Does Camera Connection Kit work with USB Thumbdrives?

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Does Camera Connection Kit work with USB Thumbdrives?

Hi, just got the new iPad2. Love the device. Thinking of it to support some work related processes on the road. Work's IT policy won't allow me to load iTunes on to work machine. iTunes is on my home, personal machine. But instead of putting work materials (videos, pictures, etc.) on to a thumb drive, go and load that on to home machine then reload on to iPad, can I use the Camera Connection Kit to directly load from the thumbdrive?

Thanks in advance!

Lenovo, Windows 7

Posted on Mar 21, 2011 2:02 PM

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Answer 1

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deggie

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Mar 21, 2011 3:24 PM in response to Diver6390

You can load pictures from an SD card so long as they are located in a DCIM folder in the root directory with naming convention of 8 plus 3. A thumb drive will not work and you can only transfer pictures and video content.

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Answer 2

lllaass

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Mar 21, 2011 3:33 PM in response to Diver6390

It will only work with photo and video files. A thumb drive will probably work if you use a powered hub since typically they draw too much power and you get an error message on th iPad.

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Answer 3

Diver6390 Author

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Mar 21, 2011 3:35 PM in response to deggie

Thank you, Deggie. It was my intent to transfer video and pics. Sorry, I wasn't very clear in the original post. My company makes a certain type of display, and I was thinking of using the iPad to drive demos through the new video dongle. But the pictures and videos to drive the demos are created here at work.

So, the question is, to transfer video (formatted to the right format for iPad's, of course) and pictures, with the right protocol as to the file name, can I use a thumbdrive?

Or are there hardware limitations to reading the thumbdrive?

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Answer 4

deggie

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Mar 21, 2011 10:44 PM in response to Diver6390

As was already stated, if you carry a powered hub with you, find outside power, connect the thumb drive to the hub, go from the hub using the USB mini plug connection to the Camera Connection Kit, and follow the other protocols, it may work.

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Answer 5

Diver6390 Author

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Mar 21, 2011 11:11 PM in response to deggie

Got it. Thanks everyone. I understand that a stick likely want to draw too much power.

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Answer 6

Mar 22, 2011 2:27 AM in response to Diver6390

Some thumb drives work... I just check the thumb drives that I have (4GB) and they still work with the Camera Connection Kit, no power hub was used. This is the important part, thumb drives need to be formatted fat 32. You can format the thumb drives with the disc utility app on a Mac.

Message was edited by: David M Brewer

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Answer 7

deggie

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Mar 22, 2011 11:28 AM in response to David M Brewer

Older low capacity models may work, newer ones tend to draw just a bit more power than Apple allows on the iPad dock connector at this time.

I don't recall ever running into a thumb drive that was not FAT 32. Even the Shuffles are FAT 32, but I know they draw too much power 😉

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Answer 8

lllaass

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Mar 22, 2011 11:54 AM in response to David M Brewer

A FAT 16 formatted thumb drive works too. I used to use on before iOS 4.x.

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Answer 9

lyskamm

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Mar 23, 2011 10:41 AM in response to deggie

I'm using a recent 16GB Kingston Mini Lite and works perfectly (iOS 4.3).
Basically you should use the basic models with no light indicator.

Alternatively just buy a SD card and use the SD adapter part of the Camera Connection kit.

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Answer 10

Diver6390 Author

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Mar 23, 2011 10:45 AM in response to lyskamm

I am thinking that's ticket. Buying an SD card would thus insure it works. I didn't even think of the fact that my laptop has an SD card reader/writer.

Thanks!

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