Unable to format SD card

[FeetDry]

The internal V2 memory formats fine. I am not able to format any of my 32M or 16G SD cards.

The LCD say's:
formatting,...
Formatting not done.
Format the SD card before using.

The cards format fine in my PC.
Doc I am reading says the V2 supports the 64M -> 2G SD cards.

Dumb Q time,...
Is my SD card not formatting because the size is too small, and too big? (Is the 64M->2G restriction still valid?) Or might this be someother issue?

[Tordne]

The 16 GB card definitely will not work as it is too large. I've not seen a case of a card being too small, but then again I probably haven't actually come across a 32 MB card to be honest Do you have anything in the 64MB -> 2GB range to try? I'm not aware of any issues otherwise so am assuming the card sizes are the issue.

[FeetDry]

I'm trying to locate a card in that size range.
The doc says: "external SD Card that can hold between 64Mb and 2Gb"
I'd suggest changing this to "64MB and 2GB", as the memory industry uses: B= Byte, and b= bit

Does the card type matter? SD, SDHC, Class 2, Class 6, Class 8,... (One is faster than the other.)

[Tordne]

Just SD card. FlashScan does operate at high speed for the SD card bus so there is no point spending too much on the card. Looks like SDHC is supposed to be backward compatible but they probably come in larger than 2GB capacities anyway.

[swingtan]

I've tried a 32MB card and it works fine. I think I even tried partitioning a 4GB card down to 2GB, but that wasn't too helpful

[Blacky]

Good news, I've just got done rewriting the FlashScan SD Card drivers to support SDHC Cards using the FAT32 file system. I've just tested a 4GB SDHC Card and it appears to be working correctly.

There are three types of SD Cards:
SD = Secure Digital Cards which can be up to 2GB with a special extension to allow support for 4GB.
SDHC = Secure Digital High Capacity Cards which can be 4GB to 32GB. It seems like there is a little confusion on how to tell the SD 4GB cards apart from the SDHC 4GB cards.
SDXC = Secure Digital eXtended Capacity for cards >32GB

As of firmware 2.06.35, FlashScan supports SD Cards up to 2GB.
As of firmware 2.06.36 (not released yet), FlashScan supports SD Cards up to 2GB and will support SDHC Cards up to 32GB.
FlashScan does not (and probably never will) support SDXC Cards.

Regards
Paul

[Blacky]

I'm trying to locate a card in that size range.
The doc says: "external SD Card that can hold between 64Mb and 2Gb"
I'd suggest changing this to "64MB and 2GB", as the memory industry uses: B= Byte, and b= bit

Thanks, I'll change the doco. Can you point me to the exact doco, please? Is it in the Quick Start Guide?

Does the card type matter? SD, SDHC, Class 2, Class 6, Class 8,... (One is faster than the other.)

Currently it matters, only SD Cards are supported. But as per my previous post, FlashScan will soon support SDHC (up to 32GB) as well.

The class/speed ratings are irrelevant to FlashScan as it interfaces to the SD Card using SPI. The SPI interface in FlashScan is limited to 10MHz which will hardly trouble even the slowest cards.
If you intend to use the card in a PC card reader that supports faster speeds, then the speed rating would be relevant - especially when transferring multiple MB of log files off of the card.

Regards
Paul

[Blacky]

Dumb Q time,...
Is my SD card not formatting because the size is too small, and too big? (Is the 64M->2G restriction still valid?) Or might this be someother issue?

Not a dumb question, but the answer is 32MB is too small. 64MB is the smallest SD Card supported by FlashScan's FAT32 file system.
Regards
Paul

[ScarabEpic22]

Awesome, its getting harder to find SD cards anymore that are smaller than 4GB! Although the one in my V2 is an old 128MB one I had lying around!

[Blacky]

Awesome, its getting harder to find SD cards anymore that are smaller than 4GB! Although the one in my V2 is an old 128MB one I had lying around!

Exactly, and given that 2GB and smaller SD Cards are going to become rare, the price will skyrocket as customers with devices that only support SD Cards try to source them. It may also mean that there will always be a market for 2GB SD Cards so someone will always manufacture them... but we couldn't take that risk. I had to bite the bullet and update the FlashScan firmware to support the SDHC specification.

Regards
Paul