FireWire 800 CompactFlash Reader and macOS High Sierra (10.13+) Delock 91694

We tested the Delock 91694 FireWire 800 CompactFlash Reader under macOS High Sierra (10.13.1). The Delock's 91694 FireWire 800 Reader worked flawlessly, mounting a SanDisk Extreme® CompactFlash 60MB/s UDMA 16GB cards, and a Transcend 4GB 133X card.

Under 10.4 through 10.9 iPhoto opened automatically when the reader was connected or when new CompactFlash cards were inserted. macOS High Sierra is the fourth macOS version to deploy the Photos app, which does not automatically launch. However, when we opened Photos and navigated to the "File > Import…" function, the CompactFlash card present in the reader was there and ready for importing with the preview feature.

The speedy Delock 91694 FireWire 800 CompactFlash Reader worked well under macOS High Sierra (10.13.1). Here's screen shots of the PCM-CR-FW81ECF-03 / 91694 working under macOS High Sierra (10.13.1). Our MacBook Pro has a FireWire 800 port and a Thunderbolt port.

S.M.A.R.T. queries to SSD connected via a Delock 42510 Thunderbolt housing

Delock 42510 S.M.A.R.T. queries to SSD

Was asked if one could make expanded S.M.A.R.T. queries to SSD installed in a Delock 42510 running on macOS Sierra. Test system was running 10.12.5. SSD was as SanDisk SDSSDA120G.

S.M.A.R.T.

First thing to do was install smartmontools using macports.

sudo port -v install smartmontools

Then run the query on the SSD in question.

smartctl -a disk2

smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [Darwin 16.6.0 x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     SandForce Driven SSDs
Device Model:     SanDisk SDSSDA120G
Serial Number:    164702445504
LU WWN Device Id: 5 001b44 4a67ae626
Firmware Version: Z32080RL
User Capacity:    120,034,123,776 bytes [120 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Form Factor:      2.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 T13/2015-D revision 3
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Jul 17 23:26:13 2017 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
                    was never started.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever 
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:        (  120) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x11) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    No Auto Offline data collection support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    No Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    No Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (  10) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Retired_Block_Count     0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec 0x0032   000   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       329h+00m+00.000s
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       23
165 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       85903147061
166 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
167 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
168 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
169 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
170 Reserve_Block_Count     0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
171 Program_Fail_Count      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
172 Erase_Fail_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
173 Unknown_SandForce_Attr  0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct  0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       21
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   058   038   000    Old_age   Always       -       42 (Min/Max 0/62)
199 SATA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
230 Life_Curve_Status       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       73015951383
232 Available_Reservd_Space 0x0033   100   100   004    Pre-fail  Always       -       100
233 SandForce_Internal      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       195
234 SandForce_Internal      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       247
241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB     0x0030   253   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       220
242 Lifetime_Reads_GiB      0x0030   253   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       850
244 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   000   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

Selective Self-tests/Logging not supported

EverythingHerePlus tests Delock's 91694 CompactFlash FireWire Reader with Xubuntu Linux

Just in case no one has tested the Delock FireWire 800 CompactFlash reader under Linux, the good folks at EverythingHerePlus have. They write about it here and here. The CompactFlash cards they tested aren't of much interest for DSLR folks, so I won't post the actual benchmarks here. Those interested can check out the previous mentioned posts. They used the benchmarking feature of the linux app Disk Utility 3.0.2, and listed their test platform as follows.

• Xubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
• Intel Core2 6300 @ 1.86GHz with 2GB RAM

For older Linux systems without SuperSpeed USB 3.0, using FireWire 800 or even FireWire 400 is going to provide much better performance reading high end CompactFlash cards. The Delock 91694 FireWire CF CompactFlash Reader FireWire 800/IEEE 1394B is an excellent piece of hardware. I'll try to get them to test some higher speed CompactFlash on their setup soon.

Delock FireWire 800 to CompactFlash UDMA Drive Read-Writer 91694

I got to spend several days testing the Delock FireWire 800 to CompactFlash Reader. It worked spectacularly with the 16GB Sandisk Extreme 60MB/S UDMA CompactFlash cards that I use in my Canon 7D. I'll be posting benchmarks here soon.

The Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer is a must for pro photographers and other demanding users of high speed CompactFlash memory cards. Capable of exploiting the high speeds of the latest generation of CompactFlash memory cards, the FireWire readers 800 boasts incredible read speeds. The Delock FireWire 800 to UDMA CompactFlash Drive reader supports all the recent high-speed CompactFlash standards including PIO Modes 0-4, DMA Modes 0-2, and UDMA Modes 0-6. it features a single CompactFlash slot for CompactFlash Type I and II including Hitachi Microdrives and other CFII+ rotating media. It supports FireWire 800 (and 400 with and optionally purchased adapter or cable) connectivity on both Macintosh and Windows Operating Systems. The FireWire 800 to CompactFlash uses FireWire bus power, so the CFFire800 reader plugs and plays with no external AC power. The Delock FireWire 800 to CompactFlash Drive requires no drivers and comes with a one year limited warranty.