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SD card compatibility list

Started by Manfred, December 03, 2011, 11:02:22 AM

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edcito

Ahh, remember when whe used to pay $75 for a 32 GB card, well, those times are over... I picked a transcend 32 like this for only â,¬22. I already installed it and it works like a charm
http://www.redcoon.de/B577250-Transcend-SD-Karte-SDHC-32GB-Class-10_SDHC?xtor=CS1-50&refId=94511215&utm_source=Idealo&utm_medium=preisvergleich&utm_campaign=cpo

so you can add it tho this list

edcito


fankelomia

Hi,

is there any recent info on which 32GB card would be safe to buy and is still available? Seeing how much trouble the wrong card can be i wouldn't really care if its 20â,¬ or 30â,¬ or whathaveyou as long as its reliable in the 2box.

Regarding an SD extender i found two options with possible shipment to germany - maybe the ones of you with experienced could help me decide which to order:
option1
option2

Thank you!

Coda

#198
I'm also about to take delivery of a new 2box (finally) and this question is on the top of my "things to solve" list.
I have some 16gb microsd with adapters I will test first.

EDIT: My ADATA SDHC Class 10 MicroSD in an SD adapter seemed to work fine with the original dsnds, but as soon as I started building my own with dsoundtool (about 30-40 different velocities each), a fast roll around the kit showed up latency problems, which manifests as clicks.

Coda

#199
Quote from: fankelomia on July 14, 2015, 08:41:16 AM

Regarding an SD extender i found two options with possible shipment to germany - maybe the ones of you with experienced could help me decide which to order:
option1
option2

Those would probably be OK but I am suspicious of data cables which are longer than necessary. I would get a 10" (25cm) length like the poster above you, unless you want to mount the reader somewhere unconventional.

EDIT: I bought a cable which looks identical to option 1 above, and it's about 50cm long. After turning on the 2box for the first time I noticed that the inputs were triggering at random (with or without cables plugged in). The reading of the SDCard was causing false triggers due to RF interference. To solve it I bundled up the cable away from the main board trigger input area, placed it near to the SD card socket, and secured the roll with a bit of duct tape.

Coda

I "took one for the team" ;) and bought this card which is widely available in 2015:




As much as I don't like Kingston stuff, I was offered it at a discount in a local store by a very nice girl, she crushed my willpower and I couldn't say no... but at least she told me I could bring it back if it didn't work properly  ;D

I'm on latest OS, have SD extension cable (50cm - 20"), and DIY triggers. Playing 16's and 32's around the kit with kick and hats on the stock kits, and much bigger kits built with SDSE and Drumica, and I haven't heard a single glitch, crack, pop, or latency issue.

I believe that this is the reason, look at the access times:

Original 4GB card supplied by 2box:


My 16GB microSD which did show audio cracks and latency:


The Kingston 32GB SD10V:


You can see that while the access time is not as quick as the 4GB card, it's close. The bad card has massive access time by comparison (almost double).

I tested this card on my i7 hackintosh, running windows, and tests were done by HD Tune (I used the pro-trial version but I think the free version will also measure access times). The card reader is a generic multi-card reader connected by USB 2.0. Note that the USB subsystem adds its own latency to the access times, so if you do your own tests you can't use my access times as gospel. Even with the same card, your system will give you a different (but hopefully close) result.

I think this card can be added to the compatibility list.

Murgen

Wauw, impressive test report! Hat off for you, my Liege!
--------
2Box Drumit 5 Mk2 since 2012

Jman

#202
Nice testing utility Coda. :) It looks like your card should be OK, sometimes latency problems aren't noticed immediately, but time will tell.

I thought I would just show a couple results on cards that I have run across. As soon as the companies come out with their latest model of card with "higher" specs the previous cards go the way of the dinosaur pretty quickly. So when I run across a card with impressive performance with the 2Box module I buy up a bunch before they are history. Once they are no longer made even if you can find them the price is usually out of sight. Also, as has been stated before even the same card but a different batch can have completely different results. On the card mod kits I list in the classifieds I only use cards with faster times than the original 2Box cards. I figure with the large sizes of dsnds that can result from VST sample conversion a little edge is a good thing. 

As you can see from the Access Time, both of the cards have Access Time faster than the original ATP ProMax Cls 10 2Box card.

1st: the original 4GB 2Box card (ATP ProMax Cls 10 4GB):


2nd: This is what I would call a "rare bird" This is a 32GB Elite Pro PNY card, but this batch was from Japan, I have had batches from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. And the batch from Japan kicks some booty! And there was really no way of ordering these as far as where they were manufactured, simply a crap shoot. All the PNY Elite cards have changed since I bought my supplies. This particular card is loaded to the gills with new VST based dsnds .... only a few MBs of space left on the card.


3rd: This is another card that has pretty much become extinct. I normally only pick up 32GB cards, but out of curiosity I purchase the ATP ProMax 16GB card, this is an older card, Class 6, but it is actually top dog as far as access time goes. So, even though it was 16GB, I went ahead and bought up a few before they went away. This card is loaded with all the original files plus all additional files from the 2Box website downloads ... so it has about 7GB on the card.


With the HD Tune Pro testing I went ahead and ran a couple times just to verify, and the results will vary within the 100ths/1000ths of miliseconds, but definitely close enough to get a good idea. Also if using a different card reader the results will be different, but the difference carries through pretty consistent .... as far as the A to B comparisons between cards.
I like the HD Tune Pro .... might even buy it when the trial period is over ..... J
I could tell you where to stick that piezo! :D ;)
http://stealthdrums.com/

Coda

Thanks for the additional testing Jman, IMO everyone should test their cards with HD Tune and post the screenshots here. What? It's PC only? Yeah well you all have PCs now right? For SDSE?  ;D

BTW - the USB bus adds latency and the 15mb/s you see on most cards is because of the USB bulk transfer limit in windows. You should see better speeds in OSX and Linux. The best card testing would be done with a SDCard->Sata or even IDE connector, but who's ever seen one of these?

*Theoretical is about ~56mb/s but you will never see this as the windows USB stack does not implement transfers with multiple endpoints. At least this was the reason I found a few years ago, when I was programming this stuff.

Lustar

#204
Lexar Professional 32GB SDHC class 10 133x (same as the one in first post)
no-name ChipBank reader (similar to this but not identical)



Lexar Professional 32GB SDHC class 10 133x
Kingston FCR-HS3 USB3 reader



Original 2box Sandisk Extreme 4GB class 6
no-name ChipBank reader



Original 2box Sandisk Extreme 4GB class 6
Kingston FCR-HS3 USB3 reader

Coda

Thanks Lustar. The comparison to the original 4GB card is handy to judge the speed of the USB card reader... look at what the kingston reader does to the latency! An eye-opener and a black mark on USB3 transfers maybe? :D

InTheBox

I bought my 16GB SD card by trial and error a while ago. The sounds will play fine for quite some time, but occasionally the sound will halt, only to have all the hits played on top of each other a second later.

Exactly what is happening here, is it the access time? What should I look for in a card to avoid this problem?Latency is not a problem, there is no noticeable lag between hit and sound, not until everything "crashes".

My fix for this is to load only the sounds I need for a gig to my original card, but that is a temporary solution at best.

Coda

Quote from: InTheBox on September 10, 2015, 07:43:20 PM
I bought my 16GB SD card by trial and error a while ago. The sounds will play fine for quite some time, but occasionally the sound will halt, only to have all the hits played on top of each other a second later.

Exactly what is happening here, is it the access time? What should I look for in a card to avoid this problem?Latency is not a problem, there is no noticeable lag between hit and sound, not until everything "crashes".
Can you please do a HD Tune benchmark on both of your SDCards (16GB and original 4GB) in the same card reader, and post the screenshots here? This might answer your question.

It may be that the 16gb card is faulty, the extension is faulty/too long, or the extension cable placement inside the unit needs adjustment.

Lustar

InTheBox: the card should be equal or faster than the 2box card for transfer speeds and access time. Since SD readers can give different results you would need to test both the 2box card and the new card with the same reader.(Coda beat me to it)

Coda: yeah, what it gains in transfer speed it loses in access time. I also have a Transcend USB3 reader with the particularity that it never actually worked in USB3, it only works on a USB2 port. What's interesting is that it performs better than the Kingston overall.

More screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

Lexar Professional 32GB SDHC class 10 133x
Transcend TS-RDF8K USB3 reader (in USB2 port)



Original 2box Sandisk Extreme 4GB class 6
Transcend TS-RDF8K USB3 reader (in USB2 port)

fankelomia

Are there any infos or does anyone have an idea about the bus-speed with which the internal SD-slot is connected?

I am asking because i was in the need of some micro SD cards (for a different purpose) and thought i would test them for possible use with the 2box module.

For testing i just switched the Ubuntu server SSD in a zotac zbox nano for a another SSD and put Win7 64bit on it to use HD Tune Pro. I didn't bother to update it, connect it to the network or even install the drivers.
(Does anyone know of an OS X app that has the option to only do read tests and also measure access time as does HD Tune Pro?)

Results were the same whether i used the USB 3.0 card reader in a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port.

After initial testing where one micro SD card came close to the performance of the original 2box card i thought i would install at least the USB 3.0 (and together with those the USB 2.0) driver.
Of course overall performance went up and now there was a distinct difference between using the card reader (for some reason HD Tune Pro does not work with the integrated reader in the zbox) in either port.

Apart from HD Tune Pro (or the "test" system) not being able to reproduce results accurately i am now asking myself if it is even fair to use USB 3.0 for testing or if i should stick with using the USB 3.0 reader in the USB 2.0 port.
I am far from being finished with testing and once i'm done i will post the results but right now the problem is that cards that i already thought were not a viable option for the 2box when no drivers were installed are now performing closer to or better than the original 2box card.
When using the USB 3.0 port, the cards that have an UHS-Speed Class specified are of course way faster regarding the transfer rate - so in fairness to the original 2box card i would say i'd stick with the USB 2.0 port.

But regarding the excellent performance of the 2box card in the no-driver-condition i am not so sure which test-setup comes closer to the 2box system.

I really hope that made sense to anyone and are happy about any input!

As a side note: I tested the micro SD cards with the supplied SD adapters and also tested an available DeLock 61870 micro SD extension (together with the adapter) - but that thing just made things even weirder.
In the USB 3.0 port the transfer rate dropped to roughly USB 2.0 port speed but the access time was still close, in the USB 2.0 port the transfer rate dropped to half the speed and access time almost doubled. Sad, ‚cause it would have been a nice alternative to the „established“ SD extensions…