Christopher Stillwell asked 5 months ago
I am currently trying to log the data of a IMU (LSM9DS1) and save the data locally to be later processed in MATLAB/Python. The main issue that I have run into is the low number of samples saved to the micro SD card. When saving all the values from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer I have around 14-15 data points per second (goal is about 60 per second). At first I thought it was an issue with the I2C bus being too slow and I set the clock to 400kHz, but the sample rate stayed the same.
I did some rudimentary tests using only the gyro at 952Hz and the I2C at 100kHz using the code with some added serial print statements and millis():
I got the sample rate it takes to only check if the gyro is available is about 917Hz. The sample rate it takes to check if the gyro is available and read the values is 549Hz (902Hz when I2C is at 400kHz). The sample rate to convert the saved values into a string is 540Hz (898Hz when I2C is at 400kHz). When finally appending the values to a file, the sample rate drops down to an average of 30-46Hz no matter what the I2C speed is set to.
I’m assuming most of the time is spent opening the file instead of writing to it. I am using the appendFile function that was used in “Learn ESP32 with Arduino IDE” as seen below:
I read somewhere else about creating a buffer and waiting for it to fill up before writing to the file. I was wondering if anyone else has done something similar, or has potential solutions to increase the saved sample rate, or just point me in the right direction. Thanks!
The hardware I have is an ESP32 Huzzah, SanDisk Ultra microSD 32GB, and a sparkfun LSM9DS1 (the stick).
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 months ago
Hi Christopher.
What’s the microSD card module that you’re using?
With the ESP32, you can communicate with the microSD using SPI communication or using the SDMMC controller.
I think you can write data faster using the SDMMC controller.
This article explains in great detail how to maximize the speed: https://www.reddit.com/r/esp32/comments/d71es9/a_breakdown_of_my_experience_trying_to_talk_to_an/.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Sara
Christopher Stillwell answered 5 months ago
Thanks for the quick response. I currently have a SparkFun MicroSD Transflash Breakout. I will try the 1 bit mode for SDMMC and see how that goes. Thanks again for the response.
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 months ago
Hi.
That microSD card breakout board is compatible with SDMMC. So, you can try it 🙂
Then, let me know how it went.
Regards,
Sara
Barry answered 5 months ago
A few points:
- How much data (how many bytes) in a sample of the IMU. Use bytes for the calculations as transactions are in bytes. Multiply sample size x samples/second.Â
- Now calc the I2C bit rate needed to handle about 2x the data size.
- It takes a lot of time(cpu cycles) to open/close a file. Make a buffer to store about 25% of the data, then write it.Â
You’ll need to balance the sample rate & buffer size to see what works.
Consider repeated writing of a test pattern to see how fast you can write to the file. It might not be very fast.