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Circuit to protect microSD cards from getting corrupted on power cuts

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DanInvents:
Hi!

Currently I'm thinking about upgrading my Rockit flight computer (https://www.tindie.com/products/25820/). Rockit is a compact flight computer that logs altitude, acceleration, and deploys parachutes for rocket recovery.

Back on June 15 (video https://youtu.be/GfuPt991mbA?si=3wq6zAegmOSN-e0R&t=186) my rocket crashed and the power from the board was cut-off while data was being saved. The microSD card ended up being corrupted and unrecoverable.

Is there a clever circuit or solution that could prevent this from happening? I would like to keep the board size small and this would rule out adding backup batteries.

I am also considering using a solid-state memory to replace the microSD card thus reducing the board size. If power is interrupted when data is being written, would it also corrupt the memory IC?

Thanks!

Daniel

NiHaoMike:
Zero out and reformat the card before every use, then it would be easier to use forensic tools to recover the data.

tychob:
How are you storing the data, and what filesystem are you using? Choosing an appropriate (journeling, not FAT) filesystem and file format (I would recommend sqlite) could make a big difference to the recoverability of the data. Alternatively, if the data is small enough, you might want to consider using an append only log in EEPROM, which hs small enough write sizes that you could avoid having more than one row per write.

Psi:
Rolling your own system to save the data which does not require a filesystem is one approach.

There's nothing to recover if you know exactly where and how the data is stored on the flash chip. It's either there or its not.
There's no filesystem tables to get corrupted

JustMeHere:
If the data block that's being written to suffers a power loss while the data is being written then it will be corrupted.  This is going to happen with any technology.  So what you want is something that writes to small blocks.  No simple circuit will prevent this as the simple circuit (or even a battery) will also eventually lose power.  You best option might to be transmit the data and receive the data on the ground by something with a reliable power supply.

In your case it could also help you find the rocket in case of another mishap.

See this: https://www.reddit.com/r/rocketry/comments/fi3omt/long_range_communications_on_model_rockets/

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