Eye-Fi: Fi-to-Eyes or Wi-Fi Memory Card

Became the owner of this miracle of technology ...
Two days of unceasing mate for developers, after two months of a mat on Rasposhta, which sowed the package ...

So, who does not know, Eye-Fi is an SDHC memory card with a WiFi module.
“You take a photo or video, turn on the camera in the range of the Wi-Fi grids and photos automatically get on Picasa, VKontakte or somewhere else, and the video - on YouTube or FTP!” Is a brief retelling of their ads.

What the hell is it for me?
I collect megadevise - a circular video camera from 11 camcorders , as a result, this thing seemed to me the easiest way to drive video from 11 cameras to one server without messing with USB or card readers ...
')
And after two months of waiting, IT in the amount of 6 pieces falls into my hands! Hooray!
Analysis of the "mega-gadget" - under the cut.

Packaging

A box, a hole is cut in it, in which the card itself is visible on a plastic backing ...
Attempting to remove without printing - not really failed.
Why - I understood only when I printed out the packaging: the card itself was IN ANOTHER PLACE, and here - under the hole was a plastic relief “under the map” with a piece of paper “exactly like the map”!



In the package - apart from the dummy itself, a card thrust into the card reader + instruction.

Installation

Software to configure the card - put from the card itself.
We stick the card into the card reader, the card reader into USB and ...

Well, I'm vumny - I had a laptop with Linux, WinE ...
I decided to try it: I launched the installation, everything was set, but ... It did not work ...
Grrr ...

I take fathers laptop with Windows, I repeat the process: hurray, aliluya! Their program has gone!
... And hung ...

As it turned out - she needs to connect to No ...

I turn on WiFi in the laptop, the program comes to Ineta and ... It offers to upgrade!
An attempt to brutally breaks off Pchelain - even if I have anlim turned on, but speed ... The normal speed here is 0 kilobob, and any deviations in plus are the Miracle of the Lord ...

As a result, the program has given up on the update and offered to register.
In principle, reg is simple - soap, password and everything.
At the fifth second of registration, a joyful message comes out that you can update the firmware on the card! And the buttons - one: "Update!", No options!
I shake.
Prog climbs into No for downloading firmware, for a long time trying to understand HOW speed can be zero, if by all indications there IS a connection ?!
As a result, he brutally breaks off: “You don’t understand the Russian dacha Inet with your mind, do not measure it with kilobod!” And gives the message “Atas-Kranty Khan, everything broke off, drag the card - it can even help!” leads to the support site ... No cancellation, no "further" !!!

Principle of operation

In all the reviews about this card it is said so enthusiastically that everyone has the impression that they put a computer with Linux inside the card and in general ...
In practice, this is not the case at all!
In fact, there is some kind of microcontroller that can connect to WIFI and exit to its native server, after which it sends the photos from itself to it, and already sends the server of the company according to your settings to Picasa, Youtube, etc. etc.

You can exclude their server from the chain, but not trivially, in the end, even if the card with the FTP server is on the same network, then without access to the Internet (and from the Internet to the server) - what the hell will you get out of two!

Until complete happiness, they refused to work cards in my cell: no, judging by the logs of the router, they connected to the grid, but ... But the camera doesn't want to recognize them as a memory card!
Canon eats, but these FullHD cameras are not!
Moreover, the SDHC camera also supports - I even shoved 16 gig in there, but a measly 4 gig in any way!

Part 2

So, normal internet ...

Firmware upgrade. Sense zero - the camera did not see the card, and ignores the same!
I honestly don’t understand the logic: if this card is visible even in the card reader, how can it be so visible in the camera, with which 4 and 8 and 16 and even 32 gigabyte SDHC cards work without problems ?!

In fotik - no problem, apload checked: And sends it to the computer, and to the server ... Actually, three pictures from the article - made from my Canon with the first card (the second one I took the printed one).

Summary

Pros:

1. We forget about the laces to synchronize fotik, etc. etc.
2. Canon users - half a kilo of happiness in addition, because the card seems to support CHDK.

Minuses:

1. without Ineta will not work out of principle
2. Not all devices support, and logically, this non-support is not explainable in principle!
3. Linux support doesn’t exist AT ALL, but there is a prog for Mac and even iPhone
4. it is possible to load on FTP, but only on Internet, or on a local port with an open EXTERNAL port, since the traffic anyway goes through their server. There are options from the people under Pearl and C, which replace the server, but this is no longer an out-of-the-box solution.

Total: if you still bought such a card - set it up on a computer with an Internet, even if you only plan to use it within the limits of the “lokalki”!

For myself, I will leave one card for the camera, with the second I will experiment: MB will still work with the camera, if I get the manufacturer very hard or the people will give direct contact to the authors of the firmware ... The other four will wait for the final verdict ...