ESP32S3 SD-card init problem

[stefan.erni]

Hi Ben

I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong.
It worked with the ESP32-wroom. With the ESP32-S3,
I can't get it to work. I've already tried three different boards.
I also noticed that the green LED is flashing.
That happened with the SparkFun board, too.

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[BenR]

Hello,

I wonder if the LED is interfering with the signal e.g. adding capacitance and stopping the signal from running at full speed? Maybe worth removing it?

Aha I didn't know you were using my board ok I'll see if I can replicate the issue there for you and let you know. It's slightly different to the Matrix version and so there could be something minor that's causing it.

[stefan.erni]

Hi Ben

This is a very practical board and works well as a data logger if there is enough space and power available.
The SD card is also located in an easily accessible place and wired in 4-bit mode.
There is just one issue with initializing the card.

[stefan.erni]

Hi Ben

I got the touchscreen working. It's very easy to use. It's simple to start and stop a recording using the large touch fields.
unfortunately...
I'm still having problems with the SD card—it won't initialize.

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[BenR]

Hello,

Right sorry it's taken so long, I've finally built up a few displays and done some testing.

I've taken an SD card from our EB3 upstream as I know that works in 4-bit SD mode. For reference it's a 2GB Cloudisk card.

Using these connections and settings for the SD card it simply worked straight away.

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There is a problem if I try and initialise the card multiple times, it works the first time but then returns 255 every time after that. If I uninitialise the card as part of the loop then I can init over and over again and always get a return value of 0.

One problem that was reported via eBay was the S3 module itself. On my test board I have the ESP32-S3-N16R8. Which version of the S3 module do you have there? I know there are some minor differences to do with the PSRAM.

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Interestingly I'm using a version with the larger PSRAM which technically shouldn't be possible as it's using the pins assigned to the SD card. I wonder if the PSRAM has to be activated somewhere in the menu config and you are making use of it?

So maybe something to go on there?!

1) What version of the ESP32 S3 WROOM module is on your board?
2) Have you been into the menuconfig and changed any settings to do with RAM or PSRAM?

My test program is fairly basic and so it may not be invoking the PSRAM and hence why I'm not seeing the problem.

The guy on eBay suggested I buy the N8R2 version of the module from now on so as to avoid the issue entirely so I will certainly try and do this. I currently have stock of these so I could make one of these up for you for testing.