Can't get SD Card reader to work

[Bobbler]

Was hoping to turn the PC off when doing longer prints - I have a big gaming rig so will not exactly be supping power - but cannot for the life of me seem to get the SD card reader on my FF Creator to work.

It originally read the SD card shipped with the printer no issue - although they didn't have any printable models on (was just in STL format which the printer doesn't work with directly) - even that doesn't work any more.

What disk formats does the card reader work with - and is it limited in the card sizes it can read?
I have tried 4, 8, 16 and 32GB cards - various types MicroSD in adapters, expensive high speed one I use in my camera, all of which are known working in those devices. These have all been FAT32 format
I have also tried FAT16 formatted 2GB card, and also using command line built a single 1GB partition on a couple of the cards in FAT16 with no success.

All report as "SD Card Read Error" on the printers on board display. But they read perfectly on the computer SD card readers I have.

Any help appreciated

[Dargonfly]

Which firmware are you running?
I run one of my Flashforges on firmware 1.0 and one at 7.x

The one running 1.0 can read (as far as I know) any card up to 8gb - but has a problem with 'fast' SD cards..
The one running 7.x can only read the standard 2gb card that got delivered with the machine..

In conclusion:
- try different SD cards (preferably SLOW ones with only 2gb or less.. you probably don't need more anyway) - these should be cheap, so you could try some different ones of different brands - there seem to be some subtle variations between them which allow them to function on one device but not the other.
- if above doesn't work, try changing firmware to 1.0 - or maybe there is another firmware version with better SD card support.. I'm not sure about that.

Good luck and keep us updated!

[curious aardvark]

what files are you putting on the card ?

I'm using the one that came with the machine- think it's fat 16.
You can probably get a few hundred x3g files on that anyway. So anything bigger is just going to be wasted.

But it sounds like the card reader is either buggered or not wired up to the board properly.

I've had no issues with mine at all.

[Bobbler]

I upgraded when I got the printer straight away - foolishly I took the Replicator 1.0 title to be the actual firmware revision, but upgraded it to 7.5 without a hitch and have been getting some very very good prints from it - did some .1 layer stuff last night and it came out flawlessly following the excellent tips I have read on this very forum for temperatures and the like.


It did work when it came out the box - I plugged in the card which was a no-name 4GB card and it just came up with an empty selection for printing, which is because it contained no files it could use I expect (had some docs, software zips and a few STL's on it).
When I put in a FAT32 card it will come up card read error - so I gathered it didn't support that format. I put a few x3g's on the original card and now that also says card read error, no change to the format, just dropped on a couple hundred KB worth of files I wanted to leave going which I watched some TV in the other room. There is I suppose the potential for files that it can't understand being on the card being an issue so will give that a play later.


Files are all exported from Simplify 3d (highly recommended bit of software, was well worth the purchase for my needs personally) and the same file loads from the SD card and prints fine over USB from the PC.


I will also check out the potential for a wiring issue - I have had the bottom off it more than once, first time was curiosity and to look at the god awful whining motherboard fan and the other time was to retrieve my allen key .


Will keep you posted, I get the suspicion that it is the cards now - at least I can concentrate on small, slow cards with FAT format now Must have an old 1GB or smaller SD some place in the house.

[Dargonfly]

As mentioned; when I upgraded my printed it became LESS compatible with some SD cards. You can try downgrading the firmware if you cannot find another SD card that works because I find that the difference between my two boxes is very little while one is running firmware 1.0 and the other 7.something. I even tried Sailfish, didn't change that much either, but the settings that it unlocks (same for 7.x) DO have potential to change a lot.. though, if you did not change your onboard preferences (through RepG), then it's safe to say that you can try downgrading without having any loss in print quality or speed.

If you have images to show of your prints, please post them on this board! We have a topic here in the Flashforge sub-forum specially to show of your prints, so please do since we could all learn a lot from seeing each others prints!

Simplify3D should not be the bottle neck here; a lot of the Flashforge users in this community tried/use the programm (I use it myself) and are generally quite satisfied with it.


!! Now I remember something! when you upgrade to the latest firmware there are different versions (there is 7.5 and 7.5B for instance - and the B versions are for Flashforges WITH BROKEN SD CARDS! - check if you didn't install that version, because then your SD reader probably wont work either) While you check that (perhaps even install firmware again to make sure) - also check if you selected the correct chipset 1280 or 5660 and machine.

[Bobbler]

Now at home so managed to try out a few things.
My old 64MB MMC card opens ok - no card read error. Format is FAT16, but it will not show any files on it (I have a gcode and a X3G on there both exported from Simplify3D and also one exported from RepG).

Firmware - I installed 7.5 standard (not B).

Have just installed Sailfish and it will now read at least one of my SD cards! (though several of them it still plain refuses to do so saying that they need to be formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 - which they are) Happy with that one working though, will see how the print comes out in comparison to the same thing I did last night direct over USB.

[Bobbler]

Ah bugger, spoke to soon, the centre is off by about half the build plat now.
From home (away and to the right) it used to go to the very left and up to the front just before print. It now sees the roughly the centre as being the left edge of the build plate.
I had this before and resolved via Home/VREFs but they are currently set the same as before the flashing - took screen prints of each page before flashing.

[Bobbler]

And fixed! Erased motherboard in RepG completely and that has sorted it out. Back to printing

[Dargonfly]

And fixed! Erased motherboard in RepG completely and that has sorted it out. Back to printing

Yeah, I had the same 'problem' when started using Sailfish. Good to hear you got it working again so quickly!

When you have some prints ready, if you can, please take an image and share them on the forum here, always fun to see what others are printing and what it looks like!