Comparing Adafruit and Gravitech microSD boards

Microsd-Boards

Comparing Adafruit and Gravitech microSD boards.

The shape is a bit different, but both boards work as intended. Both have LEDs, but the Gravitech LED is on whenever a card is inserted (I think using the socket’s mechanical card detect switch) and the Adafruit LED blinks while data is transferred to/from the card, which I think is the more useful function. Both have “push/push” type sockets (to release card, push in, it clicks and springs back out). They are from different vendors; the Gravitech sockets seemed to have a bit more friction and were more sticky overall, and tend to grab on to the cards rather than release them cleanly, but they seem to improve a bit after a few cycles.

Looks like we did good, our LEDs blink on data transfer and our sockets release cleanly out of the box The SD sockets are always hit or miss depending on the maker.

jbeale in the Dangerous Prototype forums is doing a series of comparisons, the previous one is “comparing Sparkfun and Pololu 5V boost circuits“…

Filed under: Breakout Boards — by adafruit, posted August 29, 2011 at 9:32 am

Comments (4)

4 Comments

If I could also just add an observation of mounting holes on the Adafruit board. I can’t imagine trying to rig a push/push uSD without them.

Comment by Jeremy Saglimbeni — August 29, 2011 @ 10:13 am

Hey, that post looks familiar! I’m not intentionally doing a comparison series, it’s just by chance I had similar boards from different vendors, and thought the info would be helpful. Another plus, if you’re connecting to an Arduino, is that the SPI pinout on the AF board is straight-across to Arduino digital pins 10-13. And the AF board has more finger-friendly rounded corners. And the I/O direction is indicated on silkscreen; nicely done.

Comment by JBeale — August 29, 2011 @ 12:51 pm

thanks jbeale! you should keep it up, these are great!

Comment by adafruit — August 29, 2011 @ 12:53 pm

Another possible subject is comparison of microSD cards for moderate-speed (few kB/sec) data logging via SPI. Some work and some don’t, and published SD benchmarks use 4-bit mode, not SPI mode. I think the problem there is mfr sourcing. If Brand A is working now, it might not the next time you buy it…
http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=106771&start=0
“…bought a handful of different cards to benchmark over the SPI interface. There were huge variations between cards. Problem was, the cards kept changing, so we could never buy the same card for more than a few months.”

Comment by Jbeale — August 29, 2011 @ 6:25 pm

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.