Idiot guide to using SD card on Olimexino - STM32 Maple clone

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Idiot guide to using SD card on Olimexino - STM32 Maple clone

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Started 3 years ago by InsanityIdeas
Latest reply from go61t

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InsanityIdeas
Member

The Olimex Maple clone has a built in SD card socket, unfortunately I found making it work to be not quite as easy as it should. Something this simple took me quite a while to figure out so I thought I would save others the headache, I've called this an "idiot" guide because to many this might seem too trivial to be worth mentioning, but it trips up us new guys.

First of all get the mapleSDfat library, this forum has instructions for getting it installed (copy the folder into the libraries directory).

There is an issue with the library that you need to correct manually, follow the instructions in Issue number 2 on the googlecode site where you got mapleSDfat from.

The OLIMEXino has the SD card slot connected to hardware spi port 2. This is very important, the examples that come with the library and most other code you see people using will use a different SPI port. To get the FileSys example from the library working change line 14 so it reads as "HardwareSPI spi(2);"

The OLIMEXino also has a non-standard (compared with real maple) pin asignment for the SPI2_NSS pin, its 31 on a real maple, and 25 on the OLIMEXino clone. In the folder you installed the maple IDE in go to the hardware/leaflabs/cores/maple/maple.h file and on line 61 change the BOARD_SPI2_NSS_PIN from 31 to 25.

Doing all of this will result in the sample programs working successfully.

OLIMEX produce documentation for their board which shows all the pin assignments, so it is possible to work out all of the above.

Hope that all makes the MAPLE that little bit more easier to use.

Posted 3 years ago #
crenn
Moderator

The board definition contained in maple.h is correct when BOARD_SPI2_NSS_PIN is listed as 31. This is not an error. Pin 25 is a 'non-essential pin' for other interfaces/peripherals (except for Timer3's ETR) which explains why Olimex selected that pin to be a CS/NSS pin for the SD Card slot.

The problem I think with the design of the mapleSDfat library is that it's too rigid. It doesn't allow an SPI port object and NSS pin to make it so that the library does not need to be modified. Maybe I should make a release of the library with some changes (and fixes) so it's 'technically' easier for users.

Posted 3 years ago #
feurig
Member

I wrote Jason Vreeland recently about getting the issues/errors resolved and he said he would be happy to add other maintainers to the library. I am going accept his offer and fix the issues I complained about. If anyone else wants to help with this let him or myself know.

Posted 3 years ago #
dinau
Member

Hi all,

I modified maple-sdfat library a few months ago.
It can be complied and executed almost examples.

Please read below overview page for SdFatMaple-vld.
https://bitbucket.org/dinau/sdfatmaple-vld/overview
You need download below two libraries.
https://bitbucket.org/dinau/sdfatmaple-vld/downloads/sdfat-maple-vld-v02-20120325.zip
https://bitbucket.org/dinau/ethernetmaple/downloads/EthernetMaple_v02_201207.zip

dinau

Posted 3 years ago #
feurig
Member

In following up, I was able to get myself and crenn added as maintainers to the sdfat library and fixed the first 3 issues. There is still a lot of cruft left over from the arduino code and it doesn't yet do anything with dma (I have yet to have the polpla's dma port to work and the interface is not similar enough to bounce between the two). Regardless the maple-sdfat.zip file at http://code.google.com/p/maple-sdfat/downloads/list should work out of the box on most maple platforms and I encourage people to use the issues list on google code to bring up what needs to be done next.

Posted 3 years ago #
feurig
Member

On the olimexino, you will still have to define things correctly in your boards file to map the NSS pin appropriately.

Posted 3 years ago #
mbolivar
LeafLabs

In following up, I was able to get myself and crenn added as maintainers to the sdfat library and fixed the first 3 issues.

sweet!

Posted 3 years ago #
crenn
Moderator

On the olimexino, you will still have to define things correctly in your boards file to map the NSS pin appropriately.

As said previously, The board file/definition is still correct for the Olimexino, as the pinout hasn't changed, however some of the features available on the Olimexino do not use some of the pins like NSS on Spi2 (pin 31), this isn't an error. They're using pin 25 for a good reason, there is no alternative functions available on that pin (timers (unless you need TIM3_ETR), analogue, CAN, serial etc) and as such is less likely to be used. The software needs to be able to be told that pin 25 is used for the SD card slot. This is going to be my task for getting MapleSDFat more flexible, I'll be seeing if I can't get it working completely by this weekend and released.

Additionally, I'll see if I can't make a define file for the Olimexino so that Olimexino users can use it when wanting to access some of the features.

Posted 3 years ago #
InsanityIdeas
Member

Sorry missed all the replys on here as the msgboard didn't e-mail me!!

crenn: Thanks for looking into making a define file for the Olimexino, I realised this is what I really needed to make it work properly, but went with the bodge of changing maple.h as for my purposes this worked (I only have 1 board and its an Olimexino, so don't need to worry about swapping between boards using proper definitions) and was easier! Not sure I could handle writing a full define file, looked a bit complex for me. If I released code to public domain I would need to do it properly for portability, but I am just messing around right now.

MapleSDFat flexibility would be great, just a few changes would make things so much easier and add a professional touch. Look forward to seeing the new and improved SDFat library, one of the reasons I went with the Olimexino maple was because it had an SD slot on it rather than having to make my own (that and lving in the UK getting one direct from leaflabs is more tricky than Farnell doing next day delivery on Olimex products).

I don't fully understand the significance of the NSS pin, I had assumed it was a required pin for the SPI interface, but you seem to suggest that it has a standalone purpose (or several purposes) necessitating a need to define it separately. Is this just how the pin is handled in hardware (i.e. its just another GPIO pin rather than a specific hardware SPI GPIO pin)?

Thanks

Posted 3 years ago #
Joseph86
Member
I know this is an old thread, but it seems to be the most recent on this particular issue.

I've downloaded the latest version of the SdFat library and it doesn't seem to work "out of the box." The problem comes when I try to compile any of the examples and I get "not declared in this scope" errors for PSTR, SerialPrint_P and others.

I'm pretty sure this is happening because I'm on 64-bit Linux, and that somehow messes with some library dependencies. I had to replace /lib/librxtxSerial.so and /lib/RXTXcomm.jar in order to get the Maple IDE to even open in 64-bit linux. I could be totally wrong here though.

I've tried with different versions of the IDE and get the same errors, unless I use 0.0.9 64-bit; then I get an entirely new set of errors.

I could spend hours digging through the code and learning the web of dependencies in an attempt to fix it, but I get the feeling I'm just doing something stupid that one of you you could immediately point out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

relevant details:
Linux Mint 64-bit - clean install
Maple-ide 0.0.12
Olimex STM32 board
SdFat Library: http://code.google.com/p/maple-sdfat/downloads/detail?name=maple-sdfat.zip&can=2&q=

snippet typical of my errors:
```
In file included from <BUILD>/SdFatMakeDir.cpp:14:
/home/joseph/maple-ide-0.0.12/libraries/SdFat/SdFatUtil.h:66: error: variable or field 'SerialPrintln_P' declared void
/home/joseph/maple-ide-0.0.12/libraries/SdFat/SdFatUtil.h:66: error: 'PGM_P' was not declared in this scope
<BUILD>/SdFatMakeDir.cpp: In function 'void error_P(const char*)':
<BUILD>/SdFatMakeDir.cpp:28: error: 'PSTR' was not declared in this scope
<BUILD>/SdFatMakeDir.cpp:28: error: 'SerialPrint_P' was not declared in this scope
```
full output here: https://gist.github.com/4089829
Posted 3 years ago #
bubulindo
Member

What code did you use to test this?
I got those errors if I imported all the files in that library.

Importing, as the example shows, just SDFat.h worked on my Win7 machine.
I have downloaded and used the previous version of this library on Snow Leopard with the Olimexino and it also worked.

Sadly I don't remember what change I had to do. It is in the SPI interface, where you change the pin number to the correct one in the board, but I can't remember exactly where.

Posted 3 years ago #
Joseph86
Member

I just tried to compile the SdFatMakeDir example.

I'm not sure what example you're talking about that says to just import SDFat.h.

Could it be my errors are purely related to libraries for error handling used in the examples, and not from the sdfat library itself? In other words, the sdfat stuff works fine, and I just need to start using it rather than fiddling with the examples?

Posted 3 years ago #
bubulindo
Member

Hmmm... I compiled the FileSys.pde that sits in the examples/filesys folder. :S

I seem to remember that I did have problems compiling the Arduino examples... but can't remember exactly what the problem was back then.

Posted 3 years ago #
Joseph86
Member

I've successfully compiled and run the FilySys.pde example. All I had to do for the Olimex board was change the "HardwareSPI spi(1) declaration to "spi(2)."

I guess I got needlessly caught up in the apparently unrelated compile errors in the other examples. Now I can get back to work.

Posted 3 years ago #
cmartin
Member

I know this is an old thread, but it seems to be the most recent on this particular issue.

I've downloaded the latest version of the SdFat library and it doesn't seem to work "out of the box." The problem comes when I try to compile any of the examples and I get "not declared in this scope" errors for PSTR, SerialPrint_P and others.

PSTR and SerialPrint_P (anything ending in '_P') is specific to an AVR processor and is used to access data in flash (P as in Program) memory. Flash memory on the AVR is a separate address space from RAM so special instructions are needed to access it. An ARM processor doesn't need any special handling for this as Flash memory is in the same address space as RAM.

It looks like this library was brought over from Arduino without making any changes for ARM.

Posted 3 years ago #

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