Using SD card extender
Hello,
I have been using 8 MK3s for some years now, and on some of them I am observing more and more often some difficulties in reading files when the SD card is inserted into the slot. Probably the holder is worn out or somewhat getting loose.
So I thought a good idea, to avoid repurchasing the whole LCD board, could be to add on my printers some SD card extenders like the one in the image below. Looked like a simple and clever idea to me, one that was just going to work.
So I ordered the extender, received it, then tried it... and surprise, it doesn't really do what I was expecting 🙁
If the extender is plugged into the MK3s slot, when I put the SD card into the extender reader, the MK3s does not "trigger" the reading of the files on the SD card. It does not even recognize that there is an SD card in the extender.
But, if I put first the SD card into the extender slot, then insert the extender into the printer slot... now it does trigger the files scanning. So it kinda works... but in a way that defeats completely my initial purpose of limiting the wear on the machine SD card reader.
Has anyone tried this like I did? Does anyone know if the behaviour I observe is normal? Can it in some way be changed, so that the MK3s starts scanning the SD card files when it is inserted into the extender slot?
Thanks for your help!!
RE: Using SD card extender
Its normal. The SD card slot hardware has a little metal contact arm. When the card is inserted the arm is pushed into contact with another metal part, in effect activating a switch. This is used to detect card insertion or removal.
When you use an extender the card is always present as far as the slot on the printer is concerned. It cant really be changed unless you physically modify the hardware to break that contact system and add an alternative latching switch mechanism.