Back to Camera Hacker |
microSD-to-miniSD AdapterA little while ago, I've started to acquire miniSD and microSD cards, in place of SD Cards. See, when you buy miniSD or microSD cards, you get an adapter to use these cards in SD Card slots. So these cards are compatible with more devices. The problem is that miniSD and microSD are not interchangeable. Although microSD is smaller than miniSD and are pin-to-pin compatible, I have not seen any adapters. In fact, I was in the process of making my own microSD-to-miniSD adapters (see the "Inside the miniSD-to-SD Adapter and the microSD-to-SD Adapter" article). That is until a fellow, in the forums, made me aware that adapters are available on eBay. I immediately ordered one. A week later, a light, puffy yellow envelope arrived at the footsteps of my door. It's an international mail from Taiwan. The package contained a small SD Card case with a miniSD-to-SD adapter and a microSD-to-miniSD adapter. The transparent case is the same case you get when you buy a miniSD card with a SD Card adapter. The included miniSD-to-SD Adapter is pretty similar to the one supplied with SanDisk miniSD Cards. They both got a metal plate on top. Except for the red SanDisk label, this adaptr has a yellow/black label with no brand name. The microSD-to-miniSD adapter, on the other hand, has no label at all and is completely black. The plastic mold does not have an uniform surface, and looks kind of cheap. I was quite excited to have these adapters in my hand. For a long time, I've wanted to use my 1 GB microSD (TransFlash) card in my Verizon XV6700 PDA phone (it has a miniSD card slot). Now I can. Sliding the microSD into the side of the adapter is a bit scary at first. The tiny microSD looks very fragile. And there are no markings on the adapter on how the microSD should slide in. Aligning the tiny card to the slot wasn't easy at first. I was too afraid of breaking the card or the adapter to apply any force. But in the end, the microSD slides into the miniSD adapter as you would expect, contacts of both cards should face down. And firmly pushing the microSD card into the adapter is the best way to insert it. I slid the combination into my PDA phone and it works great. After inserting the microSD card into the miniSD adapter, you can no longer place the miniSD adapter back into the transparent carrying case. The microSD card sticks out on the side just very slightly. However, it's possible to insert the combination into the miniSD-to-SD adapter and then place all three cards into the carrying case. Overall, I am extremely happy with these adapters. It allows me to use the same card in all my devices. In the future, I will only purchase microSD cards. Related Links |
196 Users Online
|
Copyright © 2006 by Chieh Cheng. All Rights Reserved. |