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Dream Card reader does not work

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:28 am
by KimH
Hi,

I haven't used the card reader in my dream before. Now trying to update the firmware to version 1.24.
However, the cardreader does not seem to work. It simply does not find the memory card including the bin file.

I also tried to use read/Write functions, which also does not work. It just says "SD Card Error".

My machine came with the card reader, but no card, as I have read some of you got. So I have simply tried with 2 different SD cards from digital cameras, which I believe would work?

Please let me know if any of you are aware of any known issues related to the card reader.

PS: The machine and I live in Europe, so unfortunatly I don't have the same great support as most of you from the US.

/Kim

Re: Dream Card reader does not work

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:54 am
by goodboyr
On the Chris coffee site on the dream page there is a resources tab with the manuals. I think the interface manual has the details on the read/write file setup on the card. The card itself is a 256mb formated to FAT with no name. It has the .bin firmware file in the root directory. Here's a pic of the root directory.
Dream card files.jpg
Dream card files.jpg (11.22 KiB) Viewed 9600 times
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Re: Dream Card reader does not work

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 12:02 pm
by chas
There's an mportant thing to note and I don't see it anywhere in the documentation. It may be because they usually include a tiny ~256MB SD card which you can't buy anymore and which is already properly formatted. I know I have used larger SD Cards that I have formatted myself. However, as I recall you have to be careful if formatting an SD card for this purpose or if using a preformatted SD card. There are several format options to chose from. I think the DREAM will only recognize cards formatted in the original FAT format. If yours is formatted for FAT32 or NTFS it won't work.

Also if you have some SD card size options to choose from I would pick the smallest option you can as there is a problem with larger cards. I have used 2GB and 8GB cards with some success. I forget what the size limit is - maybe 64GB. Once you get to that size and beyond, FAT is no longer compatible so you won't be able to format the cards as readable by the Dream unless you perhaps split the card into smaller partitions first.

Re: Dream Card reader does not work

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 12:19 pm
by goodboyr
Good point, Chas. Thxs.

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Re: Dream Card reader does not work

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:07 am
by KimH
Thanks for your inputs. I tried to format 2 different SD Cards in FAT format. I also made sure the name was blank. But no luck so far :-(

I assume it is not required to have the machine's current firmware bin file on the card - right. I only placed the new bin file, as I never had a bin file with the firmware that came from the factory.

Other ideas on how to get this to work?

Re: Dream Card reader does not work

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:45 am
by goodboyr
Are you sure it's fully plugged in? I've found it's a bit finicky and if it you don't get it straight on it might be partially inserted into the plug. As well, you might want to try power cycling the machine with the card reader plugged in.

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