Robanton USB 1.1
Multi-Card Read/Write Drive

The Robanton USB 1.1 Multi-Card Drive is a small and compact digital storage device reader/writer for the six most common types of media used by digital cameras. This one device can access data on CompactFlash Type I and II cards including IBM's Microdrive, SmartMedia (SM), Secure Digital (SD) / MultiMedia Card (MMC), and Memory Stick (MS). The Multi-Card Drive utilizes the standard USB 1.1 interface used on both Windows PC and Macintosh computers.

The Multi-Card Drive is powered from the USB bus (AC power adapter is not required) and offers data transfer as fast as 12Mb/s. USB bus powered. It supports Hot-Swapping, Dynamic plug-into/remove-from USB port without turning off the system. It has POWER and ACCESS LED indicators and draws very little power. It's suitable for desktop and mobile PCs. Support for operating systems includes: Windows 98/98 SE/2000/ME, Mac OS 8.6 or later.

The Multi-Card Drive comes with its own little stand so it takes up very little room on your desktop. Physically it's a little larger than a pack of playing cards but not by much. It's also perfect for users with MP3 players, PDA's and mobile phones as well as digital cameras or camcorders. Anybody that transfers or stores data on flash memory cards or Microdrives will love the Multi-Card Drive. I purchased mine from UBid.com for just $13.00, they've been listing them for several months now. I suspect this same drive will show up with other brand names on it as it's packaged very generically and the included CD driver disc has a variety of other USB reader drivers on it.

On the end is a CompactFlash Type II card socket that handles any solid state CF card Type I or Type II or any size IBM Microdrive.

On the top is a unique 3-in-1 card slot that handles Secure Digital / MultiMedia Card, SmartMedia and Memory Stick modules.

The two card slots on the Multi-Card Drive will appear as two removable drives so you can easily move data between memory cards and your computer's hard drive. Shown above is the "My Computer" display of drive devices, the removable disks E and F are the Multi-Reader.

The installation was quick and easy on my Pentium 4-2GHz machine running Windows XP Pro. You load the software drivers first and then plug in the card reader and after the usual "detecting new hardware" routine it is ready to be used.

The data throughput is rated at 12Mbps but the actual transfer rate is dependant on your computer's processor speed and more importantly, the speed of the memory device being accessed. Sony Memory Sticks are pretty slow and CF cards like Lexar's 16x or 24x Pro cards are very fast. Suffice it to say that the Multi-Card Drive is as fast and usually faster than using the USB built into your camera.

Many people ask why they should use an external card reader rather than the USB that's built into their camera. The main reason is so you don't run your camera batteries down transferring all that data and you don't have to tie up your camera while downloading images. As I've already stated, external card readers are usually faster than the camera's USB port which certainly makes a difference if you're using a large CF card or especially a device like the one-gigabyte Microdrive.

The bottom line - The Multi-Card Drive works well and no matter what brand or model of digicam you'll own or use it can read and write to its flash memory card. I had no problems unplugging and plugging it back in with the computer running so it is a real "hot swappable" device. I saw no card compatibility problems, it worked flawlessly with CF cards from 8MB to 512MB, the 1GB Microdrive, 8MB to 128MB Memory Sticks, 64MB and 128MB Secure Digital and 8MB to 128MB SmartMedia cards -- did I forget anybody?