[SDMMC] ESP32-S3-N8R8 fails to start a microSD card in SDMMC_FREQ_HIGHSPEED mode (IDFGH-6901)

[ThanosSiopoudis]

Environment

• Module or chip used: [ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8]
• IDF version (run git describe --tags to find it): v5.0-dev-1867-g5faf116d26
• Build System: [idf.py]
• Compiler version (run xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc --version to find it): xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc (crosstool-NG esp-2021r2-patch3) 8.4.0
• Operating System: [macOS]
• Using an IDE?: [Yes (please give details)]: VSCode
• Power Supply: [external 3.3V]

Problem Description

ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8 module has trouble with microSD cards at 40MHz / 4-line mode. I have tried both an ESP32-S3-DEVKITC-1-N8R8 and an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8 module on a printed circuit board.

The PCB is populated with 10KOhm pull-ups on CMD and D0-D3 lines (and I also tried adding an extra pull-up on the CLK line).
The Devkit was tested with just the internal weak pull-ups enabled.

In both cases, and after trying numerous brands, sizes and speed-rated microSD cards, I have found that they can rarely start at 40MHz (SDMMC_FREQ_HIGHSPEED) mode, and when they do, there are block read errors observed.

Expected Behavior

Expected the microSD card to start in HIGHSPEED mode.

Actual Behavior

Most of the times, the card fails to start in 40MHz mode with the following errors:

E (1037) sdmmc_common: sdmmc_init_ocr: send_op_cond (1) returned 0x107
E (1037) vfs_fat_sdmmc: sdmmc_card_init failed (0x107).

After resetting, it can sometimes start at 40MHz, but when proceeding to read data, block read errors eventually occur:

E (3340) sdmmc_cmd: sdmmc_read_sectors_dma: sdmmc_send_cmd returned 0x109
E (3340) diskio_sdmmc: sdmmc_read_blocks failed (265)
E (3342) sdmmc_req: handle_idle_state_events unhandled: 00000008 00000000

Starting the cards at 20MHz mode works fine with no errors.

Steps to reproduce

1. Setup an ESP32S3-N8R8 module or devkit with the following pin assignments:

const gpio_num_t kSDSCK_Pin = GPIO_NUM_8;
const gpio_num_t kSDCMD_Pin = GPIO_NUM_9;
const gpio_num_t kSDD0_Pin = GPIO_NUM_18;
const gpio_num_t kSDD1_Pin = GPIO_NUM_7;
const gpio_num_t kSDD2_Pin = GPIO_NUM_17;
const gpio_num_t kSDD3_Pin = GPIO_NUM_16;

2. Attach 10k pull-up resistors to all lines above except for SCK (CLK)
3. Compile and run the example code below
4. SD card fails to start at 40MHz, or when it starts, read errors occur

Code to reproduce this issue

      sdmmc_host_t host = SDMMC_HOST_DEFAULT();
      host.max_freq_khz = SDMMC_FREQ_HIGHSPEED;

      sdmmc_slot_config_t slot_config = {
        .clk    = kSDSCK_Pin,
        .cmd    = kSDCMD_Pin,
        .d0     = kSDD0_Pin,
        .d1     = kSDD1_Pin,
        .d2     = kSDD2_Pin,
        .d3     = kSDD3_Pin,
        .d4     = GPIO_NUM_NC,
        .d5     = GPIO_NUM_NC,
        .d6     = GPIO_NUM_NC,
        .d7     = GPIO_NUM_NC,
        .cd     = SDMMC_SLOT_NO_CD,
        .wp     = SDMMC_SLOT_NO_WP,
        .width  = 4,
        .flags  = SDMMC_SLOT_FLAG_INTERNAL_PULLUP
      };

      esp_vfs_fat_sdmmc_mount_config_t mount_config = {
        .format_if_mount_failed = false,
        .max_files = 5,
        .allocation_unit_size = 16 * 1024
      };

      sdmmc_card_t* card;
      esp_err_t mountRes = esp_vfs_fat_sdmmc_mount("/sdcard", &host, &slot_config, &mount_config, &card);
      sdmmc_card_print_info(stdout, card);

Debug Logs

I (957) gpio: GPIO[8]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 0| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 1| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
I (963) gpio: GPIO[9]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 0| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 1| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
I (973) gpio: GPIO[18]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 0| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 1| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
I (983) gpio: GPIO[7]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 0| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 1| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
I (991) gpio: GPIO[17]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 0| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 1| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
I (1001) gpio: GPIO[16]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 1| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 0| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
E (1037) sdmmc_common: sdmmc_init_ocr: send_op_cond (1) returned 0x107
E (1037) vfs_fat_sdmmc: sdmmc_card_init failed (0x107).

Other items if possible

• sdkconfig file (attach the sdkconfig file from your project folder)
  sdkconfig.zip

[ntwallace]

I'm seeing the same issue with an N8R8 devkit and also on a custom PCB with an WROOM-N8R2 or WROOM-N8R8. The PCB has an SPI bus running at 80MHz without issue, so it's not a problem with the trace lengths.

[igrr]

@ThanosSiopoudis @ntwallace Thank you for reporting the issue! Could you please try to apply the attached patch and see if it improves the situation?
0001-Draft-sdmmc-fix-unreasonable-i-o-clock-phase-setting.patch.txt

[ThanosSiopoudis]

Thanks @igrr, I've applied the patch and I can confirm that it now consistently starts at 40MHz and no read errors are observed (I did not test extensively however).

Name: SC16G
Type: SDHC/SDXC
Speed: 40 MHz
Size: 15193MB
CSD: ver=2, sector_size=512, capacity=31116288 read_bl_len=9
SSR: bus_width=4

[mishaturnbull]

Hey all, I think I might have a similar issue. I'm using an ESP32-S3 as well (specifically the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1) and can't get it to talk to a microSD card. Card's connected over the following pins:

• MOSI: GPIO11
• MISO: GPIO13
• SCLK: GPIO12
• CS: GPIO10
  The SD card breakout board includes 10kohm pullup resistors on each of those lines, which seems to be necessary for this particular devkit.

I'm getting the same error message that ThanosSlopoudis is in the initial issue, however, applying Igor's patch did not fix the issue for me. The only difference I've noticed is that I haven't yet tried SDMMC_FREQ_HIGHSPEED, only SDMMC_FREQ_PROBING and the default, but I'll give that a try as well.

esp-idf version: 5963de1 plus Igor's patch from above

Full code:

 39 esp_err_t autoconfigure_usd_card(void) {                                        
 40     esp_err_t err;                                                              
 41 #if USDLOG_USE_ADV_MOUNT // false                                                       
 42     err = configure_usd_card();                                                 
 43 #else                                                                           
 44     ESP_LOGW(SDTAG, "proceeding without SD card error checking!");              
 45     setup_spi();                                                                
 46     esp_vfs_fat_sdmmc_mount_config_t mount_config = {                           
 47 #if USDLOG_FORMAT_IF_MOUNT_FAIL                                                 
 48         .format_if_mount_failed = true,                                         
 49 #else                                                                           
 50         .format_if_mount_failed = false,                                        
 51 #endif                                                                          
 52         .max_files = MAX_OPEN_FILES,                                            
 53         .allocation_unit_size = ALLOC_UNIT_SIZE                                 
 54     };                                                                          
 55     // do not init -- output pointer argument                                   
 56     sdmmc_card_t *card;                                                         
 57     const char mountpoint[] = MOUNTPOINT;                                       
 58     sdspi_device_config_t slot_config = {                                       
 59         .host_id = SPI2_HOST,                                         
 60         .gpio_cs = USDLOG_PIN_CS,                                               
 61         .gpio_cd = SDSPI_SLOT_NO_CD,                                            
 62         .gpio_wp = SDSPI_SLOT_NO_WP,                                            
 63         .gpio_int = SDSPI_SLOT_NO_INT                                           
 64     };                                                                          
 65     sdmmc_host_t host = SDSPI_HOST_DEFAULT();                                   
 66     slot_config.host_id = host.slot;                                            
 67                                                                                 
 68     err = esp_vfs_fat_sdspi_mount(                                              
 69             mountpoint,                                                         
 70             &host,                                                              
 71             &slot_config,                                                       
 72             &mount_config,                                                      
 73             &card);                                                             
 74 #endif                                                                          
 75     if (err == ESP_OK) {                                                        
 76         sdmmc_card_print_info(stdout, card);                                    
 77     }                                                                           
 78     return err;                                                                 
 79 }

(the whole #if USDLOG_USE_ADV_MOUNT thing is to allow development to continue while using the all-in-one example function while also working on the production-safe reimplementation of it, as suggested in the API reference. I'm getting the exact same behavior in both methods right now.)

sdkconfig.txt

Apologies if my code makes no sense -- it's seen better days :)

[igrr]

@mishaturnbull I'm sorry, this issue isn't related to the problem you are seeing. Your code uses sdspi driver while this issue is about sdmmc. My patch won't help because it modifies the sdmmc driver.

Please try to run examples/storage/sd_card/sdspi from the master branch, adjusting the pins in menuconfig for your hardware. If that doesn't work, please open new issue and post the details, including console output at debug log level. Thanks!

[Paryavi]

Hi @igrr

In my Arduino code following the SDMMC test example; https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/blob/master/libraries/SD_MMC/examples/SDMMC_Test/SDMMC_Test.ino

for our custom designed ESP32S3Wroom1u with 16 MB of flash and OPI PSRAM

I have added the following to set pins

if(!SD_MMC.setPins(47, 48, 39, 40, 0, 38)){ // added setting pins and testing if SDMMCFS class bool setPins() returns False when setting pins
Serial.println("Setting Pins Failed");
return;
}

#define SOC_SDMMC_USE_GPIO_MATRIX;
#define BOARD_MAX_SDMMC_FREQ SDMMC_FREQ_DEFAULT

But for
if(!SD_MMC.begin()){
Serial.println("Card Mount Failed");
return;
}

I get the following error:

E (212) sdmmc_common: sdmmc_init_ocr: send_op_cond (1) returned 0x107
E (212) vfs_fat_sdmmc: sdmmc_card_init failed (0x107).
[ 349][E][SD_MMC.cpp:138] begin(): Failed to initialize the card (0x107). Make sure SD card lines have pull-up resistors in place.
SD Card Mount Failed
Although we have added external pull-up resistors.

Any comments on how to fix this issue?
Thanks

[igrr]

@Paryavi It seems that the card init fails at a very early stage. I think it's unrelated to the issue of high-speed mode being discussed here.
Please check the connections carefully, and use an oscilloscope or a logic analyzer to check if the card responds on the D0 line. You can open the issue in https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32 for further support.