Smartmedia & Smartmedia USB readers

[Sir Fredrick]

Is there much of a difference between the various smartmedia USB readers floating around out there?
How about for the brands of smartmedia flash memory?

I'm looking to get a 128MB sm card and a reader for as cheap as possible, but I don't want to sacrifice quality either.

 

[kly1222]

From my experience, there is a difference, and it has to do with drivers and compatibility. My first usb reader was a generic brand I picked up from newegg. If I left it plugged into the system when I started up, it wouldn't read the card. I had to wait until the system finished booting and then plug it in. Also, after I read from a sm card, remove it, and stick it back in, the reader won't read it anymore. I have to unplug the reader and plug it back in.

Now I use a microtech zio! reader, and I don't have any of these problems, so I highly recommend it.

Edit: As for the brand of flash memory, I've used the cheapest kind without any problems.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Thanks The Zio! readers are pretty cheap, and pretty ugly.

 

[Spike]

I use a Sandisk reader and sandisk smart-media cards and they seem to play well together (and the reader looks fairly cool) I am not sure how the reader works with other brand cards, but as sandisk is one of the leading makers of flash cards, I suspect it would work well. as for the best prices, I dunno. I ordered mine directly from sandisk for about $25 with shipping and I watch newegg.com for flash prices. hope that helps

-spike

 

[Kindjal]

I have used the Zio Smartmedia for a couple of years without any problems ... and of course you probably can find one for <$30.

 

[LED]

Use Sandisk as well and like it...faster then Zips and read like HD's...have out in Kingston and other media in it still fine and Dandy. Tested both the USB1.0 port vs USB 2.0 noticed no difference

 

[Technonut]

I am using a SanDisk ImageMate reader with no issues. (WinXP Pro) There was no official driver support for XP with this model, but the Win2000 drivers worked just fine. It shows up as a removable disk with it's own letter in "My Computer"

 

[RalfHutter]

I use an "Acom" CF reader. It shows up in WinXP as a removable drive when you plug it into the USB port. No drivers are needed at all. The little "Removable Device" icon comes up in the systray and you click on it to unplug the CF reader.