DX6 & The SD Card

[aerocal]

My GoTo cards are Toshiba Class6 micro SDHC in an adapter. A 2gig and a 4gig. Had trouble with SanDisk and Samsung full size SDs. I tend to think that whatever name is on the label that there are alot of fakes, copies and out of spec cards out there. Of all the reports Ive seen Class4 or 6 micro SDHC in an adapter seems to be the most reliable.
Just because they basically have no moving mechanical parts doesnt mean they dont wear out either.
Alot of devices will tolerate cards that dont quite meet specs. DX radios arent one of them. Almost all will do Import/Export without much trouble.
Updates and tlm logging require better performance.

[Nelsonhelijunky]

I bought the SanDisk 4G micro SDHC with adapter, smallest one I could find at the time, and so far haven't had any problems.

[aerocal]

Originally Posted by Nelsonhelijunky

I bought the SanDisk 4G micro SDHC with adapter, smallest one I could find at the time, and so far haven't had any problems.

You should be good to go.I found micros to be a bit more reliable.The adapter takes most of the stress of plugging in and out.

[Nelsonhelijunky]

Originally Posted by aerocal

You should be good to go.I found micros to be a bit more reliable.The adapter takes most of the stress of plugging in and out.

Thanks aerocal. Gonna look for one in smaller gigs just to have as a backup.

[gwd1234]

Using a DX7:

I first tried 2 different full size SD, PNY 2GB, Class ?? (just say "Premium") and they didn't work.

All of the following worked:
full size Lexar 2GB Class ?? (says 60x) - it's really old and beat up
full size Sandisk 8GB, Class 4
micro Sandisk 8GB Class 4
micro Kingston 16GB, Class 4
micro Sony 32GB, Class 10

[D_Vail]

Originally Posted by Xrayted

I still don't understand this?? The SD card doesn't even have to be installed in order to operate the TX, so Im not sure how this has anything to do with a bad card or not?

I had to replace my card in order to get the last firmware update to work, but I can easily put the bad card back in and fire up the TX exactly as you say without issue. The card is just a simple external hard drive and not part of the TXs operating software

It doesn't NEED the card in to boot up, but if it is in there, it tries to read it and check for firmware updates, etc. that you may have loaded on the card. During this process, if the card is not compatible, for whatever reasons, it sometimes will not boot. I have not personally had this happen, but have heard of many that have. There are quite a few that I have heard of that thought their transmitters had failed and thought they had to send it in to horizon for repair. upon messing with it, when they removed the SD card, it booted right up. Turns out the SD card had gone bad and was causing it to hang at boot up.

[vmsda]

Originally Posted by D_Vail

... During this process, if the card is not compatible, for whatever reasons ... Turns out the SD card had gone bad and was causing it to hang at boot up.

The only device the card is not compatible with is the Spektrum (DX6 in my case), and no, the card has not gone bad, it still works fine with every other device. It is the Spektrum that is at fault.

[aerocal]

Originally Posted by vmsda

The only device the card is not compatible with is the Spektrum (DX6 in my case), and no, the card has not gone bad, it still works fine with every other device. It is the Spektrum that is at fault.

Try a different card. Class 6 is the best bet.

[flightengr]

And make sure it's formatted as FAT32 (usually the default from the manufacturer for 32GB or less) and not something else such as NTFS.

I don't know what the upper limit is for the size of the card. I'm using an 8GB card in a DX9 with no problem. If I had to guess, 32GB is likely to be the limit since that's the biggest SDHC card. SDXC starts at 64GB.

I'm using Class 4 and it's also fine. I read somewhere else (wish I could remember where) that Class 10 is too fast for the transmitter and therefore is not reliable.

[vmsda]

Thank you, Flightengr. Have already tried FAT32 (and 16 as well). You have DX9, mine is newly-arrived DX6, Europe Union compliant. No one has any idea what mix of differences is relevant to the problem, so I have emailed the manufacturer directly.

[Nelsonhelijunky]

I have read that the smaller in GB's and lower in class the card is seems to work better. And yes it's a good practice to insert card before you power on the TX and remove it after you have powered it off.

[vmsda]

I bought an 8 Gb card class4, copied the update file onto it, inserted into the DX6, powered on, went about its business silently and wordlessly, and eventually the main screen popped up. Powered it off, removed the SD card, powered on and the main screen appeared.

Problem circumvented, it is now up to Spektrum to fix it.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with suggestions and support.

[ilkheli]

I don't know squat about RC helicopters yet, but I've learned a bit about the SD card issue. The problem isn't the card, it's the formatting.
I have a 5 day old DX6, with 1.01 software.

I had a 2GB SD card (too old to have a rating) lying around so I downloaded firmware update and a bunch of interesting model files.
Plugged the card in and the DX6 didn't recognize it.
I eventually figured maybe it's cause I was using a Mac to xfer the files.
So, I opened the Mac disk utility to reformat the card, and noticed that formatting was exFAT (FAT32).
I reformatted to FAT, recopied my files, and put the card into the DX6.
Voila! Update ran smooth as silk.
N.B. when copying models remember to open the folder with the model name and copy the actual model file, don't try copying the folder.

[El Heffe]

I had issues with my brand new card today (8GB Class 4). I put it in my DX6 when it was off, turned it on, and immediately got the "System Fault.".

Thanks to someone who posted the tip about holding the roller for 5 seconds to clear the system fault!

I tried different combonations until I found one that worked. Formatting the card as FAT didn't work. It lead to more system faults when turning the radio on. I tried formatting my card ExFAT. The radio would turn on, but I wasn't able to export either a single model or all all models to the card. I formatted the card FAT again, and it worked perfectly at boot and I was able to export all of my models and read them on my laptop! My guess is that perhaps my laptop (Mac) did some kind of quick format initially and changing it to ExFAT and back to FAT caused it to do a full format.

I'm very happy I was able to get the card working and even more importantly, I'm glad that I don't have to send my radio to HH to get the System Fault cleared! I hope this info helps someone else.

[BgSkyFlyr]

Just wanted to add to help save someone some money and frustration also. I tried a 10 and 6 class standard SDHC, didn't work. Got a Sandisk 8GB class 4 micro SDHC with adapter and Finally worked after spending $20 in cards that did not work. Take care!

[Skywagon]

I certainly not claiming to be an expert on the SD card issue with Spektrum's Tx designs.
But, here are some thoughts about the card problems....
Higher class cards are designed to handle very high speed data rates; e.g. very narrow, fast pulses. The design is tuned to do that range of speeds. Very likely, (most) of these cards are very finicky about slow data rates, using long pulses of data. They may even just cut off.
An simple analog is drinving a 2000hp drag car to the supermarket. It is not going to work well at all. It is tuned for one thing only, developing and coping with 2000hp load (data) rates.
The lower class cards are designed for nominal data rates which I assume is the Spektrum range of data transmission speed. Put one of these slow cards in a high speed computer or camera system and it will fall on its face as it cannot cope with super fast, narrow pulse data rates.
Lastly, there are many sophisticated systems and card types can cope with one other using more elaborate supporting timing circuit designs. I suspect our RC products do not go to that bother or expense.

[CZorzella]

As per the Airware update instructions, Spektrum officially states that we should use a better utility to format these cards. The utility is free and can be found at https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/
hint: When formatting, don’t use the Quick option!

Here you can read some comments from Andy Kunz about this matter:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...ostcount=41659


Carlos

[Bill_A]

Originally Posted by BgSkyFlyr

Just wanted to add to help save someone some money and frustration also. I tried a 10 and 6 class standard SDHC, didn't work. Got a Sandisk 8GB class 4 micro SDHC with adapter and Finally worked after spending $20 in cards that did not work. Take care!

Just adding that I can confirm class 4 8 Gig Kingston SD card worked fine. I didn't even know it mattered - I found this card from an 8 year old camera. Then I see this thread and see that there are problems with faster cards.

Bill

[HoverMe]

Reviving an old thread....

I have a DX6 G3 with the current airware (v2.05). I've been using a 16 GB SanDisk Class 10 that's worked flawlessly.... until today. Nothing has changed since it worked- I keep it in the transmitter. I've tried redownloading the files too. The DX6 says the card is ready to go, but won't show any models to upload, nor will it download the serial number to the card. If I eject the card while in that menu, and then reinsert (while DX6 is on), I can then see the models to import. However, once I select import, it kicks me all the way back out and doesn't import. If I try to import all models, it just gets stuck on the Import Status page and never imports.

Any advice?

[flightengr]

We know from experience that class 10 is questionable. The SD card interface in the transmitter just isn't that fast.

I'd try a different SD card at this point. To totally rule out a problem with the transmitter, you'll want to get your hands on a class 4 card and see if that will work consistently. The SD card that came with the transmitter is OK for importing/exporting models, but it's really slow for firmware and sound file updates.