Minty Pi removable SD card?

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ICMF
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Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by ICMF » Fri Sep 22, 2017 2:55 pm

I just got a MicroSD extension cable for another project, and immediately ripped the case open to see if it'd work in a Minty Pi.
One of these.Show
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Turns out, it might! I don't have any Minty Pi stuff (still in the middle of my own build :x ), so I made a quick mockup in CAD to see how it fit with the printed parts:
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If you use the smaller charging board, and remove the large bump where the powerboost is supposed to fit, it looks like you should be able to squeeze the PCB with the card reader in the resulting gap.

The biggest challenge is the screw post for the faceplate, since the MicroSD adapter card hits it. Though it should be possible to either re-locate that post, or else cut a notch in it to make room for the card. And it may not even be an issue if you buy one with a narrower adapter.

Oh, and the card reader on this is push-push, so you wouldn't need the card to stick out by much.

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rodocop
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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by rodocop » Fri Sep 22, 2017 3:10 pm

It would be handy if you had access to the card just in case...It would be interesting to see if you get this to fit.

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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by ICMF » Fri Sep 22, 2017 5:07 pm

Aww crap.... I completely forgot about Helder's PCB. :lol:
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So it turns out, yeah, there's a bit of a problem. There's no way the card itself would fit with Helder's board. It uses a fairly large pitch FPC cable, so there needs to be a large adapter sticking out exactly where the start/select buttons go. It might be possible with a custom memory-card-shaped PCB that would fit, but that's not exactly a simple solution.

The other option would be to find an extension cable with a different card-shape. This one has a narrower pitch FPC so the width would be fine, and it *looks* like the card portion is a lot shorter (it looks like it should fit)... but it's a lot more expensive and I've only seen one seller that has them. :(
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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by Zmoneyrecords » Fri Sep 22, 2017 6:45 pm

You could maybe break off the extra start and select part of the pbc that hangs down and just solder separate buttons to the test pad to give your self the room.

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Helder
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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by Helder » Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:23 pm

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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by dryja123 » Sat Sep 23, 2017 5:02 am

Helder wrote:
Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:23 pm
Or use the SD Card test points
that's what I was thinking when I saw this. Wire up an SD breakout board and shave away as much as possible on the board to get it to fit.

I honestly don't have a need for this though. Haven't had a problem swapping cards on my built units.

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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by ICMF » Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:46 pm

Well, a plug-and-play solution would be a lot simpler for the novice builder. "Buy this, cut hole, glue here." It would eliminate a ton of potential headaches involved in a DIY card extension (look at all the hassles people have had trying to move the card into the cartridge). And FPC would save a bunch of wire wrangling.

I just saw the posts from people worried about card access on their MintyPi, saw the gap in the case and thought "I bet that'd fit". Turns out, it (kind of) does.

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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by ilike56k » Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:50 pm

I've been looking into this, too, and have found some useful parts on amazon, which could be soldered pin-by-pin:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0191EEW04
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CF569VQ
Other boards like this one don't seem to have the correct pins: http://a.co/5RFdqLu
(If you know how to use them, let us know)

The tall pins can be removed, and the components on the back of the sparkfun are only for voltage level translation, but I wouldn't remove that unless if I was willing to find where and how to patch missing traces created from missing components.


I'm sure Helder's already thought of it, but the SD card would be a nice addition to his boards, like this:
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Adafruit makes a similar board, but it would be too long, as you can see the sparkfun board only has a few centimeters to space:
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Here's a quick guide on how to remove the tall pins:
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As you can see in these pics, they fit great, but due to how the SD card is flush with the PCB, you would have to cut one jankey hole into the tin with the PCB exposed.
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Re: Minty Pi removable SD card?

Post by Pierre » Wed Mar 28, 2018 7:48 pm

Hi guys. Hi Helder. Can you add a second SD card using the test points or will it blank the initial SD slot?
I am trying to add a second SD card reader without using GPIO pins because I wan't to keep them for mintyPi.

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