Micro SD card troubles and questions

Projects General Guidance
1

I have a project I am helping a friend out with..

And after all the prototyping/development stuff was completed.. and the project handed off..

he came back asking if I could load all the micro sd cards for him, as it was a PITA to do so on a MAC? (which I found very odd that MAC users have to jump through hoops to load audio clips to an SD card...but anyways)

I dont have a lot of experience/exposure to all the known SD card issues out there.. my experience has shown me (for my projects).. they just work most of the time.

I used a range of cards order via ebay over the years.. or scavenged from old phones/devices..etc and ranges from 128MB, 512MB.. 1GB, 2GB and 4GB cards... all without issues.

My current project uses an Arduino and the DFPlayer mini board..

Al my sd card just work.. doesnt matter which one I use. (even the 4GB one)..

The DFPlayers state they work with up to 32GB cards..

The link my buddy says he ordered the cards from is this:

However the cards I have on hand that he dropped off.. do NOT have the HC logo on it..
Kinda just has a BIGGER Micro SD logo on it.. with a tiny 2GB text.. and tahst it (along with arrow graphic)

I put the SD card in my PC..

Odd thing is.. (I have tried two cards so far).. each time I put one on, I get a prompt saying this card/drive needs to be formatter before it can be used.. do you want to format. YES/NO?

I click yes.. it formats..
I load the files to the card (in the order I need as that is a DFPlayer requirement)
I put the card in the DFPlayer..
Loads and see the card fine (as the code below shows it would throw an error if not working)

Serial.println(F("Initializing DFPlayer ... (May take 3~5 seconds)"));
  if (!myDFPlayer.begin(myDFPlayerSerialConn)) {
    Serial.println(F("Unable to begin:"));
    Serial.println(F(" - Please recheck the connection!"));
    Serial.println(F(" - Please insert the SD card!"));
    while (true);
  }
  Serial.println(F("DFPlayer Mini online."));

Which outputs the DFPlayer Mini Online.

But no audio plays. The DFPlayer led light doesnt even come one.

I do nothing to the set-up.. but swap out for one of MY sd cards... press the button on the Nano to reset it.. works as expected...

I'm not sure what options I have here any more?

I have attempted to format the SD card via Windows format.. to both FAT and FAT32 (no change)..

I used disk manager (no change)..

I used an external utility tool to format... (no change)

I dont know if there is a setting to work with cards.. a specific way these should be formatted in order for them to be used?

Anybody got some advice on what to try?

2

Are you using this SD Memory Card Formatter | SD Association

That utility is recommended.

There is a version for Mac apparently.

.

3

That -is- the utility I am using currently..

However it doesnt give you any options to change things to FAT/FAT32 or even NTFS for example?

From what I read/understand.. I can use FAT or FAT32..

Hell I was even going to try and partition the SD card to see if I could make a 1GB partition or something and give that a try?

How can a batch of cards work fine/as expected everywhere else.. but NOT with the DFPlayer mini's?

And what could be the difference between these and my slew of old cards that work fine?

I'm stumped!

4

I use 1 GB partition of a 16 GB SD card with Mega

5

I use Windows..

How are you making partitions on your Micro SD Cards?

My option is grey'd out.

I find it very odd these micro sd cars work in every other fashion that I expect.. but not with the DFPlayers?

Every other sd card "I" personally own.. DOES work with the DFPlayer though?

6

I'm wondering is these cards are somehow mis-labeled?

The auction states, shows an image, displaying the card as HC (High Capacity).. but I thought that was only for 4GB and above?

Also.. the cards that came do NOT have the HC label?

Can I somehow format these to be seen as regular SD cards? Stinks that I have 18 of these that dont work for crap! LOL

7

EDIT: I've just tried using the SD Card Formatter that was linked above, and when you open it up it quite clearly shows if the inserted card is SD or SDHC.
I'm not a qualified expert on SD cards, but I've been playing around with the DFPlayer Mini too.
I've been using these cards (the 128MB version) since the sound samples I've been using are very short. They're obviously SDSC, and Windows Properties shows them as using FAT rather than FAT32.
Your cards might be SHSC or SDHC- this page was really helpful to me when I was looking at what cards to get.
Do your cards work properly outside of the DFPlayer?

8

Yes.. the cards behave as expected in every aspect.. expect when being used with the DFPlayer.. (but it does initialize, and doesnt show any errors)

I have tried a handful of other cards... various brands and capacities..

even a 4GB SDHC card!.. and that too worked just fine.

But the ones linked to above.... which came as 2GB, NOT HC labeled,...(even though auction says are HC)... do NOT work at all.

How can you partition an SD card?

When I tried to use Disk Manager.. the option was grey'd out..

The SD Formatter tool above doesnt seem to have ANY options to change anything.. (just format)

9

xl97:
But the ones linked to above.... which came as 2GB, NOT HC labeled,...(even though auction says are HC)... do NOT work at all.

Just out of curiousity, do they show up as SDSC or SDHC in the SD Card Formatter?

xl97:
The SD Formatter tool above doesnt seem to have ANY options to change anything.. (just format)

I suppose it does exactly what it does, but I was surprised at how limited this program is.

xl97:
How can you partition an SD card?
When I tried to use Disk Manager.. the option was grey'd out..

I followed the steps here. I'd never used DiskPart before, but it seems to work ok. It does seem that you can't create extended partitions, but if you really want to make a small FAT primary partition you can.

10

I'll double check when I get home tonight to see if it states HC or not.. (I dont recall seeing it.. but to be honest I dont think I was paying attention/looking for it)

I'llk give your link a shot as well tonight..

(I dont recall having any of those options available.. everything was grey'd out previously)..

I dont care what needs to be done.. as long as they work in the end! LOL

Bulk 'bad' cards...

11

SD Card Formatter Utility shows it as an 'SD' card.. 1.8GB capacity.

12

Partitioning the SD card into a 512MB Healthy/Primary Partition (remaining unallocated) didnt seem to work either.

Stumped at this point.