Comments on: Hacking the eye-fi to keep your data home http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/ Projects, notes, etc by Will O'Brien Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:31:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: waltbosz http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-10867 waltbosz Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:01:52 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-10867 @Vegard : I really haven't done any research into how the EyeFi cards transfer their data, but if I had to venture a guess, I would say that there is software running on the card that watches for new JPEG files, and once one is found the card transfers it via the wifi link. The manufacturer sells different levels of cards that give you different features. The cheapest card can only transfer JPEGs, but other ones can transfer video and RAW files. The cards appear to have writable firmware, so I would think that if EyeFi wanted to they could enable video & RAW transfers on any of their cards. They don't really have an incentive to do that or else no one would buy the more expensive cards. It's a little lame because older cameras can't handle a card greater than 2GB, and the video & RAW feature is only available on higher capacity cards. Anyway ... getting back to your question about sending non-photo data. I don't think you could use the card as a wifi antenna for sending any old data stream ... but I'd guess that if you were to put the card in a SD card reader and write a JPEG file to the card, it would interpret that as a new photo and transfer the file over wifi. If that works, you could then piggyback other data onto the photo in the EXIF data in the JPEG. I don't know how much data validation the EyeFi card does, it might even transfer a text file with a .JPG extension. Now, this is really a lot of work to transfer some wireless data. You might want to check out the XBee products. They're designed for wireless projects. http://www.digi.com/products/wireless/point-multipoint/xbee-series1-module.jsp @Vegard : I really haven’t done any research into how the EyeFi cards transfer their data, but if I had to venture a guess, I would say that there is software running on the card that watches for new JPEG files, and once one is found the card transfers it via the wifi link. The manufacturer sells different levels of cards that give you different features. The cheapest card can only transfer JPEGs, but other ones can transfer video and RAW files. The cards appear to have writable firmware, so I would think that if EyeFi wanted to they could enable video & RAW transfers on any of their cards. They don’t really have an incentive to do that or else no one would buy the more expensive cards. It’s a little lame because older cameras can’t handle a card greater than 2GB, and the video & RAW feature is only available on higher capacity cards.

Anyway … getting back to your question about sending non-photo data. I don’t think you could use the card as a wifi antenna for sending any old data stream … but I’d guess that if you were to put the card in a SD card reader and write a JPEG file to the card, it would interpret that as a new photo and transfer the file over wifi. If that works, you could then piggyback other data onto the photo in the EXIF data in the JPEG. I don’t know how much data validation the EyeFi card does, it might even transfer a text file with a .JPG extension.

Now, this is really a lot of work to transfer some wireless data. You might want to check out the XBee products. They’re designed for wireless projects. http://www.digi.com/products/wireless/point-multipoint/xbee-series1-module.jsp

]]> By: Vegard http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-9800 Vegard Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:24:42 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-9800 Is there any way you could use the eye-fi to accept data that's not photos and send it where you want it to sent it. Let's say I connected a device on the door to my house. And if someone opened the door the device has a eye-fi card that will send a message to my home computer that in turn would send and email and notify me. If you know of any ways I can get the eye-fi to work for me like this, please contact me. by the way, the door example is just a random idea.. I have endless ideas of how to use the eye-fi technology. Hope to hear from you. Is there any way you could use the eye-fi to accept data that’s not photos and send it where you want it to sent it. Let’s say I connected a device on the door to my house. And if someone opened the door the device has a eye-fi card that will send a message to my home computer that in turn would send and email and notify me.

If you know of any ways I can get the eye-fi to work for me like this, please contact me.

by the way, the door example is just a random idea.. I have endless ideas of how to use the eye-fi technology.

Hope to hear from you.

]]> By: Kali http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-7442 Kali Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:12:13 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-7442 Is it at all, possible to hack this card to use the wifi module to receive wifi signals in devices such as... oh, I don't know, let's say a Palm Treo 700P PDA cell phone? It'll be awesome if this card can be hacked and turn into some sort of wifi card for use with older mobile phones that didn't come with the built-in wifi. Is it at all, possible to hack this card to use the wifi module to receive wifi signals in devices such as… oh, I don’t know, let’s say a Palm Treo 700P PDA cell phone?

It’ll be awesome if this card can be hacked and turn into some sort of wifi card for use with older mobile phones that didn’t come with the built-in wifi.

]]> By: Mike http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-5749 Mike Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:20:49 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-5749 Excellent! I hate sending any data that I dont have to, into "the cloud". Excellent! I hate sending any data that I dont have to, into “the cloud”.

]]> By: itfrancel http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-4839 itfrancel Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:36:02 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-4839 I would like to know if there is a way to use this card as a wireless NAS, even thou its quite small it would be great to be able to copy data to it wirelessly. I have a good size digital frame that i would like to make wireless, Do you think there is a way to make it run samba or any way I can dump my images/ files to it wirelessly thanks I would like to know if there is a way to use this card as a wireless NAS, even thou its quite small it would be great to be able to copy data to it wirelessly. I have a good size digital frame that i would like to make wireless, Do you think there is a way to make it run samba or any way I can dump my images/ files to it wirelessly thanks

]]> By: Erik http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-2381 Erik Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:05:28 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-2381 Hey, I saw Jeff's code back in Feb. Here's my dilemma, how do I use it? I have both a Mac (OS X) and a PC running Vista (32-bit). I'd like to get this running on my two main machines, but have never used Python. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hey, I saw Jeff’s code back in Feb. Here’s my dilemma, how do I use it? I have both a Mac (OS X) and a PC running Vista (32-bit). I’d like to get this running on my two main machines, but have never used Python. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

]]> By: Daniel http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-2357 Daniel Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:40:55 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-2357 I've heard the eye-fi can't transfer raw images (.CR2) etc. With this server, can you remove that restriction? I’ve heard the eye-fi can’t transfer raw images (.CR2) etc. With this server, can you remove that restriction?

]]> By: Andrew http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/comment-page-1/#comment-2275 Andrew Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:25:28 +0000 http://biobug.org/index.php/2009/03/14/hacking-the-eye-fi-to-keep-your-data-home/#comment-2275 Outstanding! My wife is a photographer and this would be very useful for her at her studio. Outstanding! My wife is a photographer and this would be very useful for her at her studio.

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