Portable Solid State Storage ???

I was reading through some very old threads and came across a post where someone said they had made an external battery pack for their portable storage HDD, "Tripper" brand.
The pictures were missing and the link to the instructions is broken; but, just the mention of a self-powered storage drive got me curious.
Does such an animal exist ?
I searched Tripper on Amazon and came up blank.
It would be handy to be able to back-up a days worth of pictures without having to pack a laptop and external drive.
I am figuring that, if such a device does exist, it would have to have some sort of screen and user interface so that one could tell what was going on.

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

I believe you can do what you want with some already commercially available products. The WD 1TB My Passport Wireless Pro Portable external hard drive has the ability to insert your SD memory card, you wait about 10 seconds, then push a button and copies of the images are transferred to the drive. See
https://www.amazon.com …B?ref_=fsclp_pl​_dp_8&th=1 for the detasils on a 1 TB drive.

BuckSkin wrote in post #19019757
.
..... just the mention of a self-powered storage drive got me curious.
Does such an animal exist ?
.

.
A good friend of mine has been using them for many years. . He calls them "dumpers". . He uses them on a daily basis with a vast amount of data. .They are what he uses to back up all of his RAWs whilst still in the field at the end of each day's shooting.

Several years ago (in 2014, if I remember correctly), he had the dumper's battery die in the middle of a camera-to-dumper download. . He had about 2,500 images to copy and had only gotten through about 500 of them when the battery died. . And I mean it completely died (as opposed to just running out of charge). The next day he called the manufacturer (or retailer?) and they sent him a new battery. As soon as it arrived a couple days later, he installed it and he was back in business.

None of the 2,500 images were corrupted at all.

I thought that self-powered dumpers were very common, but since you seem to have never heard of one until recently, perhaps they are not as common as I had thought.


.

John from PA wrote in post #19019811
I believe you can do what you want with some already commercially available products. The WD 1TB My Passport Wireless Pro Portable external hard drive has the ability to insert your SD memory card, you wait about 10 seconds, then push a button and copies of the images are transferred to the drive.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19019822
.
A good friend of mine has been using them for many years. . He calls them "dumpers". .

Thanks for confirming that they do exist.
When I was searching Amazon, I must not have known the proper terminology, as all I was getting to show were plain old external drives.
What would the correct name for these be ?

BuckSkin wrote in post #19019834
When I was searching Amazon, I must not have known the proper terminology, as all I was getting to show were plain old external drives.
What would the correct name for these be ?

.
I have no idea, but I sent an email to my friend who uses them. . I hope he responds, but it is doubtful. . A year ago, he pretty much just disappeared. . No response to emails, nobody's seen him shooting where he always used to be. . His photos aren't showing up in magazines anymore. . I suspect he may have passed away, but he wasn't old or in poor health, so that isn't as likely as it would be otherwise.

But I figured I'd still try to contact him - both to see if he is okay and to ask about his dumper for you.


.

BuckSkin wrote in post #19019834
What would the correct name for these be ?

Just using SD card backup as search terms on Amazon a long list of possibilities exist. See https://www.amazon.com …rd-backup/w2mrxf3g83srsyz.

Take note that many of devices shown are not truly what you want in that they do not have a internal batteries.

Many years ago I seem to remember a device that even had a built in "tiny" screen so that you could cull the images if desired. But that was in the days that memory devices were a long way from terabyte size and also expensive. The 1TB Western Digital I gave you in a previous reply is $166; obviously at the memory prices of today you could carry a lot of reasonably sized cards.

John from PA wrote in post #19019864
.
Many years ago I seem to remember a device that even had a built in "tiny" screen so that you could cull the images if desired. But that was in the days that memory devices were a long way from terabyte size and also expensive. The 1TB Western Digital I gave you in a previous reply is $166; obviously at the memory prices of today you could carry a lot of reasonably sized cards.
.

.
The "dumpers" that my friend uses - that I mentioned a couple posts ago - were 1 terabyte, and had very nice high-resolution viewing screens, and he said he "only" paid $649 a piece for them, and considered that to be a very good buy, compared to other brands and models that were in the same class.


.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19020046
.
The "dumpers" that my friend uses - that I mentioned a couple posts ago - were 1 terabyte, and had very nice high-resolution viewing screens, and he said he "only" paid $649 a piece for them, and considered that to be a very good buy, compared to other brands and models that were in the same class.

.

This one is $390... https://www.bhphotovid​eo.com …qd_portable_all​_in_1.html

And something similar... https://www.bhphotovid​eo.com …gb_colorspace_u​dma_3.html

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19020046
.
The "dumpers" that my friend uses - that I mentioned a couple posts ago - were 1 terabyte, and had very nice high-resolution viewing screens, and he said he "only" paid $649 a piece for them, and considered that to be a very good buy, compared to other brands and models that were in the same class.

.

As counterpoint, taking along a small thin laptop and plugging in a USB-connected 1TB SSD has the benefit of

1. 13-15" of display (on the laptop) rather than the tiny display of the 'dumper',
   
2. allows you the full use of file handling capabilities which are embedded in the OS, and
   
3. also gives you a means to surf the web to find local restaurants, interesting sights, and read your email, for not a lot more money.
   

Wilt wrote in post #19020096
.
As counterpoint .....
.

.
Perhaps we could consider it a co-point, rather than a counterpoint ..... because the guy I am talking about would also always have a laptop or two along with him, as well as multiple dumpers and hard drives and iPad type thingies. . It amazed me how many various forms of electronic devices he would have with him at any given moment.


.

I have a Canon M80 that hasn't been used for a few years now, mainly because capacity increase in CF cards made it obsolete, plus it's transfer rate was very slow.

info from Canon: https://www.canon.co.u​k …edia_storage_de​vices/m80/

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19020101
.
Perhaps we could consider it a co-point, rather than a counterpoint ..... because the guy I am talking about would also always have a laptop or two along with him, as well as multiple dumpers and hard drives and iPad type thingies. . It amazed me how many various forms of electronic devices he would have with him at any given moment.

.

So it is puzzling about the requirement of 'self powered' and not simply 'USB-powered'...a backpacker travelling without all that other electronic garp that needs power?!
And all the rest of the stuff back in the hotel room!

Wilt wrote in post #19020123
So it is puzzling about the requirement of 'self powered' and not simply 'USB-powered'...a backpacker travelling without all that other electronic garp that needs power?!
And all the rest of the stuff back in the hotel room!

.
Yeah, I'm not really familiar enough with any of this kind of stuff to know what the difference would be. . But to me, the novice, self-powered seems a lot simpler than USB powered would be. . The things that I have that are self-powered are easy to use because it is easy to recharge removable batteries, while it is really difficult and inconvenient to charge things like my cell phone, that have internal batteries and need to be powered with USB cables or cigarette lighters or whatever.

Not sure what you mean by "backpacker". . Perhaps for someone backpacking it would be different? . The guy I've been talking about who uses the dumpers is not a backpacker or a hiker or anything. . I just see him with all this stuff in his SUV.


.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19020127
.
Yeah, I'm not really familiar enough with any of this kind of stuff to know what the difference would be. . But to me, the novice, self-powered seems a lot simpler than USB powered would be. . The things that I have that are self-powered are easy to use because it is easy to recharge removable batteries, while it is really difficult and inconvenient to charge things like my cell phone, that have internal batteries and need to be powered with USB cables or cigarette lighters or whatever.

Not sure what you mean by "backpacker". . Perhaps for someone backpacking it would be different? . The guy I've been talking about who uses the dumpers is not a backpacker or a hiker or anything. . I just see him with all this stuff in his SUV.

.

I have a couple of USB powered drives; they have no batteries at all. The USB supplies power and also does the data transfer.

A bit more than a year ago, I bought two of these, and "mirror" them for my pictures. If one fails, I still have the other one as a back-up. They cost me $50 each during a holiday sale.
https://www.bestbuy.co​m …k/5792402.p?sku​Id=5792402

Tom, I interpret 'self powered' as 'able to operate with no power from external source'

1. Battery powered storage unit with a memory card slot so you can transfer files with no laptop
   

2. USB-powered storage unit draws power from what it is plugged into, memory card plugs into reader (either built-in on laptop or itself USB-connected)