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Toshiba FlashAir troubles - bad card?  

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TeeBell
(@teebell)
Trusted Member
Toshiba FlashAir troubles - bad card?

I've got 6 MK3S+ printers. The 6th one was set up a couple months ago. The other 5 have been running for 1-3 years. Each one has a Toshiba FlashAir card running flawlessly. I set up this way because I have hundreds of gcode files organized into dozens of folders and with the click of a button I can sync my local folders with the printers' storage (since each has a mapped network drive).

I has to resort to buying a used FlashAir for the 6th printer. I set it up exactly the same way as the other 5. This one runs painfully slowly. When I sync to it, if it doesn't error out or time out, it takes forever. My syncs usually involve only a few files, up to a dozen maybe. The other 5 printers will sync in about a minute. The 6th printer can take 3-4 minutes. Another issue I have is that even after I sync, the next time I try to sync it thinks the files I synced last time are still out of sync.

Is this a sign that the card is going, or has gone, bad? I reformatted it and re-flashed the firmware on it, still having issues. I've ruled out the printer because I swapped cards. Just want to know if this is symptomatic of a FlashAir card going bad I guess.

Posted : 18/05/2023 8:26 pm
Diem
 Diem
(@diem)
Illustrious Member

SD cards do have a limited life; after enough read/write cycles sectors do start to fail.  The on chip manager can work around the bad sectors but speeds will drop.  It does sound like that card is on its last legs.

Cheerio,

Posted : 19/05/2023 11:17 am
TeeBell
(@teebell)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Toshiba FlashAir troubles - bad card?

That's what I was afraid of but I would think it would exhibit the same behavior when I write to it directly and not over the network.

 

Posted by: @diem

SD cards do have a limited life; after enough read/write cycles sectors do start to fail.  The on chip manager can work around the bad sectors but speeds will drop.  It does sound like that card is on its last legs.

Cheerio,

 

Posted : 19/05/2023 11:46 am
Diem
 Diem
(@diem)
Illustrious Member

I suspect it depends where on the card the fault is ...

Cheerio,

Posted : 19/05/2023 11:57 am
richnormand
(@richnormand)
Estimable Member
RE: Toshiba FlashAir troubles - bad card?

There are several programs available to check the health of SD memory and give you an indication of the situation.

Also of note it is worth noting there are a few variation of the FlashAir (W-04 is the last one I think) and a few different drivers to set them up and format them.

Since you swapped cards it does look like your suspect card is guilty but I would check the FlashAir setup utilities to make sure.

Also if you have a handy laptop, phone or tablet I would download a program to monitor the WiFi spectrum and give you signal strength. That way you could see if the suspect card has a low output.

 

REPAIR, RENEW, REUSE, RECYCLE, REBUILD, REDUCE, RECOVER, REPURPOSE, RESTORE

Posted : 19/05/2023 4:39 pm
TeeBell liked
rotarypower101
(@rotarypower101)
Estimable Member
RE:

What protocol does the Flashair card utilize to make a wireless connection?

Does it use any of these protocols?

SMB,CIFS,AFP,NSF,FTP,HTTP,HTTPS

 

 

Trying to find a way to auto mount the device without user interaction as before on OSX 10.14

Found this app

https://www.pixeleyes.co.nz/automounter/support/#whatisprosettings

But having problems setting it up for lack of information what the underlying protocol the flashair card utilizes.

 

Possible anyone knows what the flashair cards protocol is for APPMODE=5 ?

Or any of the other various APPMODE settings that are compatible with the MK3?

Posted : 08/06/2023 8:38 pm
richnormand
(@richnormand)
Estimable Member
RE: Toshiba FlashAir troubles - bad card?

"Or any of the other various APPMODE settings that are compatible with the MK3?"

I am using the APPMODE=6 on mine linked to the house wifi and mapped as a drive on win11.

Was also working fine of win10.

 

 

REPAIR, RENEW, REUSE, RECYCLE, REBUILD, REDUCE, RECOVER, REPURPOSE, RESTORE

Posted : 08/06/2023 8:59 pm
richnormand
(@richnormand)
Estimable Member
RE: Toshiba FlashAir troubles - bad card?

Also have a look at this:

https://mattshub.com/blogs/blog/flashair-sd-card

Note the availability of firmware updates and look at some of the comments (a few pages of comments  but you have to scroll through the main text each time to get at the extra pages of comments).

REPAIR, RENEW, REUSE, RECYCLE, REBUILD, REDUCE, RECOVER, REPURPOSE, RESTORE

Posted : 08/06/2023 9:10 pm
TeeBell
(@teebell)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE:

I use APPMODE=5 and like you connect to my home WIFI and map a network drive. But all of this is done on MK3S. I'd like to get it to work on the MK4 somehow.

 

Posted by: @richnormand

"Or any of the other various APPMODE settings that are compatible with the MK3?"

I am using the APPMODE=6 on mine linked to the house wifi and mapped as a drive on win11.

Was also working fine of win10.

 

 

 

This post was modified 10 months ago by TeeBell
Posted : 08/06/2023 10:03 pm
rotarypower101
(@rotarypower101)
Estimable Member
RE:

 

Posted by: @richnormand

"Or any of the other various APPMODE settings that are compatible with the MK3?"

I am using the APPMODE=6 on mine linked to the house wifi and mapped as a drive on win11.

Was also working fine of win10.

 

 

Possible you could convey a few details about how you connect to this card?

on OSX 10.14 , so it is different...

 

On OSX we used to be able to "Automatically Connect" to the FlashAir Card as if it was a drive in to "Finder" file browser.

 

Now we have to manually connect via a series of user windows, and hoping to find a solution to automate this process if possible. Have not been able to find a method yet.

 

We need to hit the "Go" button in the Finder window bar

Then click Connect to Server

Then click "Connect" in this connect to server window

Then click connect on this unsecured connection window

 

And then Finally! we can access our card and save files on it from prusa slicer...

Not the end of the world, but it gets monotonous time after time connecting like that...

If anyone has found a solution to streamline this process , and make the flashair card avalible anytme it is active and powered on, would really like ot know about how or options to explore to allow that.

 
This post was modified 10 months ago 2 times by rotarypower101
Posted : 14/06/2023 6:01 pm
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