Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!


MicroSD card duplication
New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.

All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.

MicroSD card duplication

nebulaenebulae Member

I am looking to duplicate large amounts of microsd cards.

I was thinking of getting a 16 port usb3 hub, and also 16 usb to sd adaptors. Then I could use dd to write to them, and checksum to verify the writes.

Let’s assume I need to write 1000 microsd cards a day, is this a viable option?

I prefer not to spend over 150 USD on the hardware purchase. Since this is an on going operation, I prefer the cost to remain low after the initial setup.

Does anyone know a good service to recommend? Has anyone build their own hardware, or used a commercial of the shelf duplicator?

Comments

  • Adam1Adam1 Member

    just the idea of physically inserting and removing SD cards 1000 times over in a day is tiring, never mind the waiting for the write and verifying. Will you be doing it personally?

    size of the cards/write?

  • 8gb , possibly 16 gb. I totally agree it is tiring. I will be doing it initially, I can possibly get a personel to do it once we have revenue.

    Any robotic automation? If it is too large, I can increase the lead time, thus reducing the amount created per day.

    I am trying to understand the challenges.

  • YuraYura Member

    I'm curious why would anyone need to duplicate 1000 sd cards per day?

  • Adam1Adam1 Member

    robots for $150 i think is very much out of the question, but you could do something like this: https://www.cnx-software.com/2018/09/08/how-to-diy-sd-card-duplicator/

    I think given that you need to do 1000 a day, you'd want to be writing at least 50 at a time, no? i've seen USB2 sd adapters for 99c so could keep within budget, although slow at less than 30MB/s

    Thanked by 2uptime nebulae
  • Well, I am developing a custom image based on the raspbian os. I am trying to setup a kickstarter campaign, and I would like to understand if I can specify “unlimited” on my deliverable. Say that I start my operation in September, and my delivery date is end of the year, then I need to understand my real capabilities. If I cannot do unlimited, I better have a quality specified in my kickstarter campaign.

    I hope this makes sense. This is really just planning.

  • donlidonli Member

    @nebulae said:
    I am trying to setup a kickstarter campaign, and I would like to understand if I can specify “unlimited” on my deliverable.

    Sure why not - since when do kickstarter delivery promises have to correspond to reality ?

    Thanked by 1mk1
  • ras07ras07 Member

    The write speed of even a very good sd card doesn't exceed USB 2.0 speed by much. So a USB 3.0 hub with 2.0 card adapters would probably work fine. Assuming you shrink your image down to a minimal size and then auto-expand it on first boot (like the stock Raspian image does) you probably won't be writing more than a couple gig; a USB 2.0 adapter will do that in a couple minutes. Even with verification time added, I think one guy would be hard-pressed to keep 16 writes going simultaneously. Also with 16 simultaneous writes you may bottleneck at the hub even with 2.0 adapters. So you might want to test it out with a 4- or 8-port hub first; you should be able to find them for $20 or $30.

    There are plenty of sd card duplication services; you could see how much response you get, and contract it out if it exceeds your capacity.

  • edfoxedfox Member

    There are some standalone mass SD writers for this exact purpose. Search them on aliexpress/alibaba for "multi sd duplicator"

  • joepie91joepie91 Member, Patron Provider

    Have you considered just bulk-purchasing microSD cards with an image preloaded on it? AFAIK, there are sellers on eg. Alibaba that can do this.

    Thanked by 1uptime
  • SplitIceSplitIce Member, Host Rep

    150USD for proper SD card duplicating gear is quite cheap. Might find some cheap chinese junk but certainly nothing that's going to do the 50-100 at a time you are going to need to get 1000 per day done.

    50xUSB2 $1 adapters aint going to cut it. Writing time + verification is going to be hella slow with all those on a hub.

  • @SplitIce said:
    50xUSB2 $1 adapters aint going to cut it. Writing time + verification is going to be hella slow with all those on a hub.

    Use 2 PCs then.

  • iKeyZiKeyZ Veteran

    Not available just yet, but I remember seeing this a while ago;

    https://www.balena.io/etcher/pro/

    Although, if you will have a lot it may get expensive to get multiples.

  • jhjh Member

    I would find a seller on Alibaba who can send you SD cards with your image on them.

  • nebulaenebulae Member
    edited June 2019

    I just saw this thread: https://slickdeals.net/f/13064413-sabrent-4-port-usb-3-0-hub-w-individual-led-switches-7-much-more?src=frontpage .

    And bought a 10 USB hub and a 7+3 USB hub for a little less than $60 USD. This gives me 17 outlets. My computer currently has 2 USB3 outlets. I am going to use a dd variant utilize to write to them. I am thinking my computer bus can handle the load on 17 concurrent USB writes.

    I have limited my kickstarter campaign, so that I can manage my throughput. I am not targeting 1000 SD card per day. That seems insane at my current scale.

  • YuraYura Member

    @jh said:
    I would find a seller on Alibaba who can send you SD cards with your image on them.

    And a virus. They like to add a little extra for free...

Sign In or Register to comment.