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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588
Posted: 01:25am 12 Oct 2016
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Hi folks.
This is something that has been requested a few times recently, both here on the forums, and in PM's to me and via my website: "Where can I get/when can I get an add-on SD card for the E100 board?"
Well, I finally managed to assemble and test the 1A prototype unit tonight, and I am happy to report that it works fine.
The image above is using one of the 1A prototype E100 boards(as in the images in the SC articles), but the pinout and tracking for the 1B is identical to the 1A with respect to this connector.
"BUSY" LED lights while the SD card CS line is low, so is a quick and easy way to show SD card access is taking place. This little board has the 2R2/100n RC filter on the 3v3 power supply to the SD card, and I have been swapping cards all night on it thus far, and the E100 has NOT ever rebooted by itself when this was done, like in some of the E64 modules which do that with the supervisory IC in place.
This 1A E100 board also has a supervisory IC.
I am likely going to be selling these on the website soon for about US$10 a kit(including airmail to anywhere on the planet) - which will include the PCB, SD-card socket, resistors, cap, LED and pin-header.
This particular SD card socket can be had easily on eBay, but they don't have any way to anchor the socket to the PCB. The socket relies on it's pins being soldered to the board to hold it there, along with perhaps a snug-fitting front bezel or something. I have added extra holes so you can give the socket a seatbelt, and also by soldering the metal shield to the PCB too for additional support.
The 1A of this add-on board was not PERFECT in that the locating dowels on the bottom of the socket did not match perfectly what I had designed, so I had to cut one of them off. Any 1B version of this board will fix that, and probably shorten the SMD pads for the socket pins too, as they are too long for my liking.(however, that does no harm)Edited by Grogster 2016-10-13Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
led-bloon Senior Member Joined: 21/12/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 207
Posted: 10:10am 12 Oct 2016
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Looks good. Had you thought of putting a microSD card holder on the underside of the board (like some of those cheap USB card readers)? Then it's an "and/or" but still a "best of both worlds", kind of ... rgds don Miss you George
Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588
Posted: 03:01pm 12 Oct 2016
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To be perfectly honest - no.
HOWEVER, I DID considder uSD cards, but as you can get full-size SD to uSD adaptor things, and they normally give them away free as part of buying a uSD card in many brands these days, that is that one solved.
IE: You can use a uSD card in the add-on board just fine, if you plop the uSD card into one of those uSD-SD adaptor things.Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
f1fco Senior Member Joined: 18/03/2012 Location: FrancePosts: 155
Posted: 03:52am 13 Oct 2016
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Hi Grogster, I am very interested by 1 board, for SD card full size
Pierre, from Nimes, south of France73s de F1FCO
WarwickG Newbie Joined: 09/11/2015 Location: New ZealandPosts: 5
Posted: 02:46pm 14 Oct 2016
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Hi Grogster The add on SD card I picked up from you yesterday took only a few minutes to build and once I had the right OPTION SDCARD 52,53, 17 command for my E100, the previously uncommunicable 7" SSD1963 immediately responded to FILES and other SD card commands. Thanks. It proves to me that the SD slots on some of these LCD screens are not always totally functional, my 5" works fine. You are right in that the smaller SD card capacity i.e. below 16M and below work best, I have had no reponse from a 64M card, although all had the same Fat32 format and files loaded. Problem SD card revived and now I can locate the SD card in a more convienient and accessible position!
WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932
Posted: 09:11pm 14 Oct 2016
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It is definitely worth running a soldering iron (with a small amount of solder on the tip) over the SD socket pins. The quality of soldering I have seen on some TFTs leaves a lot to be desired.
I assume you mean 16G and 64G From the many MicroMites I have built/tested/used, I can say that the 8Gb and 16Gb work 100% of the time. I have experienced issues with 4Gb and lower, but that is not to say they don't work. For the low cost that they are now, I would always recommend either a 8Gb or 16Gb branded SD card; and also from a 'local' supplier such as a supermarket where there is the option to return/replace if it doesn't work.
Old cards lying around in the draw may indeed work (and save a few dollars) but then again they may not causing time wasted in working out why they don't work.
Also beware of some of the micro-SD card adaptors (to make them into full size SD cards). I have come across faulty ones of these too!
Glad you are up and running with this Grogster's excellent add-on adaptor PCB (but do try the 'iron trick' to see if it was bad soldering on the TFT . . .
WWEdited by WhiteWizzard 2016-10-16
Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588
Posted: 11:37pm 14 Oct 2016
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Nice to see you around the forums, Warwick. Don't be a stranger - members here are very helpful and welcoming.
Glad you got it going - obviously something fishy with the SD card slot on the LCD then - seems you were indeed right about that.
16MB cards(yes - megabyte) won't work. I have a batch of old 16MB SanDisk cards from decades ago, and they won't read in the MM no matter what - "SD card is inaccessible" or whatever that message is.
From 32MB up, I have had no problems right up to big 16GB cards.
It is indeed possible that the MM itself does not have any lower capacity limit with respect to SD card capacity(Geoff may chime in here), but more simply that the MM does not like the taste of the old SanDisk cards.Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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