2GB question

[jo]

Dear all,
Has anyone been able to successfully format and use an 2GB SD card on 50g ? If so, could I have a make and type of it ? I have tried at least 5 of different ones without any luck. So I am stuck on 1GB at the moment.
Help much appreciated.
Regards
jo

[jo]

Sorry for taking your time here because my search might be a futile one. This is what I found on HP site:

"When formatting in the 50G, you should ensure
the batteries are *fully* charged (or brand new).
I'd avise to format the 2GB card by means of your
PC, paying attention to use the "FAT16" format option.

In the following thread on comp.sys.hp48:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.hp48/browse_frm/thread/1099b9510985ee
83/c7457adf92a5db74?lnk=gst&q=format+SD+49G#c7457adf92a5db74

you may want to read some discussion about
your very same issue.

As far as the free memory showed by the Filer
for the SD card goes, that is a bug of the filer itself.
In fact, IIRC, the maximum number of figures
the built-in filer is able to manage as the size
of free memeory is 6 - so it won't be able to give
the right number back for a 2GB card...
However the space is there and entirely available
for the 50g (provided you may ever fill it up with
programs or documents :-).

Hope this helps.
Best regards.
Giancarlo "

I have formated the card with FAT and not FAT32 but it looks like there is no way of getting filer to show available space. I'll try writing something with hpgcc which will show the available space. Another problem is that 50g refused to format the card. I had to do it on PC.

[Tim Wessman]

No need to write something for HPGCC. Sample1 from the sources dir in fsystem does exactly what you want for up to 4 volumes on the card.

However, I beleive the value in the filer is correct. Load a 10k file on there and it should go down by 10k. The issue is that the SPACE in the filer isn't large enough to show correctly. Add a 1 on in your head and it should be correct.

TW

[jo]

Tim,
thank you for that.

Here is what I did today experimenting a bit:

Got 2 new 2GB SD cards. Obviously both got Format error when I tried to fromat them on 50g.
Tried FAT and FAT32 on PC and MAC.
None of the volumes would show as mounted using following code:

#define TINY_PRINTF
#include <hpgcc49.h> //the standard HP lib
#include <fsystem.h>
int main(void)
{ int i;
clear_screen();
printf("------\n");
for(i=0;i<3;i++)
{//printf("Volume %d: Setting Default: %d\n",i,FSSetCurrentVolume(i));
printf("Volume %d: Mounted: %d\n", i,FSVolumeMounted(i));
if(FSVolumeMounted(i))
printf(" Volume %d: Size: %d\n", i,FSGetVolumeSize(i));
}
printf("------\n");
WAIT_CANCEL;
return(0);
}

Well, when I have inserted 1GB cards, all worked.

Then I started to partition cards. Tried 2x1GB FAT and not even volume 0 would show as a mounted. Tried to make volumes current before checking their size, but this didn't help much.

I believe that there is something fundamentaly wrong with 50g software and first sighn is that it steadily refuses to format those 2GB cards. I will try running a few more tests, but if I can't see volume as a mounted from hpgcc, then I assume, I will not be able to write program which accesses the 2GB card. But I will get on it and see what happens. It would be good to be able to get onto the person who wrote those SD routines.

regards
jo

[designnut]

I used SD cards on my cameras and always formatted them with the computer using an USB adapter. It's the size of a fountain pen and the card plugs in a side slot. The commputer recognizes it as an external drive. Sam

[jo]

Yep. That works. Only reason why I bring up issue with formating 2GB cards on 50g is to show that there is something wrong with it and failing format on card size which should be supported is clearly something you can put finger on.

[Tim Wessman]

You probably have the old version of the hpgcc fsystem. The 2GB issue was fixed around April of this year. Unless you were using the auto update around then from your installed copy, you won't have the fix. Since the hpgcc site is down, it will be hard to get a copy. Using the partitions can be a little tricky as well. You have to partition it using anything besides windows as that doesn't support more than 1 partition on a removable flash device.

As to the calculator 2gb issues, you can thank the wonderful people at Kinpo. Some cards format fine, others refuse. They seriously screwed up a lot of the low level stuff. Fseek is slow as molasses, the way they did the sd card access is stupid (put a large 1 or 2 gb card formatted in FAT32 and power off then back on...be prepared for a ~3 second resume), and so on.

The HPGCC filesystem works perfectly. I have tested every aspect of it and it is used by hundreds of professional surveyors around the world.

TW

[jo]

Tim,
I am using: C:\HPGCC-2.0-native-win32-SP2\
What version are you using ?
Downloaded mine about a week ago.

Regarding that partitioning. I use Mac OS 10.5 for that. It's ok, but again, I would preffer to get continuous 2GB even if I get 2x1GB working. It should work without messing around.

So I will get on google to see if I can get newer hpgcc and test some code.

Could you, please tell me what 2GB card worked on your 50g ? You have mentioned that some works and some don't. I was probably unlucky because I could not find single 2GB DS card which I could format on 50g and which would work.

Just wanted to clarify, are you using fseek or fsseek ?

thanks for respond
jo

[Tim Wessman]

The questions isn't so much the platform or the version, but whether or not you have the latest libfsystem.a (which was released around the middle of april)

Since the hpgcc site is down, the only way to get the latest revisions is from somebody else. Unfortunately, my copy is messed up as my vmware partition went crazy and I don't trust what it compiles (it has done some really strange things). I had to get another copy (I think from Egan's page). If you find anything newer than april, let me know as I'd like it as well.

Unless your libfsystem.a (acutally, libfsystem-ARM.a or THUMB.a are the ones you should look at) is mid april modification date, it probably won't work with 2gb cards.

I think all 2gb cards will work on the calculator natively (i could be wrong), but not all of them can be formatted with the calculator. I use 1gb cards mainly and am just reporting things others have told me.

I used fseek in the past, but it has horrible speed problems and so I now use FSSeek. (for more source code and examples see http://pssllc.com/mb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=410)

[jo]

Tim,

thank you very much for this. I will start hunting and let you know once I have something. please do the same if you don't mind.

best regards
Jo