Suite will not Format Card

[Scott59]

Hello All, my first time posting on the site.

I am trying to formate a 64GB ScanDisk Ultra card, and the SC Card Suite indicates that the format failed

But when i look at the card this is what  see. It looks like the Suite put something on the card,

 I am not sure if this indicates the card was indeed formated.

[Joe Tauser]

The SD card must be formatted FAT32, which limits the card size to 32 GB.

I don't know why it let you try anything else.

Joe T.

[Scott59]

Thanks Joe

I wll purchasng a 32GB card and try again.

 

[AlexUT]

Hi Scott59

I recommend you to purshase 16 GB SD card.

32GB can be formatted by Windows, but there is a problem to gormat it from SD Card Tools.

If you already purshased it - format it to FAT32 and copy all firectories from fresh formatted SD card of 16, 8, or other capacity, less than 32 GB.

B.R.

 

[Ausman]

@AlexUT      @Cara Bereck Levy    this size limit has come up before. 

What should happen is for the Formatter to NOT let any actions happen if the card is larger than whatever you deem the best size    eg 16Gb.  Or change it a bit.

As Joe says, "I don't know why it let you try anything else. "  It shouldn't. 

It's very frustrating that the program will tell you the Total Size of the card but it doesn't work if the card is too big.  The Total Size should trigger a message saying something like "get a < 16Gb card, your card is too big". 

This can't be too hard to do, and should have been done ages ago.  Off the shelf card sizes are getting bigger all the time, with smaller ones that used to be big now not even being available.  (Gee......isn't it amazing that you can have 1Gb on this little thing!!!)   At some stage you've got to get the system able to handle them automatically.

cheers, Aus

[AlexUT]

All right,

SD Tools will be modified to inform operator about SD card supported/not supported size.

SD card technology allow to manufacture SD cards of big capacity, but embedded devices are limited to FAT32 file system with all its limitations.

B.R.

 

[kratmel]

It may be necessary in the future to allow the formatting of large cards into a small capacity (limit its capabilities to FAT32 accordingly).

If it is possible to do it at all with new large capacity cards.
 

Alternatively, add an card format option  to PLC info mode (uni app) functionality.
 

P.S. It has been done in drives that replace 1.44fdd.
They format the flash media themselves into 100 small virtual disks.

 

[AlexUT]

Hi kratmel,

Unitronics PLCs are not computers, and supporting FAT32 formatted SD cards up to 32 GB.

Supported FAT32 File system is limited to 1 primary partition.

For example:

Siemens PLCs:

• S7-1200 CPU only supports the memory cards that have been preformatted by Siemens  manufacturer, whose order numbers are shown in the table below:

Order number	Capacity
6ES7 954-8LF01-0AA0	24MB
6ES7954-8LC01-0AA0	4MB
6ES7 954-8LB01-0AA0	2MB

Table 1: Memory card information

• If SIMATIC memory card is reformatted by Windows formatting program, CPU will not be able to use this reformatted memory card.

• At present, S7-1200 still cannot help the memory card realize such advanced functions as recipe and data archiving.

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/document/87133851/usage-of-s7-1200-memory-card?dti=0&lc=en-WW

 

ABB AC500 supporting 512 MB SD cards in FAT16 format (SD card may be 2 GB formatted to FAT16, and MUST BE SLOW).

https://forum-controlsystems.abb.com/360488/Using-aftermarket-SD-card-with-AC500

MC502 supporting 2 GB and ABB recommends to use SD cards, supplied by ABB.

 

Allen-Bradley recommends to use only Allen-Bradley SAD cards 1GB or 2GB capacity, formatted to FAT16 file system.
And there are many other restrictions.
https://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/ap/logix-ap007_-en-p.pdf

 

So you clearly can see Unitronics PLCs advantages of SD cards use.

B.R.

 

[kratmel]

Hi AlexUT,

I know about card and controller capacity limitations and format limitations. Especially about Siemens  :)
There will be a problem with the small capacity card in the future.
It's just a matter of time.

Last week I was looking for a new CF 128MB card for the machine (2009).
It must be  formatted only in FAT. It's now impossible to find them smaller than 4GB.

The Unitronics controller now meets the requirements for card use,

but 1TB cards are already flooding the market.

Therefore, the search for solutions for the use of new large memory cards in controllers will become relevant very quickly.

Supported FAT32 File system is limited to 1 primary partition - it is not problem - problem is how to make this one partition on large card.

[Ausman]

I asked about the ability for the PLC to format the card ages ago, when the corruption of DTs issue arose for me.  It still happens occasionally and I stil haven't figured it out.

Kratmel is correct in saying about bigger sizes, reinforcing what I was saying about "off the shelf card sizes are getting bigger all the time, with smaller ones that used to be big now not even being available".  For ages I have used partition manager programs to manipulate big cards to be smaller with various Fat formats.  At present it is easily done, but perhaps in the future it might become harder as card systems evolve.

Alex, we're not insulting you here,  just pointing out an issue that is only going to get worse.  The suite needs to be changed to accommodate what a user might encounter through buying an easily sourced, current production type card. 

Like Kratmel, I have 16Mb CF cards that I still use for some things.  But try and buy one these days and it is not possible, so my method of doing images needs some size "fiddling" each time I need to do one. 

In some ways it is the same as modern computers not having onboard serial ports.  It seems that makers only consider the "latest and greatest", conveniently forgetting that a lot of the world still needs a facility that was in very common use only a few years ago.  The saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", seems to have evolved into "Let's constantly change things and create endless problems for some specialised end users, that they never had a while back".   Even my terrific USB-serial converters fall over now and then, something the dedicated ports never do.

cheers, Aus