Bassman, I'm using 2GB Kingston CF cards for a few years now with no problems at all.
Haven't used larger CF cards yet (I don't need to anyway)
oregonfantom
Posts: 14
Joined: 18:53, 11 September 2008
Location: Florence, Oregon USA

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by oregonfantom »

Thanks very much for your feedback "bassman" & "PauloF.
I'll give the 2GB compact flash cards you suggested a try. I may also experiment with even larger cards and let you know the results.
sandord
Posts: 12
Joined: 00:37, 25 February 2010

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by sandord »

I've a tried a 4 Gb card and it made my XR hang when trying to access it from the file menu. I had to turn the XR off and on again because it didn't respond to any button presses anymore.
oregonfantom
Posts: 14
Joined: 18:53, 11 September 2008
Location: Florence, Oregon USA

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by oregonfantom »

Since 1 & 2GB cards are getting harder to find, I just purchased a 4GB Kingston compact flash card. No errors occurred while formatting the card, BUT it displayed a strange amount of used and available space (something like minus -39778 available).
I was able to save a song file to the 4GB card just fine. Then I began having the same problem as "sandord" with it freezing up my X8 and having to power off. Also, when I tried to write a "User Backup" to the card I received an error message stating that the new card was full. The "User Backup" procedure only used a maximum of 64MB and my 4GB card was empty, so I guess the Fantom X can't recognized anything larger than 1 or 2 GB cards.
Anyone know where I can find a good deal on 1 or 2Gig cards since these smaller cards are harder to locate ?
Thanks Much For All Your Input !
sandord
Posts: 12
Joined: 00:37, 25 February 2010

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by sandord »

I think there is a probable cause of cards larger than 2 GB not working in the XR. I suspect it uses a signed 32 bit integer value (a very common data type used in software development) to work with size calculations and that number can not be larger than 2147483647, which equals 2 GB exactly. Anything above will cause it to loop to the smallest possible value of -2147483648 (which is about -2 GB) and start counting. You can probably imagine that this causes strange effects since the XR is not aware of cards with negative capacity :-)
bluesplayer
Posts: 136
Joined: 00:40, 4 October 2004
Location: Rio Rancho NM

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by bluesplayer »

I use generic slow speed (cheaper) and high speed, PQI, Toshiba, Transcend (120x) , and San Disk (regular and Ultra II) 2GB cards - no issue with any of them

Also I notice that someone said they are hard to come by but I just ordered MORE from OEM PC world. - I ALSO ordered a 5-1 PCMCIA card adapter (takes SD, mini-sd, MMC, memory stick, and SM cards) for USE with my Fantom XR - it was only $16.85 and 2GB SD cards are ~$7 (about half what even cheap CF goes for) so I figured I give it a shot.

https://www.oempcworld.com/
jdpeffer
Posts: 17
Joined: 18:00, 20 April 2009
Location: Netherlands

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by jdpeffer »

Hello,

This is interesting, can you please reply if the SD card adaptor is working, CF cards of 1 Gb are rare and if this solution is working it would be great.

Maybo post the system version of the Fantom X you are using with the PCMCIA SD adaptor.

Thanks!!!
bluesplayer
Posts: 136
Joined: 00:40, 4 October 2004
Location: Rio Rancho NM

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by bluesplayer »

When I get the adapter I will post . My Fantom is the rack mount XR.
FYI 1 GB CF are not rare – I just Googled and found at least a dozen suppliers and here are some as of 10 minutes ago

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-TS1GCF80-Type-Compact-F...

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=13955...

(the above is 2gb)

http://www.memorysuppliers.com/flash-memory-compact-fla...

Plus the OEMpcworld link form my previous post
bluesplayer
Posts: 136
Joined: 00:40, 4 October 2004
Location: Rio Rancho NM

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by bluesplayer »

The 5-in-1 card (SM, MS, MS Pro, SD, and MMC) sold by OEMPCWORLD works in my Fantom XR (I DO not work for them and have no affiliation with them other than as a customer) .

I have to admit that 2GB SD cards are cheaper by a third to half of what a CF card goes for so if you have the Sample Memory Expansion and want an alternative to CF cards this is one solution that works (FOR me anyway)

Larry
Kaustic
Posts: 6
Joined: 22:18, 17 November 2010

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by Kaustic »

4 gb SanDisk Ultra in my Fantom X6 working fine for the past 6 months or so
mgjoyce
Posts: 4
Joined: 11:44, 2 October 2010

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by mgjoyce »

Hey, I have an X8 and use a SanDisk Extreme 4GB Compact Flash with a PCMCIA Adaptor which i got from www.lindy.com. Works fine, not had any problems.
mauropacella9022
Posts: 18
Joined: 17:36, 11 May 2011

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by mauropacella9022 »

Hi Mgjoyce still havent any problems with that card?
I really want to expand the card memory and i want to be really shure before buying.
Please any feedback about cards would be great!

I really never understan if you can use a SD card with the proper adaptor too
Illo
Posts: 21
Joined: 20:16, 6 May 2011

Re: Does anyone use Compact Flash cards larger than 1GB ?

Post by Illo »

1. I bought a generic 4GB compact flash card. It works fine.

2. I bought a PCMCIA adapter for SD card. From the pictures on eBay it looks like the adapter that I use for CF cards. After I received it in the mail, I found out the adapter would slide into the slot fine until it reaches near the end. But it would not go all the way to the end. On further examination I saw on one side of the connector the edge is a little different, thicker, that the CF adapter. That revents the connector to go in. So I did a little more research. Apparently the SD adapters are called "Card Bus". They look the same but on one side it is a little extra step that prevents it from going all the way in. I ended up selling the "Card Bus" adapter.

3. The samples on my CF card are more than 280MB. It takes a long time to load. Pretty close to 15 minutes. I bought another card that is a little faster, it loads faster too. So if you have large samples you should spend a little more and buy the fastest CF card you can find. I have SanDisk VI on order now that is supposed to be pretty fast.
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