Lowrider 2 "no media" :(

Hi all,

First of all thank you Ryan for the great design of all cnc’s and the lowrider 2. Every time you think: this is a great design I see you come up with an even better version of it!

Anyhow, I built a Lowrider 2.0. It was working pretty well until now unfortunately. I added some tracks and fiddled around with the location of the LCD screen but after doing that it now no longer reads the SD card (i run it from the LCD screen) The board recognises that an sd card has been inserted but it then says “no media”. It was working fine with the same SD card and files before.

These are the list of things I tried/checked:

  • manually turning the files into .gcode
  • putting the files in a folders on the sd card
  • formatting the sd card
  • Try a different new sd card, still “no media”
  • check the connections of the data cable from the LCD screen - ramps
  • Checking whether all SD connectors are going to the data cable on the LCD screen board
  • pressing the ramps, LCD and arduino board tightly together.
  • Moving the machine using the lcd screen

I’m a bit perplexed as to what it could be as it was working fine before. I was hoping any of you recognize the problem or have other suggestions.

Thanks in advance!
Tuur

1 Like

When you formatted, did you do a full format or a quick format?

Hi Riley,

I did a full format.

Sees sd card, formatted properly, maybe your file naming?

At that time, did you change the 10 pin cables? Specifically, did you use longer ones?

Did you change the way that the cables are routed? Put then next to anything that might generate interference?

On the LCD, the EXT1 cable carries things like the controls, rotary encoder and button press, as well as the display data. EXT2 carries the SD card data. IIRC it is possible to connect an SD card reader to a RAMPS or clone using only the one 10 pin connector.

That cable is known to be finicky at more than a certain length, the cables that V1 sells are about as long as they can be and remain reliable.

Thanks for your replies!

I’ll try playing around with the file names. Though I’m not hopeful as it recognized the same files before.

It’s all the same cables which are about 20 cm long which worked fine before. I also checked each cable for faults and I can still operate the cnc from the lcd so some data is transferred for sure. I can also measure that all sd card outlets go to the data pins on the lcd screen board so it’s probably not in the lcd part but further down the line.

Should the cnc be able te read empty folders? Or can it only read folders when there’s files in there?

My feeling is that it might be in the software or some very specific connections on the ramps board have been damaged.

I might pick up the courage to re-flash the board…

swap the two EXT cables over (at both ends) to prove their integrity. Have you fitted the EXT cable for the SD card backwards?

Did you do a FAT or a FAT32 format? I’m not sure if it matters but you did say you formatted the card and now it doesn’t work.

It should see empty folders.

I swapped the cables round and checked the 10 individual cables to make sure they were all functioning. They’re connected the right way round I think as the connector fitting doesn’t allow fitting it the wrong way round. I can also operate the cnc from the lcd so that leaves me to believe the cables are good. So I’m pretty confident about the cables and lcd screen side of things, not about the ramps/arduino.
Software can be strange, so I’ll try a reflash when I’ve got time this evening.

It was fat32 and formatted to fat 32 again. The card was working before so it was sort of a desperate attempt. I also bought a new Sd card but to no avail.

Software doesn’t break though. And if it does ( like from a cosmic ray flipping memory), it doesn’t usually function after that.

Reflashing it won’t hurt, but I would be pretty surprised if it spontaneously changed.

Sd cards are weird. I don’t know exactly why, but some configurations just don’t work. Things like folder structure, or not having a file in the root folder, stuff like that.

Wow, you are using folders. Guess I never tried that, but try not using folders!
Remember that device is very simple.

Also, I have been doing I.t. for a very long time. I have seen where file extensions were hidden and a .txt was being added and the person did not know.

so your file could be file.gcode.txt and Windows may not show it.

It must be a bad week for sd cards idk… a few days ago I had a 15hr print fail 8hrs in, due to “media removed”… totally random but I’ve been a lot more careful about jiggling my cards before I hit start lol.

Had this issue many times…mini rambo