SD Card compatibility

[gary-h]

I am trying to ship product using an LPC55S69 with a MicroSD card.

I find that the driver software in MCUExpresso supports very, very few types of cards.

Cards that are about 3 years old work.  Cards that are older - or newer - than that do not work.

I get various errors depending on the brand and age of the card.  0x02, 0x03 and 0x21 are common return codes from 'fx_media_open'.

How to fix this?  Forcing the customer to use a specific card - especially one that is no longer available new - is a non-starter.

[gary-h]

I had asked for a list of supported cards.  I have not seen one.

Cards that do not work:  SanDisk, Samsung, and PNY.

Cards that do work:  None found. 

I suggest that you get a brand-new card, straight from the package, and test it using your 'lpcxpresso55s69_filex_sdcard' example.  You will find that no new cards work.

Windows and Linux no longer initialize an SD-Card in a way that your port of FileX will accept.

[brendonslade]

Hi Gary,

we test File-X with a Kingston microSDHC 16GB card. Would you be able to get one (Amazon have them for ~$17) so we can see if that works for you? 

[gary-h]

XiangJun Rong indicated that there is a list of supported cards.  Please share that list.

Limiting to one brand of card creates a product that will not sell.  This is not a solution.

Gary.

[brendonslade]

Hi Gary,

Sorry for your frustration - my post was intended to get to a common reference point of a working platform (i.e. what works for us so we can converge on a solution). The Kingston card I mentioned is the go-to (but not the only) one our development team use on the LPCXpresso55S69 board, and we re-confirmed that this is working for us. 

We'll get in direct contact to try and work on the resolution with you and the development team.

Regards,

Brendon

[gary-h]

Thank you.

Please note that the problem only exists on new cards.  Cards that have an acceptable partition table will never show the issue - no matter how many times they are reformatted.

The reason it shows up on new cards is that the need for a partition table on SD-Cards has been removed, so new cards do not have one and Windows will not add one.  A partition table does reduce the capacity of the card; this is probably why it has been eliminated.

I have been able to duplicate the error using the LPC55S69-EVK with lpcxpresso55s69_filex_sdcard.  What I do is try a new card in this setup - I verify that Windows recognizes the card without having to initialize it, and that I can write files to it.  I then test the card in the EVK setup and notice that the software returns an error.  The typical error in this case is 0x02 - FX_MEDIA_INVALID.

I have also tried formatting the card without a partition table.  In all cases Windows and Linux can mount/read/write the card perfectly.  Depending on the version of Windows used to format the card I will get 0x02, 0x03, or 0x21 errors from lpcxpresso55s69_filex_sdcard.  The error codes are unique and repeatable according to the OS used to format the card.

If I put a card into an older version of Linux (Ubuntu-14) and make a file system there (Linux's version of format) then the card is usable by all three - Windows, Linux, and FileX.  Re-formatting the card in Windows after Linux has created a file system does not make it stop working.

I have found no relationship between the 0x02 error and the size or maker of the card.  I have found a 100% relationship between the partition table and card errors. 

My issue is that the end user will typically not have the ability - or desire - to manually add a partition table prior to use, and that will prevent them from being able to use the product.

Gary.

[xiangjun_rong]

Hi, Gary,

Unfortunately, because of two many SD card brands and types, I can not give the lists of SD card the SDK supports, I am sorry.

BR

XiangJun Rong

[gary-h]

I understand that the software was only tested with one Kingston card of unknown origin, so I tried a Kingston card as suggested by brendonslade.  A brand-new card was not accepted by NXP software, even though it worked perfectly on Windows.

Now the list of supported cards that can be purchased new is:

• None

There is an error in the NXP port of the FileX library that prevents new cards from working.

Will it get fixed?

[xiangjun_rong]

Hi, Gary,

I am sorry.

I have created a ticket to AE/SDK team, and ask them if they can provide a list the SDK example code can support,  and the compatibility issue with different file system  formatted by WIN XP, Win7 or Win10

I suppose I can get a response on Tuesday next week.

BR

XiangJun Rong

[gary-h]

Hello,

When testing a card with the application example the card-format step must be removed.

Re-formatting a card before every use hides any incompatibility issue.

The end user probably wouldn't appreciate having all of his files erased every time he turns on the device.

[gary-h]

I did more testing around this problem.  I tried SD-Cards from Samsung, SanDisk, and PNY.  For SanDisk I tried 'Extreme' and 'Ultra'.

In all tests it did not matter what brand of card I used.  What mattered was the OS (WinXP, Win7, Win10) that the card was formatted on.  I also tried cards direct from the package - not formatted by a PC.

In all tests, cards formatted on a Win10 PC would not work.  I tested this using the 'lpcxpresso55s69_filex_sdcard' example on a LPC55S69-EVK.

What does work are cards from a few years back - probably formatted on a Win7 PC.  I have not found a modern card that works direct from the package.

Is there a list of "cards supported by the current SDK version"?  I have not seen any list.

[xiangjun_rong]

Hi,

If the SD card you are using is not supported, I suppose it is a software issue.

Can you tell us the SD card number so that I can give suggestion to SDK team even if the SD card is not supported by the current SDK version.

BR

XiangJun Rong