how to format a SD card to use with LPE-MMC-V8BKP

Rookie (21)

27-02-2021, 11:58

Hello everyone,
this is my first post here.
I just bought a LPE-MMC-V8BKP from Leonardo's son (unfortunately Leonardo passed away recently) and he suggested me to ask on this forum for questions and help on the device.
I manage to enter the bios of the cartridge pressing the DEL button at startup.
Then I select PTSDMMC option. Here my SD card is never recognized no matter if I format it FAT or VFAT.
What I did not try is to format it FAT12 but I don't even know how to do that.
Did anyhow who owns this cartridge have any luck of letting it see any SD card? I have tried with only 4GB SD Card because I don't have any that is smaller than that. Can this be the problem?

Kind regards
Paolo.

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By st1mpy

Paladin (902)

27-02-2021, 14:15

Have you tried with a mmc card? (Also, what sd card is it, is it massive like 2gb+ ?)
Iet me see if the device i got is the same as yours (need to find it first...)

By st1mpy

Paladin (902)

27-02-2021, 15:09

So mine is a LPE-MMC-V8
I didn't know / forgotten about the Del key, that works for me too. I get SDMMC menu v0.1. That has partition utility, hex editor, update bios menu. Says Kralizec 2007(c).

On the cartridge, there are 3 jumpers.
One on the left, I got it on right position.
2 jumpers on the right, the top one is on the bottom position. And the bottom one is on the bottom position.

I have a 2gb sd card in this in the left sd slot, right is empty, and it boots to a game because it seems to be set to a floppy emulation mode?! I don't even know how to disable that with a key. So I'll need to change the auto exec on a pc or something.

A user guide for this device would be nice, is there anything in the wiki of this site?

By st1mpy

Paladin (902)

27-02-2021, 15:24

The product page has some links to manuals and tools I think.

By opasch

Rookie (21)

27-02-2021, 16:22

thank you very much @st1mpy!
I appreciate the fact that you took time to do such checks for me! My problem is that at the moment I only have 4GB SD cards and they never get recognized by my LPE-MMC-V8BKP no matter how I try to format them on the PC. Do you remember how did you format yours? FAT12 maybe? I don't even know how to format in FAT12 in windows 10. I did read the manual and I even found a version in english but it doesn't go into details of why the SD card is not recognized. Maybe as you said yours is format at floppy disk? Shouldn't indeed be FAT12 the formatting needed for floppyes?

By st1mpy

Paladin (902)

27-02-2021, 16:37

Did you read the manual.eng inside the drsdmmc1.lzh?
I think it says fat16 works, it recommends using the formatting tool provided, but you can format normally with limitations explained there.
It does say, you need 2gb or less card. You might get away by partitioning your 4gb on pc into smaller than 2gb each, then format it first. But not sure if that works, might be worth buying small sd cards. I sometimes just buy a few small sd and other flash memory cards on ebay as I have many retro stuff that need small cards.

By meits

Scribe (6533)

27-02-2021, 16:49

2GB is the end of the SDSC format. If you go above that you end up in SDHC. Is that supported? I remember a WII does not support that. It just ignores its presence. Could be the case here as well.

By opasch

Rookie (21)

27-02-2021, 17:17

Ok so it seems my issue could be due to the 4GB SD cards I am using. I will try buying 2GB SD cards and see what happens with them formatting them with FAT16.
Thank you guys, really really appreciated.

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3848)

27-02-2021, 22:22

Please note that there are 4GB cards that are NOT SDHC and just normal SD. I know because I have 2 of them which I needed them for my OCM (from before SDHC was supported by an update provided by KdL).

By meits

Scribe (6533)

27-02-2021, 23:24

That's more of a rarity, so don't take it for granted.

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3848)

28-02-2021, 06:50

I am doing the opposite, just pointing out that the SD specification goes up to 4GB not 2GB like many people think. It is true most 4GB cards are SDHC and finding a 4GB SD took some searching but they exist and are within the SD spec and work with products like this one from Padial. Nowadays it will only be possible to find these cards second hand I guess.