DCR-SR100... don't think I've seen this mentioned here

[The111 0]

Looks interesting...

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[dragon2 0]

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Recording Media: 30GB Hard Disk Drive

Harddrives are no good in freefall.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[The111 0]

Dur, and apparently my brain is no good on little sleep. I knew that, I swear I did.

I guess for some reason I was thinking this was solid state. (I obviously did not read the specs)

And for the record, "freefall" is not necessarily bad for a hard drive. It's pressure/altitude variations (as you probably know).

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[Mr17Hz 1]

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Quote

Recording Media: 30GB Hard Disk Drive

Harddrives are no good in freefall.

Do any of the features of this camera make it more apealing to use than MiniDV cameras? It probably would not take much to replace the internal hard drive (probably a laptop drive) with a solid state ramdrive... granted, it would be a little costly, and void any warranty, but I though it'd bring this up anyhow.

Matt Christenson

[email protected]
http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

[bob.dino 0]

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Harddrives are no good in freefall.

Has anyone ever proven this, or is it just based on reading of the specs?

[Tumble 0]

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Has anyone ever proven this, or is it just based on reading of the specs?

There has been discussion about another hard drive application in freefall. How well do iPods work while jumping. Here is the thread.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=1961701;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

I think the consensus is its risky. The low air pressure at altitude may not provide enough air cushion between the platter and the head, risking damage to the drive.

[The111 0]

So we make airtight d-boxes and pressurize them at sea level.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[bob.dino 0]

I understand the physics. I still haven't heard of anyone actually doing it and damaging the unit.

If the drive is rated to 400G operating shock, as the newest generation of Microdrives is, and that's reduced to 200G by the lack of atmosphere*, is that really going to be a problem at the top end of the skydive?

To be honest, I'd be more worried about the rapid temperature & humidity changes than the lack of atmosphere.


* massive assumption alert.

[The111 0]

As I understand, it's not about shock. It's about the very small tolerances between the magnetic components in the drive (which move at very high speeds), an "air gap" so to speak. Pressure variations can change this gap and moving components can damage each other.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong... not sure where I got this info from.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[br0k3n 0]

Well all i can say is my Ipod G2, has been upto height over 100 times in the last few months, and still works fine...

The potentail risk is that in a hard drive, the heads do not contact the recording surface. They float above the surface on a small cushion of air, produced by the spinning platters. If the air is too thin to create this cushion, the heads will contact the surface, possibly even damaging it.

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--+ There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.. --+

[Mr17Hz 1]

Quote

Quote

Harddrives are no good in freefall.

Has anyone ever proven this, or is it just based on reading of the specs?

In 1999 I set up my first in-trunk computer for playing MP3's in my car... The laptop hard drives that I used for my system would go bad about ever 2-3 months until I finally gave up... Recording to a disk drive while it's being shaken around just isn't a good idea. Eventually I set up a computer with an external hard drive that was mounted in foam to reduce the shock significantly, that fixed my problem.

The pressure changes would only add to the situation.... Hard drives just arn't good being knocked around a bunch.

Matt Christenson

[email protected]
http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.