Write to SD-card or USB from SPI myRIO

[Lucas_S]

Hi all,

I want to save data bundles from the myRIO to an USB stick or a SD card in order to obtain data when running my program as stand alone (without being plugged into the computer). However I need the built in USB-port for a camera to do computer vision, which is why I cannot just use this port to save from. I have been looking around the web but can't seem to find any other way to save data to a SD card or an USB stick.

I am considering whether it is possible to write via SPI from Pmod MicroSD from Digilient (https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Digilent%20PDFs/Pmod_MircoSD_RM_Web.pdf), but it seems like I need a certain library which is only useful for eg. Arduinos.

Have any of you done this or have you heard about ways to save data from SPI-outputs from the myRIO?
Thanks

Best
Lucas Sandby

[ikaiser · Accepted solution]

Hello Lucas!

With 

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However I need the built in USB-port for a camera to do computer vision, which is why I cannot just use this port to save from.

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you mean that the camera needs this port exclusively? In general USB hubs are suppported, and I assume the bandwidth needed for writing data to the USB drive is quite low.

Can I Connect a USB Hub to a myRIO?

Regarding SPI (maybe I2C) as well: These protocols are used to do inter-chip and inter-device communication. For sure it is possible to connect a second USB controller to it. The main issue will be to connect to it in software (as you already mentioned). You don't want to implement the full SPI communication yourself. As that is quite device-specific (read: depends on the USB controller you will be using), it's probably a matter of luck to find a ready to use implementation. I have not heard of any. I hope someone else can give you more input!

Edit: You probably though about this and rejected the idea because of some requirement. So just in case: Did you think about streaming the data via Wifi to a storage location?

[Lucas_S]

Thanks Ikaiser

What we ended up doing was to do WiFi-routing as you mentioned. Thanks for your inputs!! 🙂

[ikaiser]

Hello Lucas_S,

Thank you for reporting back! I am sure this helps others as well. Please don't forget to mark this thread as solved.