Page 1 of 1
ThinkPad Dock II - allows mounting of 4 PC Cards?
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:22 am
by ully
Greetings! I've been trying hard to find an answer to this question, but have only gotten tangential hints... so...
If I have a ThinkPad t42 or similar, which has 2 PC Card (PCMCIA, Cardbus) slots, will the ThinkPad Dock 2 allow mounting of 2 ADDITIONAL cards, or will I still be able to use only 2 cards total with the dock?
Thanks!
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:54 pm
by basketb
Haven't tried it myself yet (since I only have two PCMCIA cards) but from what I read some time ago, it is possible to use all four cards.
What did work for me is one card in the A31p (a wireless card) and one card in the Dock II (a USB 2.0 card).
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:12 pm
by RonS
I've used three of the four slots at the same time. I have no reason to think that four wouldn't work.
The only real "gotcha" is that the pairs of slots are top/bottom rather than side-by-side. A lot of PCMCIA cards have thick connector blocks that take up the room needed for the card above.
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:25 pm
by ully
Thanks for the info! The slot placement is not an issue - the intended use is for P2 cards (as you may or may not know, Panasonic's high-end cutting-edge video cameras use P2 flash media, which is based around a cardbus interface. Cardbus slots are disappearing, and it's good to have a few cards on line at once in many situations. Panny sells a 5-card firewire/USB reader for about $2,000... but we're always working on DIY solutions, of which the most promising is:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=137738
Woth the Dock, this type of solution leaps ahead into new territory!