Hi. I just purchased. I feel like I’m going crazy, I cannot simply find the USB disk mode (Maybe it’s called something different).
I simply want to load on files to the SD card.
Do I have to go buy another reader even though the unit is connected via USB?
Thanks in advance.
There is no USB disk mode, you need an SD card reader. Many laptops have one built in, and external readers aren’t exactly expensive these days, mine cost circa 8€ and supports multiple different card types…
Yes sure. Although I must say it seems a little like an oversight don’t you think? It’s already connected to a computer with USB. I guess I have enjoyed this ease of workflow with the Elektron and Roland gear I have.
Thank you
agreed, this would be an extremely useful basic feature.
but we’ve had this request before and i had the feeling
that i was always the only one who wanted it.
i’m happy someone else is chiming in at this point.
This is a hardware design issue. if the USB driver, the SD card and the micro-controller were not designed to function together and allow the drive to me mounted as a filesystem, then it can’t be added after the fact.
Also, at least on the Digitakt, the +Drive also can’t be mounted as a filesystem over USB either, and neither could the card on the Electribe, and the Deluge.
You could try experimenting with Air Card ( SD Card with built-in WiFi )
i’m skeptical that this is the case.
looking at early prototype images the pyramid seems to be based on a STM32F4 discovery board, for which a simple google search brings up stackoverflow threads from years ago where people got access to the SD card through USB working.
according to your teardown video, the MCU has not changed.
Also preenFM2, based on the same MCU series, does provide this functionality.
an Air Card was recommended to me last time this feature request came up and i did get one, but i haven’t got it working so far.
Either way, this machine is not cheap. And given it has a SD card slot, you would assume that this kind of functionality would have already been thought through. Now as a consumer I need to go buy something else when it’s hard to understand why. It has a USB on the unit AND a SD slot!!! From memory the Digitakt has not SD card reader??
Not exactly a great solution to buy more ‘stuff’
It’s not a matter of greatness, the simple fact is it is the only solution there is.
Would it be convenient to have an USB disk mode? Sure, absolutely. But it’s not there,
and that shouldn’t come as a surprise because the manual is online and accessible to everybody.
@pmatilai - I’m sorry… ‘shouldn’t come as a surprise’ … please show me where in the manual it says I need an external card reader. I’m happy to stand corrected, but looking now, I can tell you it’s not clear.
In fact here
http://squarp.net/modesaveload - it says "you can read the files on your computer’
I agree, product specs could be clearer, but its a tough one - there are lots of usb protocols, it unreasonable to list every thing that is not supported, its normal to list what is supported.
also, usb disk mode is not a ‘norm’ that can be assume, just because elekton do it, hardly makes it a standard.
also I think for many of us, transferring projects to a computer is only a small part of the pyramid, so its not really an issue to use an external card reader (which i guess many of us have)
however, i do think given it talks about transferring files, perhaps this could be clearer,
but id assume squarp have not had complaints, so now known it needs to be made more explicit.
(perhaps reading this, they will review this)
I guess in hindsight (wonderful thing) , you could ask questions on the product forum beforehand as part of your research, any existing user could have told you disk mode was not included.
(as for future who knows, sure its usb device, so it could support usb mass storage, but none of us know the codebase nor what platforms its built on, so who knows if its on squarps list, id guess not for this pyramid, seeing as they have said they are pretty tight on cpu/memory resources )
what do you mean nobody know what platform it’s built on, this is made quite clear by teardowns and posts on the squarp fb page itself. see above.
I’ll leave the conversation here, but it seems we are all in agreeance anyway, it seems a rather odd design decision to omit given the card is in the machine already and connected to the computer.
Software platform - it could be chibios, could be the stm framework - the usb code mention will be built on one of these, which might make it difficult to use on another.
Knowing the hardware is only one part of the puzzle.