Hi, I'm experiencing some trouble with the SD card reader of my new Polargraph.

When I try to stick my SD card in the Polargraph and hit the "draw from SD" button, the only thing written (where the filenames should appear) is the word "none". Exactly like when there's no card at all...

I've tried formatting the SD card with a mac and wit a PC, both in FAT 32 and 16 but it's still the same thing.

What am I missing there? Has anyone experienced this?

Thanks!

Adrien

Hello,
yes unfortunately I've already tried everything you suggest. For some weird reason my Polargraph carry on pretending the SD card is empty...
If you have any other ideas, I'll be glad to read them 🙂 I keep faith, I keep looking for the solution!

Adrien

Have a look at the serial output that occurs when the machine is started up, to see if there are any errors, or messages. Normally, if there's no card in, it will send out something like "Card failed or not present". If there is a card, it will do some more diagnosis (with messages), and if it can find any files on the card, then it'll list them.

You can get to the serial output either by connecting to the polargraph controller and pressing ctrl-c (for Console), or you can use the serial port monitor in the Arduino IDE at 57600 baud.

Only other thing I can think I've had problems with is long filenames, 8 chars is max. I would have assumed that longer ones are just truncated (in that LONGFI~1.txt way that windows does)... But typing that, of course this mini-FAT system is not windows, and I do remember the long filenames being an "aha" moment. Give it a shot anyway, perhaps you've already tried it.

sn

Hi Adrien, yep the serial output is very useful for debugging because there's not much communication exposed in the controller itself. Right I'm assuming the SD card is the one supplied in the kit - am guessing it's a 4GB one. Is there any chance you have a spare lower capacity SD card you could have a try with?

Historically PolargraphSDs have come with 2GB cards because larger cards have necessarily used SDHC, (high capacity) which is a slightly different method of access that _in principle_ the readers are less often compatible with. But now smaller cards are more expensive, so the last few machines have shipped with 4GB cards instead. I wasn't sure they would work the same, but my initial testing reassured me that it worked ok, so that's the background. I wonder if there's edge cases here though - hope not.

When the studio is open again next week I can post a 2GB one (I think I have a couple leftover) out if you don't have one, or you can buy one locally and send me the bill 🙂

Don't think there could be anything to do with the firmware, as far as I can think of, there aren't any options around the SD card reading to be changed. I'll have a look around and see if I can find other folks reporting any issues with the SD library and SDHC cards. Of course it's possible it's just a faulty card. But then you wouldn't be able to use it in a computer though, I guess.

sn

Hm!! Well that's good news I suppose 🙂 Confusing though, I'll have to have a closer look at these 4GB cards...

Good luck!
sn