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HOME / PRODUCT CATEGORIES / ARDUINO ACCESSORIES / SPARKFUN OPENLOG
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SparkFun OpenLog
DEV-13712
20
DESCRIPTION FEATURES DOCUMENTS
VCC Input: 3.3V-12V (Recommended 3.3V-5V)
Log to low-cost microSD FAT16/32 cards up to 32GB
Simple command interface
Configurable baud rates (up to 115200bps)
Preprogrammed ATmega328 and bootloader
Four SPI pogo pins
Two LEDs indicate writing status
2mA idle, 6mA at maximum recording rate
Tags
ARDUINO DATA LOG DEVELOPMENT FAT16 FAT32 MICROSD OPEN LOG
SD SPARKFUN ORIGINAL
SparkFun OpenLog Product Help and Resources
TUTORIALS SKILLS NEEDED
micro:climate Kit
Experiment Guide
JULY 21, 2017
A weather station kit that is built
on top of the inexpensive, easy-
to-use micro:bit and Microsoft
MakeCode.
OpenLog Hookup Guide
APRIL 7, 2016
An introduction to working with
the OpenLog data logger.
Choosing an Arduino for
Your Project
DECEMBER 11, 2017
Examining the diverse world of
Arduino boards and
understanding the differences
between them before choosing
one for a project.
COMMENTS 39 REVIEWS 20
Customer Reviews
4.2 out of 5
Based on 20 ratings:
3 of 3 found this helpful:
Great functionality but two broke immediately
about 4 years ago by Member #670407 verified purchaser
Purchased two for research project. Wired them up to device and worked perfect with stock firmware. After two-
three insert/ejections of the microsd card the mount failed to hold the card. When you insert the card it just
springs right out. Rewired a second one up and had the same thing happen. Both units worthless. After
inspection there is a tiny hooked wire that rides in a plastic groove to lock and unlock the microsd card. The
plastic is so soft that after a couple of inserts the groove no longer functions properly.
1 of 1 found this helpful:
OpenLog is a powerful tool for embedded controllers
about 4 years ago by Mike H verified purchaser
One of the best modules I ever used. It has all the good features, small, large capacity, simple interface, low
price, great documentation, low power, and open source. Need to be considerate of data rate for the higher
speed applications. Highly recommend for any data storage project. Worked first time following Sparkfun great
hookup guide.
2 of 2 found this helpful:
Just what the doctor ordered
about 4 years ago by presnell verified purchaser
I had been having some intermittent connection problems with a custom esp8266-based board. Devices that
were further out from a router would sometimes lose their connection, reset, but then fail to reconnect. I had no
way to capture debugging logs while deployed and very limited I/O to add anything else to the board for this
purpose.
The OpenLog really fit the bill nicely here. It could reuse the serial TX/RX lines while deployed, so all I had to
do was find a reset line. After some trial and error, I found resetting the OpenLog at esp init time was essential
for stable operation. In addition, I added some code to check to see if the OpenLog is plugged in and to set the
baud rate appropriately, 9600 w/ OpenLog, 115200 for console.
I'm very happy with what I ended up with. for OpenLog, for an SD card, and now I can get logs while the system
is deployed.
1 of 1 found this helpful:
Nice SD card reader/writer, software weak
about 4 years ago by Member #519940 verified purchaser
This is a great little SD card reader/writer. The sample code software is very sparse. I had to write much more
elaborate code to make this logger useable and it took some time and experimentation to get it right.
Best thing to add to any microcontroller project!
about 4 years ago by Ted M verified purchaser
Easy to use and it just works! Also, you can program it like an arduino pro mini; I just wish it had a couple of
DIO pins broken out (in addition to tx and rx).
Works well except the spring seems weak
5 star 6
4 star 13
3 star 0
2 star 1
1 star 0
Currently viewing all customer reviews.
about 4 years ago by kithub verified purchaser
I'm agreeing with review by Member #670407. We use this component in a couple different devices and when
you take the SD card out more than a few times and aren't extremely gentle, the spring seems to break. Would
love to see a rev that makes it more hardy. Thank you.
The easiest way to add SD card capability!
about 3 years ago by Member #16054 verified purchaser
I bought mine to use in a museum ticket printer. The printer not only prints tickets it keeps track of the number
and type of visitors to the museum and stores the data and the card. I used a pickax processor, and had no
problems at all.
Great little device!
about 3 years ago by Member #885457 verified purchaser
I am building a research payload for a community called ANSR of which I am a member. This devices works with
no problem with the BASIC Stamp Microcontroller I use to record sensor data. Overall, never had any problems
to this date and is extremely easy to use.
Very cool to log GPS data
about 3 years ago by Jim31 verified purchaser
Very simple to setup out of the box. I connected to GPS-13740 GPS Receiver - GP-20U7. I got the idea from
instructibles.com and so for just over for GPS and logger I have a cool GPS Logger. I can upload the data to
Google Earth and see a visual track of where it's been. Fun for boating, hiking, etc.
Great for recording GPS signals in small RC airplane and drone.
about 3 years ago by Member #896730 verified purchaser
Doing a perfect job of recording the outputs of several different small GPS receivers and weighs so little that it
doesn't load airplane very much.
I have a complaint. The unit has far more capability than is in .config file when delivered and a reference to a
simple setup program would sure be welcome.
Pretty darn useful and simple
about 3 years ago by Member #665533 verified purchaser
RTFM - read the flipping manual - really - once read and understood, it's a doddle to setup and run. I
have 3 - all logging away merrily. Next step is to interpose switches inbetween the Rx / Tx pins of say an
Arduino UNO to access remotely (a) data from the OPENLOG (b) also arduino to download program
mods.
Very useful and simple to use!
about 3 years ago by Member #689103 verified purchaser
I connected this device to a simple 3.3V uart on a mobile device I am testing. My device had a wire supplying
3.3V so the installation was a snap. It works simply - just put in a microSD card and the OpenLog will create a
"config.txt" file. Edit this file on the card using a computer to set the baud rate for your device. This allowed me
to remotely capture days of serial logs from my test device. Note that microSD cards >16GB capacity are not
easily formatted in the necessary FAT32 file type. But 16GB is a lot of capacity for my application.
Great for Small Projects
about 3 years ago by Member #778135 verified purchaser
I needed a way to log data from a series of tests in a lab that cannot use a PC/laptop. I tried for a month to get
Chan's FatFS USB stack to work without any success. Then I found this. Great little module.
2 things I recommend to Sparkfun engineers:
1 - Make a copy of this that allows data to be logged to USB thumb drive.
2 - update design to use normal SD card rather than these ridiculously small micro sd cards.
Works well with Micro:bit and Weather:bit
about 3 years ago by mspohr verified purchaser
Easy to use and this page gives instructions: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/microclimate-kit-experiment-
guide/experiment-7-logging-to-the-microsd-card
(Please note that the code on the page does not correspond to the text on the page. There is no Press Button
A and the display is blank.) I added a "show string row" line so the display would show something and you can
tell it's working.
Works well as a logger, or file manager, not both
about 2 years ago by Member #523027 verified purchaser
No trouble getting the logger up and running with command mode off, which is what I needed, bare bones data
logging. However it would have been really nice to be able to do file management with the same code, but
switching between reading and writing is not supported, or at least there's not a clear way to accomplish it. On
the next OpenLog version there should be a PIN or other means to toggle the functionality.
Works as it should
about 11 months ago by Member #1536373 verified purchaser
I've only played with this enough to get it going to know that it works with my micro:bit .
0 of 1 found this helpful:
Great idea ...
about 4 years ago by Member #622634 verified purchaser
I love this idea ...
In it's current form it has a 1000 and one uses ... but I wish there was a version with a barrel power connector
and DB9 male connector.
So useful and so easy
about 4 years ago by Member #19977 verified purchaser
I have used this in several professional test situations, and it hasn't let me down. You can just connect and go,
or with some more involved commanding you can take advantage of the file operations to organize your data
as you collect it. The only thing that I struggled with is the fact that the command mode needs carriage returns
rather than line feeds, which caused me several hours of flailing before I could get the file operations to work. It
would be nice if that were configurable in the micro-SD config file.
solid logger
about 4 years ago by Member #271784 verified purchaser
I was able to reliably log a stream of approx. 20 chars/record at 200 recs/sec using 57.6k interface. Using
arduino pro mini. Very handy!
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