Cannot get SD card to work

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2017-12-31 by user84292

Hi folks,

I had wired up an SD card socket from Sparkfun:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/SparkFun-Electronics/DEV-13743/?qs=WyAARYrbSna7AKzdOk0X8g%3D%3D&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsqLSBRCmARIsAL4Pa9TQXhYrFu8L0QQcDVMAQE91NwG4RAm4irzcp8LHGGQq_icz7bBiY6saAuxPEALw_wcB

But I keep getting the message, even with multiple different SD cards, all formatted to Fat32.

"Uncaught Error: Unable to mount media : NOT_READY
    at line 6 col 41
     console.log(require("fs").readdirSync());"

I triple-checked all the connections, and then used a meter to check connectivity, power, shorts, etc. They were all correct.

So I figured it must be the socket. I removed it and soldered this one on in it's place, figuring that perhaps the added voltage regulation circuit might help:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/254?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsqLSBRCmARIsAL4Pa9SFqtMV7P6ijT3YC_O2wkmDjScGyUWDSlxgrcYFvsitDs03yyHVn2oaApQ7EALw_wcB

But I still get the exact same error message. Am I missing something obvious here? Again, I checked all the connections and they're fine. I have a DS18B20 connected to different pins and it works great, so the Espruino appears to be fine. Test program for SD card looks like this:

function onInit() {
  console.log("Connected!");
  // Wire up up MOSI, MISO, SCK and CS pins (along with 3.3v and GND)
  SPI1.setup({mosi:B5, miso:B4, sck:B3});
  E.connectSDCard(SPI1, B6 /*CS*/);
  // see what's on the device
  console.log(require("fs").readdirSync());  
  for (var i in files)
    console.log("Found file "+files[i]);

  var f = E.openFile("log.txt", "w");
  f.write("Testing 123");
  f.close();
  
  f = E.openFile("log.txt", "r");
  f.pipe(console.log);
  f.close();
}

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2018-01-04 by @gfwilliams

That all looks fine to me - SD cards should be 3.3v, as is the Espruino - so you shouldn't need level conversion circuitry.

However you are doing this in onInit - what if you just paste the commands into the left-hand side one by one to test?

I have found that sometimes the SD cards take a few seconds to start working after they're powered on - I'm not sure if that could be an issue here...

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Posted at 2018-01-04 by user84292

I actually did exactly as you suggest, cutting and pasting from the code above. I'm really at a loss as to how to debug, as I've had no issues getting these adapters to work with Arduinos, Rasp PIs, etc.

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Posted at 2018-01-04 by @gfwilliams

Have you tried different SD cards, and cards that you're sure are FAT32 formatted?

I actually just tried this with a Pico and it works fine - however I have a 2GB card that it doesn't appear to work with, but I'm also having trouble with the Espruino WiFi.

I'll try and track this down a bit more as it should really be more resilient, but it might be a few weeks as I'm waiting for a micro SD card breakout.

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Posted at 2018-01-04 by user84292

Yes, tried with a number of cards and both sockets. Cards were formatted Fat32 on a Linux machine with parted. They could be read by a Windows machine as well.

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Posted at 2018-01-18 by user84292

Wondering if anyone has had a chance to follow up on this?

Thanks

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Posted at 2018-01-19 by @gfwilliams

I haven't got the breakout yet, so I'm struggling to debug exactly why it's working on a Pico but not the Wifi.

You could maybe try adding a timeout after setting up the SD card - that's about the only thing I can think would really be different. You're using hardware SPI so it'd not like it'll be going too fast or anything.

function onInit() {
 console.log("Connected!");
 // Wire up up MOSI, MISO, SCK and CS pins (along with 3.3v and GND)
 SPI1.setup({mosi:B5, miso:B4, sck:B3});
 E.connectSDCard(SPI1, B6 /*CS*/);
 setTimeout(function(){
  // see what's on the device
  console.log(require("fs").readdirSync())­;  
  for (var i in files)
    console.log("Found file "+files[i]);
  var f = E.openFile("log.txt", "w");
  f.write("Testing 123");
  f.close();
  
  f = E.openFile("log.txt", "r");
  f.pipe(console.log);
  f.close();
 },2000);
}

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Posted at 2018-01-29 by @gfwilliams

Ok, I've done quite a lot of checking and fiddling now with a signal analyser, and:

• Some cards seemed to work reliably as-is
• Some cards worked reliably if you tried to initialise them a second time after the first time had failed
• Some cards wouldn't work at all *unless you added a pullup resistor to the CS/CD pin)

So I have modified the firmware now so that it automatically retries the initialisation a few times, which fixes a lot of problems... And I'll modify the documentation to suggest adding a pullup resistor to CS (which is good practice anyway as it'll stop noise from inadvertantly writing rubbish to the card, even if it's amazingly unlikely).

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Posted at 2018-01-30 by ClearMemory041063

From the Raspberry Pi site here is am SD card formatting program that might help.

SD Memory Card Formatter

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Posted at 2018-02-09 by user85862

I have successfull connected a microsd with fat32. Sometime i have wifi or sd errors.
Fixed that by waiting a few seconds after Oninit with setTimeout(....);

Best regards

Sacha

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Attachments:

• sdcard.png

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Posted at 2018-02-09 by @gfwilliams

Great! That's a really tidy place to put the SD card!

Are you using cutting edge firmwares? the SD card handling should have improved a lot since 1v95

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Posted at 2018-02-09 by user85862

Hi Gordon
Yep, using 1v95. Works perfect for me.
Regards
Sacha

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Posted at 2019-03-06 by Sacha

Until the rumored EspruinoWifi SD edition comes out :-)

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Attachments:

• espruinoWIFI_SD.jpg

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Posted at 2019-03-07 by @gfwilliams

Nice - how did you manage that? There aren't even any pins at that end of the board :)

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Posted at 2019-03-09 by Sacha

This way

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Attachments:

• open.jpg

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Posted at 2019-03-09 by Robin

Hey, . . . a flip up tonneau cover for an Espruino WiFi !!

Tight and compact, . . . and with it's own storage compartment!

Nicely done @sacha

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Posted at 2019-03-11 by @gfwilliams

Nice - thanks! Good use of ethernet cable there ;)