RTFM didn't help my poor SD card.

[bob olbrich]

I'm a strong man. The micro SD card did not stand

a chance. I could use a replacement for my Experimenter 2.5,

one that won't break in half. Chris, can you come to the rescue?

Reply for my address.

[Chris Davis]

https://adwaterandstir.com/instructions/

Any SD card will work, just pick on up at Amazon, Walmart, anywhere.

[bob olbrich]

I got my card today and copied the zip disk files to the card.

It seemed to go OK. I decided to use my laptop to check the

SD card. I was able to get an example BASIC program to run.

However, when I followed the example for the Zork game I

could not get the SW12/AUX 2 down to produce a list of disk

images. SW3/AUX 2 gave me a message about mounting DISK08.DSK but

nothing about Zork.

I thought the SD copy command on my laptop might have been bad,

so I copied over the original files to the card a second time - but no fix.

Did I get a bad card?

[Chris Davis]

If you can read it on your laptop it's not bad.  Post a screen shot of your windows explorer with the contents of the card.

[John Galt]

check the switches on your panel? it is not unheard of they could be damaged during assembly, you could also flip them up and down a bunch of times to clean the contacts. 

I have a machine that gets stored in the basement and after a few months none of the switches work properly until i exercise them a bunch and sometimes use De-oxit.

[bob olbrich]

Direct from the card:

[Chris Davis]

You said toggling SW3/AUX2 said it mounted DISK08.DSK.  That is Zork.  That sounds like it's working.  Do that and then toggle AUX1 down.

[bob olbrich]

SW3 is Disk 8. I'm suspicious of SW12. It worked on the original SD card.

The A-D 8800 has been sitting idle for a couple of months. If SW12 is out

SW12/AUX2 would not work, and hence, no image listing. John may be 

on to something.

`

[Chris Davis]

If it's mounting DISK08.DSK, then SW12 (and SW3) are working and everything is working. I think maybe your expectations are off?  What are you expecting and not seeing?

[bob olbrich]

From Altair-Duino Experimenter 2.5 Operations:

page 6 bottom paragraph:

"Set all data switches off (down) and set SW12 up. This tells the 

Altair-Duino that you want to read from the SD card. Press AUX2

down. You should see a list of disk images on the terminal window."

That's the problem - no disk images listed. If I continue with SW3/AUX2

 I get "mounted disk DISK08.DSK on drive 0 (nothing about Zork as in 

 the manual). AUX1 then produces a line about loading the boot ROM,

 but no other actions.

I did manipulate SW12 many times as John suggested, but it did not 

produce any correction.

[Chris Davis]

Check the Configuration Menu (STOP + AUX1 up) and see if "File System manager for SD card" appears on the menu.  That will only show up if the SD card is detected.

[Matthew Brugman]

Dumb Question©️, but are you sure the SD card is formatted FAT?

(Sorry, I feel like I’m asking if the toaster is plugged in, haha) 

[Chris Davis]

Good question.  I looked at the file listing image again and that's an SCXC card (typically 64GB or more) and usually is formatted exFAT.  I don't know if exFAT is compatible with the library used in the project.  David's documentation says FAT format is expected.

[John Galt]

i have experience with some micro SDs not working properly regardless of format when i purchased a larger sd for myself. I'm using some older 4GB micro SD cards.

[Matthew Brugman]

I did a little digging into the filesystem library underlying the SD card handler.  I see that there is support for exFAT in there, if enabled.  Note - it is enabled by default if the platform is not AVR (basically, there are resources for it).  I don't see anything in the latest A-D project that changes that.  

There were, however, some fixes for exFAT pushed 7 months ago.  Not sure if the latest library versions have been pulled into the build machine used to generate releases or pre-programmed Dues.  Library source: https://github.com/greiman/SdFat

Of course, this is assuming that the problem is an exFAT formatted SD card.  

I'm still stuck on an improper filesystem because OP can read/write to it from Windows with no errors.  Perhaps it's formatted NTFS?  No way to tell without using fdisk (or whatever Windows is using to look at partitions these days - I've been a Linux daily driver for more than a decade, so I don't know anymore.  Not throwing shade; just showing Windows ignorance on my part).

[bob olbrich]

exFAT it is. What should I try next?

[Matthew Brugman]

If it was me?  Depends on the size of the card. Definitely reformat it to FAT32. If the card is bigger than 32gb (maybe even 16gb), I would repartition it. Just one primary partition of 16 or 32gb, leave the rest unallocated. 

I’m not sure how to do that on Windows. Linux would be fdisk and mkfs. 🤷‍♂️

Also, I remember ‘fast format’ or something like that on Windows; don’t do that, do the full format. I’m not sure that the fast format will do a full rewrite of the allocation table. 

Anyone else have ideas?

[Cliff Chism]

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend using the windows format for sd cards. It has had issues in the past and perhaps now. When on windows or Mac, i always go to https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/ and use their formatter. It’s quite robust and has many options and is easy to use. Iirc you can use a checkbox to choose fat.

[bob olbrich]

Problem Solved! FAT32 works fine with the A-D 8800.

Thanks everyone.

I will have a new post soon for another issue.