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I have a Monoprice Select Mini v2 and it came with a 256 MB SD card. I have a bunch of 16 GB cards. I have made sure that the new SD card has a FAT32 filesystem. I copy the gcode file onto this card and when I put it in the printer, it can't find any files!

And yes, the file is at the root level of the filesystem and it uses the proper naming convention. The file works on the old card.

Since the old card still works, this isn't an emergency, but I want to have a backup and I don't have any other cards that small.

0scar
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NomadMaker
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3 Answers3

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Unfortunately, the answer isn't as simple as that a specific size of SD card works and another size doesn't. The Marlin firmware wiki mentions:

The SD- or MMC- Card must be formatted as FAT and must have a MMC interface. This is more likely with cards <= 2 GB.

MMC is the predecessor of SD. SD cards are not necessarily fully backwards compatible with MMC. Apparently, Marlin uses some features specific to MMC, so your card should support it.

The SD card support in Marlin is based on the Arduino SD Card Library, which further mentions:

The library supports FAT16 and FAT32 file systems on standard SD cards and SDHC cards.

Based on this:

  • Cards should be formatted FAT16 or FAT32.

  • Cards bigger than 32 GB definitely won't work (not SD or SDHC).

  • Cards at most 2 GB will probably work.

  • Cards between 2 GB and 32 GB might work, depending on the specifics of the card.

Greenonline
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Tom van der Zanden
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0

The maximum size is 32 GB, however using microSD has a little disadvantage:

  1. The microSD adapter and Micro memory are wrong assembled and the chip are unable to be read.

    Solution: stick with a tape adhesive to keep Micro memory and SD adapter well aligned

  2. The SD adapter can't be read on the 3D printer

    Solution: Add an extra tape adhesive over the SD adapter just like sticker, to make tight the assembly inside the reader.

Clean the contacts of the SD adapter, normally has the same issue like nintendo cartridge.

I´m planning to get a bunch of SD cards instead microSD's, none of SD 8 GB and 16 GB are failing due wrong contact assembly.

Community
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Fernando Baltazar
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  1. Get a copy of Partition Wizard (Free)
  2. Take your 16G or 32G or ...? SD card and delete the existing partition.
  3. Create a 2G partition and format it as FAT.

Yes, you are wasting a lot of the SD card space but given the price of these things these days, who cares. And it will work.

Sid
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