I have a KORG Pandora and the manual says I can use SMART MEDIA cards
from 4 to 128 mb. But then it also says ""with a power supply voltage"
 of 3.3 volts.

Here is the rub. I have NO idea based on the card whether the ones for
sale  are 3.3 volts.
Are there any I should be careful of? THe manufacturers are Sandisk,
adn the like. Do any manufacturer have cards that are NOT 3.3 volts
and what would happen if I used one that was NOT 3.3 volts? Would it
blow up or something?

Hi,

Smartmedia cards came as 5V and 3.3V.

To check the voltage for a particular card, you have to look up the
technical specifications for the card or the product litterature.
Almost all Smartmedia cards will be 3.3V now.

For instance the product page for this Kingston model tells you that it's 3.3V:

Kingston 128MB SmartMedia Card 3.3V
http://www.kingston.com/products/ssfdc.asp

Pricegrabber page of a given product will usually have a link to the
manufacturer's website where you can get the specifications:

Pricegrabber page for Smartmedia
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search.php/catzero_id=5/form_keyword=smartmedia

For instance this PNY card:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=564109

has a link to:
http://www.pny.com/products/flash/smartmedia.asp

Which tells you that the operating voltage is 2.7V to 3.6V which is ok
for your camera.

Your device would probably not blow up if you put in a 5V card, but it
will probably damage the device and/or the card.

If you want me to check the voltage for a particular card, please let
me know and I'll try to find out.

Thanks.
endo


Search strategy

Smartmedia specifications
://www.google.com/search?q=smartmedia+specifications

Smartmedia on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartmedia

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Request for Answer Clarification by ravenmaid-ga on 16 Jan 2006 08:31 PST

Hi you did a great job answering: But here is the bottom line. I have
a Pandora Pxr4 made by Korg and it uses one of these. I wanted to buy
a SMARTMEDIA CARD on EBAY ( just cuz I buy a LOT on EBAY) and NONE of
them mention the 3.3 volt parameter that the manual has. So I assume
the ones they list: PNY, Olympus, Sandisk,  Fuji must be okay right?
Should I be worried of the ones I would buy on EBAY if that they are
NOT 3.3 volt. To me if it was important they would MENTION THE VOLTAGE
RIGHT? Signed confused. I WILL GIVE A BONUS TIP IF YOU CAN GET TO THE
BOTTOM OF THIS DILEMMA.

---

Clarification of Answer by endo-ga on 16 Jan 2006 13:14 PST

Hi there,

You are correct in your assumption, all new cards seem to be 3.3V.

Here's a quote from a webpage I found:

"Older types of SmartMedia cards need 5 volts operating power and
their storage capacity is limited to 4 Mb.
To separate them from the newer type, one corner of the card  has been
cut off so they do not fit in cameras produced after 1997.
Modern SmartMedia cards use a voltage of 3.3 volts and their storage
capacities range from 8 to 2Gb."

Storage media:
http://www.dcviews.com/tutors/tt59213.htm

If you have any doubts on a particular card or eBay auction, let me
know and I can verify it. But from the information available to me,
you can most probably assume that any card sold now will be 3.3V.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Thanks.
endo


Search strategy:

smartmedia volts
://www.google.com/search?q=smartmedia+volts

Thanks for the great rating and the tip.
endo