SD Card wont 'click' into place on my ASC+ board

klk0146

Hello--
Playing with the board and something happened and now my SD Card wont 'click' into place on my ASC+ board. It will insert, but won't stay in place. I should note that this same card WILL stay in place on a different board, so I know its the board, not the card.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Is there a fix? This seems like a really silly thing to render an expensive board useless (or at least unable to collect data).

Thank you!

Mike Green

Unfortunately I don't have an ASC+ board, but I have lots of other boards with a 'click' mechanism to hold a micro-SD card in place. I've seen the mechanism broken ... takes more than a trivial amount of work/force. I've seen the mechanism triggered so it 'thinks' a card is present, but the card can be slid out and in without the mechanism grabbing it. Sometimes you can push the card further in once it's in place and the spring mechanism will 'pop' it out properly. Even if the mechanism is broken, you can often slide a card in to where it works electrically, but you have to slide it out with a little screwdriver when you want to change cards.

DigitalBob

I would try to ID the SD card holder. What company makes it and what part number. Then buy it on mouser, Digikey etc. and solder the new one in place. Some card holders have a switch that tells the cpu if the cards in place.

DigitalBob

Ask parallax they make it and would know the Mfg. of the card holder.

Cluso99

Often caused by removing the card with force, not pushing in to release.

DigitalBob

Or MGH designs. 1mgh.com

Publison

DigitalBob wrote: »

Ask parallax they make it and would know the Mfg. of the card holder.

Parallax is not the manufacturer. They sold it on their site.
As you stated, 1mgh.com was the manufacturer. Maybe Martin will chime in.

Those little metal tabs have a way of bending. They can be persuaded back into place with care.

WBA Consulting

I just checked my ASC plus and it has a push-push style SD connector so it should lock in to place. Mine says Amphenol on the top of the housing.

Peter Jakacki

klk0146 wrote: »

Hello--
Playing with the board and something happened and now my SD Card wont 'click' into place on my ASC+ board. It will insert, but won't stay in place. I should note that this same card WILL stay in place on a different board, so I know its the board, not the card.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Is there a fix? This seems like a really silly thing to render an expensive board useless (or at least unable to collect data).

Thank you!

"Playing" is probably what broke it, so it's a simple mechanical failure probably caused by some stress induced perhaps by trying to remove the card by force. If we went to the forum everytime something broke it would not only be a waste of everyone's time since it's our own responsibility, but it would probably drown out the forum.

However, you could (and I would) just use a piece of tape to hold the card in or remove the spring mechanism in the connector itself so that it doesn't try to eject the card. Ugly perhaps, but we've all been down that road, accepted the loss, and it tends to make us take a little more care in the future.

DigitalBob

I realized that later on so I posted MGH designs after looking more closely I see parallax Did NOT make this one.

Martin Hodge

If you would like to send the defective board to me I can repair or replace it for you.

klk0146

Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions! I spoke with Miguel in Parallax Support yesterday and they are going to send me a replacement. I am very happy with this outcome, and thank you Martin for the offer to help as well!

Martin Hodge

Very glad to see that you are being taken care of.

I hand test each ASC+ that I send out myself. That includes inserting and removing a uSD card about a dozen times into each board. But the push-in/push-out latching mechanism is tiny and delicate. Amphenol no longer manufactures these particular ones but I do have a small stock of them left.