Hmm. The only way I could get BenF to find my SDCard was to use the Samsung SDCard Formatter Utility. Windows and Linux formatting wouldn’t work for me, kept getting SD Err when I tried to save. I wonder if you could get it to work the same way, by connecting to usb and formatting with the utility. I think it would be safe, assuming there’s nothing on the drive currently, which there doesn’t seem to be, from the screenshots. I’d try the formatter and see if BenF saves to it then. It certainly seems to use the same software/hardware address as the missing SDcard slot. Link for your convenience: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/eula_windows/
No… it’s not that. There is NO card reader in the V3. I mean phisycally; it’s just not there; see the pics in the first posts.
I know that. It’s me, eric25. I’ve been following this thread since you started it. Now, back to my point. The 2MB flash chip shows up through the same hardware channel in windows as my SD card does, the STM32 USB controller, meaning it’s using the same channels as my SD Card slot. My SD card can only be read in BenF when I use that formatter utility. If I format it through the Nano itself, using a USB cable, or by taking the card out and using a separate card reader, it still works the same way. If your flash chip is on the same channel, BenF should call it the same way, and the formatter utility should prep it the same way.
Just try it and stop assuming I don’t know what you’re talking about. The way it’s addressed, it shouldn’t be able to do any damage, at least. 
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/eula_windows/
P.S. Totally didn’t want that to sound flamey, just trying to say you’ve been very detailed in your descriptions, I’d have to be an absolute idiot to think you had an SDcard slot at this point… 
Sorry for the misunderstanding; if I get this right, you’re saying that I should try to “format” the 2Mb chip drive using the formatter utility, and then BenF firmware should be able to use it, right ?
One question first, is the exact error “SD Err” in BenF when you try to save? If it’s “SD Err”, I think it will work. If the error is “No Card”, then it probably won’t work, but may still be worth a try.
Just curious if you heard anything back from support?
I figure before I do any mods which would prevent me from returning the unit, I will raise a support ticket and see what seeed say about the device not including an micro sd card slot as advertised.
Thanks for the update!
The error is “No Card”, and yes, it doesn’t work, as you expected. Did not hurt to try, but, unfortunately, no change. As one of my favorite movie characters would put it, “our situation has not improved”…
zero… zip… nada… nothing… rest assured, if I ever get an answer, I will post here asap.
Noticed one strange thing last night.
Tried to save a hard copy of the screen, got the “no card” error.
Tried to save a profile, it said “ok”; wonder where it’s saved …
Meanwhile, I’ve ordered a micro SD hinged slot; thought I’d give it a try …
You probably saved it to “flash”, which is the profile it uses when it powers on. It saves to the stm32 itself. If you arrow over to change from flash to 001.cfg, etc, it will try to save to sd card. Card slot is worth a shot, but you may try to do a bit of tracing on the flash chip and make sure it doesn’t use the same pins on the stm32. Still, even if it does, it shouldn’t fry anything, but neither card slot nor flash chip will work with both installed at the same time, most likely. I’ll be excited to see the results. If they share, I’d also be interested to see if removing the flash chip would allow the card slot to work.
Ok, small update folks…
I got a response from techsupport as follows:
“Sorry for the inconvenience to you!
The DSO Nano we are shipping is a newer version with build-in storage and new app, of this version of DSO Nano, you could also save waveform, the manual is in its product page(seeedstudio.com/depot/dso-na … ?cPath=174)
Regards,
Deray”
I also looked at the manual and it now lists:
Waveform Storage 2Mbyte
So yeah, feel a little dupped now, because even the product pages still lists it as micro SD support…
Almost same reply here…
But that does not solve my problem.
Morning update; I’ve managed to get access to the www.minidso.com forum (google translate rules!) and posted there asking for help; this morning I was surprised to see a reply to my message with links to the 4.20 firmware.
Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work, but these guys were a lot more quicker to reply than Seeed’s support; I hope to be able to get my hands on the V4.00 (the original) firmware, so I can test.
In the meanwhile, I’m getting the hinged card slot today… I’m still wondering if it will work to solder it in and just use BenF firmware. I think I’ll give it a shot; judging by the bits of information I’ve got this far, most probable worst case scenario is it wont’ work, but I won’t completely brick it.
Thumbs up for the guys at minidso.com/bbs/read.php?tid=301.
As I said, the v4.20 did not work; I will try the others tonight.
Finally it works !
My DSO nano v3 is back to its original firmware, and I was able to save a hard copy to that 2Mb chip and retrieve it on the computer.
FYI : I’ve been using the following files
- 201_L228.hex
- 201AP264.hex
- DS201V4.hex, which is firmware v4.00
Tried also firmware v4.11 and v4.20, but both freeze on startup and the Nano doesn’t boot up. Just in case anyone needs these files, too, I’m attaching them to this post.
Just to avoid further problems as more v3s will ship, maybe a sticky warning post stating that they should NOT update to BenF firmware, and if they do, they need to revert to the v4.00 firmware may help.
DSO Nano v3 Firmware v4.00.zip (88.5 KB)
I wish I had the source for the latest BenF, I could probably make it work, but the latest source is too old for me to bother. I don’t see any way the SD card slot could permanently brick it, either. Still like 50/50 on whether it will be recognized though.
Just to elaborate on your statement though, you CAN flash BenF, but not if you want to save waveforms/screenshots.
Right… After Stefanu123’s success with miniDSO forum, I thought I would also try and ask for layout and schematic details if available…
http://www.minidso.com/bbs/read.php?tid=304
In short the answer is:
I hope that this can clear up the setup of the flash chip, and if it is possible for people to easily replace it with a card reader.
Lets see next week…ish
Just had a look at the pics again and compared it to the M25PE16 data sheet. The two traces that are visibly shared between the cardslot pads and the flash chip are 6 and 5(on the flash chip), which are Serial Clock and Serial Data Input, respectively. They connect to 3 and 5 on the card slot pads, which are listed as Serial Clock and Serial Data Input for SPI mode, which seems to work in the same serial paged manner. Long story short, the flash chip and the card slot seem to be accessed in the same way, and still be wired correctly for both pin diagrams(both flash chip and card slot).
Upside is the card slot should work in the same manner as the flash chip, downside is you definitely have to pull the flash chip off the board while you’re trying the cardslot, or it will be paging two devices on the same channel, and neither will work.
For me it’s ok as it is right now; guess I’ll use the micro SD slots for other projects…
Made a simple calculation. One hard copy of the signal is 38Kb, which will allow me to save some 50 images to that flash chip, which is more than enough.
If you can stand the firmware, more power to ya. I don’t think I could move away from BenF after using it, with or without waveform saving. It just works so much better. As a point of interest, did they ever add 3-stage acquisition to the stock FW?