Card Tricks - a small utility to help manage SD cards [currently v. 1.44]

whim

@fe50

hmm hadn't noticed that yet (running Avira myself) but that's probably because i:

a) never run full system scans (daily scan switched off, i can think of better ways to keep CPU / HD occupied)

b) have exclude my CHDK folder from AVGUARD scan ( speeds up compilation )

I'm glad I did it for CHDK-Shell as well, it appears that it is AutoIt's 'FileInstall' instruction that they
all get so steamed up about ...(it allows you to specify external files to pack into the executable
at compile time, which are then unpacked when executing the program ...)

[rant mode]

BTW, noticed something funny today - i unplugged my notebook's power adapter, and
suddenly my processor load shot up from 5-7% baseline to 45-50% and stayed that way
(1.5 hour) while i was discharging the battery. Fired up task manager -> it was avguard !
when my battery ran down and the notebook beeped crying for juice, i replugged ....
back to 5-7% ; in fact during normal (plugged in) use i've never seen this notebook
show such CPU use by Avira ...
Sounds like some programmer got the state of a flag wrong, don't you think ? I mean,
if i expect a behaviour change here, it would be to stop scanning on switching to battery
power. Pretty disappointing for c't Magazin's favourite ...
An Avira tip from a friend of mine (in case you run free version like me)
Deny execute rights to 'avnotify.exe' -> no more ads will pop up

really, as soon as i can get ClamWin to automatically scan any incoming file in my
DL folder, i seriously consider ditching the lot ... looks like they've all decided to
concentrate their main efforts on spying on your browser's activities and selling
the info to google ..

[/rant mode]

cheers,

wim

darwin-t

I have tried unsuccessfully to use version 1.43 to prepare a 4 gb SDHC card in my A610. I was able to do it previously with a 2 gb card.

I format it, it gives me the message about non standard cluster sizes. I make it bootable and transfer the software. Everything looks fine. I put the card in the camera and it says CARD ERROR CARD IS LOCKED. This occurs whether I have the write protect tab in either position.

Any ideas? Thanks

PS I just tried it in my A550 and it worked. With the proper version of CHDK of course.

ewavr

darwin-t
to prepare a 4 gb SDHC card in my A610.

SDHC & A610? It works without CHDK?

darwin-t

Oh. I guess that's my problem. I just assumed the A610 could handle SDHC cards. I never tried it without CHDK.

jerjoz

this page is confusing me for some reason. so can i get a quick answer? 16gig SHDC cards work with CHDK autoboot, yes or no?

fudgey

jerjoz
this page is confusing me for some reason. so can i get a quick answer? 16gig SHDC cards work with CHDK autoboot, yes or no?

Someone else may know for sure for your cameras, but I have a 16 GiB SDHC autobooting CHDK on my a570is.

shinbet

hi
i'm very new to chdk, so forgive me if i am ignorant
I read thru a lot of this thread, but cant seem to find the post i need to help
I have a canon as590, with a Sandisk SDHC extreme iii 8GB
no matter what i do, i cant get chdk to work.
I tried it on a small sd card with 32mb just to make sure i have the basic idea,
but beyond that?
I cant seem to partition my card,
i'm running windows xp,
Please help me
Thanks

whim

@shinbet

You need to partition your card first to be able to autoboot CHDK.

Try SDM installer, linked here https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/3164/55 to prepare your card. When you have partitioned your card, make the small FAT16 partition bootable and copy DISKBOOT.BIN on it,
The rest of the CHDK files should be copied to the large FAT32 partition. Finally set write protect on card to on.

Alternatively, you can start CHDK with the 'firm update method' , read here how:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._How_can_I_make_the_CHDK_program_load_automatically_at_startup.3F

HTH,

wim

shinbet

whim
@shinbet

You need to partition your card first to be able to autoboot CHDK.

Try SDM installer, linked here https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/3164/55 to prepare your card. When you have partitioned your card, make the small FAT16 partition bootable and copy DISKBOOT.BIN on it,
The rest of the CHDK files should be copied to the large FAT32 partition. Finally set write protect on card to on.
HTH,

wim

Ok, i tried the first option,
so the link provided in sdm installer, took me to a file thats been downloaded only a few times, setup exe, it installed nothing, and a little while later avira anti virus says something is wrong on my system and i'm getting pop ups from "addestination"
eventually i found the sdm installer at this location http://code.google.com/p/stereogigapan/downloads/list donwloaded it and it seems to give me the utility you mentioned.
i partitioned the disk, put the boot on the smaller one, and the chdk folder on the other, but nothing i happened, (yes i locked it!)
I also tried to load all the chdk files without the folder,, but it did not work

any ideas?

thanks so much again

whim

@shinbet

are you sure you haven't forgotten to make the small partition bootable ?
or to swap back to make the small partition visible ?

if sdminste 'sees' it as in the atttach it should work

and, are you using an official autobuild from here: http://mighty-hoernsche.de/ ?

wim

shinbet

well, i went back and did that, and it worked!!
I was sure i made it bootable to begin with! looks like i am sorted,
thanks for all your help!!!

Racial

hi um... i have a problem, but i think it's just me.

im trying to find out what firmware version my SX10IS is.

i downloaded v1.44 of Card Tricks.
i went to select my card from where it says 'select drive'
Problem 1: CardTricks keeps freezing when i click that.

but i managed to get around that.

So, next problem: i cant format it.
It keeps saying that it's write protected. but there's no little switch or anything to flick over on the card or the adapter.

im using a microSDHC turbo. with a transflash adapter to let my computer recognize it.

but the card and adapter dont have any switches or buttons on it. also, it's a 4GB card.

i dont know what im doing wrong. any help?

(if all that makes sense......)

NEVER MIND!!! I continued on reading the tutorial about finding your firmware and i found you can just change asdf.txt to ver.req XD

i feel like such a loser 🙁

thanks anyway!

nawalsingal

Hi all. another newbie. First thanks all for amzing work u people are doing. I just bought A100IS. got to this forum accidently(good luck to me). I successfully created ver.req & vers.req & got the versions. While trying to make the card bootable using card tricks1.44, every step was completed successfully. (Foramting using FAT16, make BOOTABLE etc) but when loaded the card in camera, it shows card locked. Though if i press Funcset & disp key, version is shown. : PID 318E NT D, VER GM1.00B, Adj ver 007.010 etc. I am using 4 gb sandisk micro sdhc card with sd adapter & lock is turned on. Can any one tell where i am going wrong as i am not in to softwares much. TIA. keep up the good work. Cheers

fe50

Hello & welcome, nawalsingal !

nawalsingalA100IS....successfully created ver.req & vers.req & got the versions.....version 1.00B

Copy the diskboot.bin file from https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/2654/120 to the root of the FAT16 formatted, CHDK-bootable SD card, lock the card again...
The A1000 CHDK version (diskboot.bin) is an early BETA version, the porting thread is here: https://chdk.setepontos.com/d/2654 - pls. post there when you have more questions...
*Edit: typo 😉

nawalsingal

Thanks a to buddy. I hv also loaded beta ver of a1000. It's working. Though i am a novice for adv photography, still i m able to see remaining battery life, live histogram etc. various other settings are seen but since i don't know much about this, i'll read & try further. Thanx again for amazing work u people are doing. 😀

traildad

Is there any disadvantage to using FAT16 formatting on a 4gig SDHC Ultra II card? I am trying to decide the best way to use these cards. I guess I am asking if the speed performance in the camera is affected. If I want to use the multi partition method, what is the best way to do that? Thanks

fudgey

traildad
Is there any disadvantage to using FAT16 formatting on a 4gig SDHC Ultra II card? I am trying to decide the best way to use these cards. I guess I am asking if the speed performance in the camera is affected. If I want to use the multi partition method, what is the best way to do that? Thanks

This may not be a particularly good thread for this question... but the way I've understood it you definitely should use FAT16 whenever you can (i.e. on any card up to 4GiB), because multipartition cards boot slower (due to automatic partition swap + reboot taking its time) and are a bit more cumbersome to install and use (especially for windows users, who can only see one of the partitions at a time when using a card reader instead of USB download).

traildad

fudgey

traildad
Is there any disadvantage to using FAT16 formatting on a 4gig SDHC Ultra II card? I am trying to decide the best way to use these cards. I guess I am asking if the speed performance in the camera is affected. If I want to use the multi partition method, what is the best way to do that? Thanks

This may not be a particularly good thread for this question... but the way I've understood it you definitely should use FAT16 whenever you can (i.e. on any card up to 4GiB), because multipartition cards boot slower (due to automatic partition swap + reboot taking its time) and are a bit more cumbersome to install and use (especially for windows users, who can only see one of the partitions at a time when using a card reader instead of USB download).

My apologies, this is day one for me and it is a bit deep. Thanks for the info, I can understand how the multi-partition would slow down the boot and makes things more difficult in general. From your post I am gathering that there is no loss in write speed for the camera etc. when using the Fat16 format. I got the SDHC Ultra to have a fast card and I didn't want to lose speed unintentionally. Thanks again for the help and for all of the great things you and everyone had done on this project.

fudgey

traildad
From your post I am gathering that there is no loss in write speed for the camera etc. when using the Fat16 format. I got the SDHC Ultra to have a fast card and I didn't want to lose speed unintentionally.

I haven't benchmarked this, but I wouldn't worry. If you want to be sure, you can try it of course. I regularly use 3 cards: 1 GiB Sandisk Ultra II and 4 GiB and 16 GiB Transcend Class 6 SDHC cards. The largest is of course a dual partition FAT16/FAT32 setup, others are FAT16.

I mostly use the 16 GiB card for timelapses only because appears to perform a bit slower than the others even though it benchmarks (in CHDK debug menu benchmark, that is) similarly to the 4 GiB one. Partially this is because the camera works faster when there aren't many photos on the card (put a 16 GiB card full of photos and it takes literally ages to boot to play mode), but filesystem size could affect speed too (smaller card handling faster).

traildad

Thanks again. I am really looking forward to using bracketing, time lapse and motion detection. This makes a great camera simply amazing. Ken

fudgey

traildad
From your post I am gathering that there is no loss in write speed for the camera etc. when using the Fat16 format. I got the SDHC Ultra to have a fast card and I didn't want to lose speed unintentionally.

I haven't benchmarked this, but I wouldn't worry. If you want to be sure, you can try it of course. I regularly use 3 cards: 1 GiB Sandisk Ultra II and 4 GiB and 16 GiB Transcend Class 6 SDHC cards. The largest is of course a dual partition FAT16/FAT32 setup, others are FAT16.

I mostly use the 16 GiB card for timelapses only because appears to perform a bit slower than the others even though it benchmarks (in CHDK debug menu benchmark, that is) similarly to the 4 GiB one. Partially this is because the camera works faster when there aren't many photos on the card (put a 16 GiB card full of photos and it takes literally ages to boot to play mode), but filesystem size could affect speed too (smaller card handling faster).

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