OT: Blink security system Sync Module not recognising Micro SD card in USB card reader

Possibly higher power demand preventing the reader from working properly?

Just a thought.

Dave R

The Blink OS has no driver for the USB card reader ?

They have some additional piece of kit.

Sync Module XR

Note: We recommend using a Blink microSD card with Sync Module XR

If USB sticks work, then I guess that's what you use.

And more capacity than that, could be a HDD in a USB enclosure. say one with a wall adapter for 12V @ 2A of power.

There are some relatively small USB sticks in nano format, but I bet they get a bit warm.

The file system may eventually have a limit on the number of short film clips collected, as the RAM may have to hold the entire directory for the file system. An infinitely large storage device, may not actually work when it is chock full.

In the case of this Blink item, the processing may involve a MIPS processor with a certain size of DDR2 DRAM and a flash. The main SOC is an Atheros chip.

Paul

An additional link with references to storage types.

Paul

I tried using an SD card in an ‘adaptor’ to simulate a USB stick in a car audio system, it didn’t like it.

I couldn’t be 100% sure - the system didn’t give enough detail beyond ‘error’- but it seemed to be speed related. Likewise, when writing files to SD cards vs a USB stick on a Mac or Linux machine, the latter always seems much quicker. ( Same files of course)

I have two Blink Sync modules ( on different networks / in different places). While I have a subscription - so video is held by the server- I use the secondary USB facility or, more exactly, have tried to, without success.

I’ve not really investigated the problem. I can access the cameras from home, from my phone or iPad when out and about, which is what I need.

Yes, the older Sync Module 1 only supports SD cards and the newer one only supports USB memory sticks. It would have been so much better if the newer one had supported either, maybe with an either/or restriction that was documented.

It had never occurred to me that a card reader with a cars in it might have had different device drivers to a memory stick. Windows just silently sorts it out so you never are really aware of it having to get drivers from its internal repository or an online one.

I don't think that is entirely true about Windows, because I have some data migration software that stores to a USB stick, and the instructions are to plug the USB into one of the computer's native USB connector, not an external hub.

I have never investigated why, I just do as I am told, but it does look like nested USB hubs are handled slightly differently to the host hub in the computer. If that is the case, then perhaps your USB/SD card reader behaves like a secondary hub?

That is a usb stick, which is software similar to a USB connected SSD.

Now when I burn raspberry PI SD cards , I use an adapter which seems to mimic an USB drive, but this is not necessarily a given.

'SD card' covers a plethora of standards speeds and pinouts.

But the USB connector on the back of modern computers *is* a "hub". That's one reason that modern computers are allowed one fewer hubs than a year 2000 machine could have (this is for USB1.1/USB2).

It is *true*, that at one time, the information you were given was correct for the time. There was definitely a difference in the BIOS ability to deal with some devices directly on a USB connector, versus doing it by using a separate USB hub and hanging the device off that. The BIOS had a number of bad habits back then. Could work with a CD drive, would not touch a DVD drive. Knew what an IDE port was. If you installed a PCI SATA card, the card would be entirely ignored (even when Windows boots).

Bus traversal today, works a lot better than it used to. Both the BIOS and the OS can walk right to the end of a USB tree, without a problem. If a certain Class driver is required (like, for an ASIX USB to Ethernet adapter), the OS reads the type code from config space and applies the right driver for it. Some things have a bit of non-standard magic in them, and so a Class driver cannot work.

There are still a couple code points for "absolutely custom" devices. and then you insert the DVD and install the driver. Microsoft does not have all vendor drivers on-site. Hauppauge (TV tuners) for example, is missing.

The OPs device is similar to the OS in a router. Since the flash size is strictly limited, they can't put a 6GB UBuntu install into the flash. The package used has to be a lot smaller than that. It's possible the processor is a MIPS CPU. An embedded one. And I believe MIPS was also a choice used in routers.

If you had the tools to build that OS, you could add a driver for it. But what are the odds anyone knows how to do that.

One thing that helps on devices, is if they have a TTL level serial port, with the Console on it. Just the boot prompt might give away what the OS or environment is.

Just a stab in the dark. Maybe someone else here knows the pedigree of OpenWrt. You would have to compare the pictures of the guts of the device, to this module Blink appear to have bought.

Comments: Seems to come with OpenWrt 15.05 preinstalled, but unknown where this unofficial support comes from. "

Paul