Multiple SD cards on a VS1005 system

[Panu]

Dear Members,

We recently made an experimental add-on card for the VS1005 Developer Board that can use up to 8 SD cards with the VS1005. If you're interested in such a solution, please get in touch!

IMG_3033.JPG (149.06 KiB) Viewed 7162 times

-Panu

[RLee]

Hello Panu,

I was wondering if you have had any more progress on this product as I would be very much interested in experimenting with it.

Kind Regards

Rob

[Panu]

Hi!

Basically I just verified that the hardware works. I modified the existing SD driver so that it starts one of the cards in startup, based on the command line parameter - that way you can use one of the cards but you can select which one you use.

The next step would be to make a driver that can enumerate all 8 cards at once (or how many can electrically be used, not sure) so that you can use them all together.

What kind of need do you have?

-Panu

[RLee]

That's very exciting stuff.

I am developing a system to make long terms recordings for scientific purposes, so it is only to increase the overall capacity of the device. In an ideal situation i would record to one sd card, once it is full move on to the next and continue this until they were all filled.

I hope this makes sense and will one day be possible with the system.

Kind regards

Rob

[Panu]

Hi!

I think that it could be already possible with this extension board, but the recording software you write must trap the disk full error and then restart the SD driver with a different card selected. Also note that you can use the VSOS FORMAT utility to reformat your large sd cards (sdxc cards) to use FAT32 file system. In theory, VSOS FORMAT should be able to format cards up to 8 terabytes to FAT32, if such cards ever become available.

-Panu

[RLee]

Panu,

That is excellent. As I am working with WAVs that have a predictable size of file this should be very easy. will the board be available to purchase or shall I just use the schematic to make my own? If so I may need a little advice on how to connect the thing up.

Really appreciate this. Also bring on the 8tb SD cards

Thank

Rob

[Panu]

Not sure if we have more than the one PCB. But at least I can ask Sami to upload the eagle design files and gerbers here so you can get your own PCB with maximum ease, from oshpark or wherever.

-Panu

[RLee]

That would be excellent. thank you very much.

Rob

[sami]

Hello.

Here are design files for vs1005dev_sdmux8. The zip contains updated schematic and board files in Eagle 7 format.

Pull-up resistor R1 for regulator enable has been added to version 1.1, so please use it as a template for your own boards.

There are also gerber files for version 1.0. It does not contain the R1 resistor. You should add R1 by hand if you use boards made from these gerbers.

---
Sami

[RLee]

Hello all,

I have finally finished the board after much reworking of the micro sd card slots to ensure that there were no bridged connections etc... and have checked it thoroughly. I plug the board in and much to my frustration it does nothing. When I plug in either the serial or usb it simply does nothing, no LEDs, not a single thing. The moment it is removed it boots in to action again. The voltage regulator is outputting 3.3v when i plug in the VHigh, IOVDD, GND amd TMO connection, so I know it is not that, but before I start removing all the components and putting them back on one by one I was wondering if you had any words of advice or any documentation that may help me along with this.

Thanks in advance

Rob