From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: August 10, 2012 9:42:21 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Astro IIDC Golden Key - Update

Dear McBee;

On 10-Aug-12, at 9:10 PM, McBee wrote:

Put my name in for a golden key version please.

Can you also please confirm if Astro_IIDC will work with the new retina display macbook pros that only have thunderbolt (no firewire)

Someone has contacted me and confirmed that the newly released Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter does work and does provide power. He has tried it with a DMK and a Flea 2 camera.

Apples documents indicate it delivers up to 7 watts of power - which is light  IMHO. Most Macs will put out 10+ Watts over Firewire and the spec allows up to 40 volts at 2 amps  or 80 Watts per FW Bus. I think the highest draw for any of the PGR Cameras is 5 watts - so running one camera will work for sure. Two cameras might require a powered FireWire Hub or powering the camera directly through the GPIO port. Running a portable FW 800 drive may not work - as 7 watts is   not a lot of power.

However this is still better than what USB 3 can deliver which is a maximum of about 5 watts and for USB 2 the max was 2.5 watts.

HTH..

Milton Aupperle

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "milton_aupperle" <milton@...> wrote:

Hi Folks;

I spent the last hour and half driving around to about a dozen different computer and chain stores in Calgary to find a local source for USB Flash drives that have Physical Write Protection Lock switches. No luck finding any. Apparently this type of media is being phased out - which is a pity because they are ideal for protecting crucial files or data from being accidentally or maliciously erased and to prevent Virus tampering (or crap like Spotlight writing index files all over the place too). Since many Macs no longer have media drives for DVD / CD's,  this is the only option available.

I have found a source for the Imation Clip drives that do have this feature - but I had to order them and they should be here in about 2 weeks. So I will have to wait until I get back from my vacation before determining if this will actually work like I "think" it should.

So it will be a few weeks until I know for sure if the "Golden Key" is doable or not.

PS: This Flash drive will be big enough that I can also include the Astro IIDC 4.09.00 .dmg file on it too - so you'll have a permanent copy of it too.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle