Qwiic OpenLog Hookup Guide

Contributors: Nate, Toni_K, Ell C, Englandsaurus

Troubleshooting

There are several different options to check if you are having issues with your Qwiic OpenLog.

Check STAT1 LED Behavior

STAT1 LED shows different behavior for two different common errors.

• 3 Blinks: The microSD card failed to initialize. You may need to format the card with FAT/FAT16 on a computer.
• 5 Blinks: OpenLog has changed to a new baud rate and needs to be power cycled.

Double Check Subdirectory Structure

If you are using the default OpenLog.ino example, OpenLog will only support two subdirectories. You will need to change FOLDER_TRACK_DEPTH from 2 to the number of subdirectories you need to support. Once you've done this, recompile the code, and upload the modified firmware.

Verify the Number of Files in the Root Directory

OpenLog will only support up to 65,534 log files in the root directory. We recommend reformatting your microSD card to improve logging speed.

Verify the Size of your Modified Firmware

If you are writing a custom sketch for the OpenLog, verify that your sketch is not larger than 32,256. If so, it will cut into the upper 500 bytes of Flash memory, which is used by the Optiboot serial bootloader.

Double Check File Names

All file names should be alpha-numeric. MyLOG1.txt is ok, but Hi !e _.txt may not work.

Format your MicroSD Card

Remember to use a card with few or no files on it. A microSD card with 3.1GB worth of ZIP files or MP3s has a slower response time than an empty card.

If you did not format your microSD card on a Windows OS, reformat the microSD card and create a DOS filesystem on the SD card.

Swap MicroSD Cards

There are many different types of card manufacturers, relabeled cards, card sizes, and card classes, and they may not all work properly. We typically use a 16GB class 10 microSD card, which works well at 9600bps. If you are using an older card or anything less than class 6, you may want to try upgrading your SD card.

Add Delays Between Character Writes

By adding a small delay between Serial.print() statements, you can give OpenLog a chance to record its current buffer.

For example:

language:c
Serial.begin(115200);      
for(int i = 1 ; i < 10 ; i++) {
    Serial.print(i, DEC);     
    Serial.println(":abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-!#");
}

may not log properly, as there are a lot of characters being sent right next to each other. Inserting a small delay of 15ms between large character writes will help OpenLog record without dropping characters.

language:c
Serial.begin(115200);      
for(int i = 1 ; i < 10 ; i++) {
    Serial.print(i, DEC);     
    Serial.println(":abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-!#");
    delay(15);
}

Check with the Community

If you are still having issues with your Qwiic OpenLog, please check out the current and closed issues on our GitHub repository here. There is a large community working with the OpenLog, so chances are that someone has found a fix for the problem you are seeing.