Using microSD with adapter, a bad thing?

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I was looking in the owner's manual for my Lukas 9500 dashcam and I came across by accident a warning from Lukas that it's not recommended to use a microSD with adapter in the larger sized SD slot.

While it's not impossible, it's getting rather difficult to by a standard sized SD card. The vast majority are in the form of micro SD with an SD adapter.

Hence, I raise the question. Is using a microSD with adapter, a bad thing?
 
Yes it's a bad thing, full size SD is the better option,
MicroSD card will run hotter in an adapter and won't dissipate heat correctly
 
Now, that makes sense. I guess I better pick up a card with a good warranty for long drives and for use in the summer.


Any suggestions where? Alibaba, DX? Amazon?
 
I did it for a while in my lukas, but i changed over to a full size card before things whent bad.

It should be mentioned i had a micro with adapter running in my old 4 channel CCTV setup, and the card never failed but the DVR did after a year of use.
That little 4 channel DVR got allmighty hot :D

Still i would not recomend to go that route unless you allready have somthing lying around collecting dust, and if the card fail in the cam you should be alerted by the camera.

Plenty of regular sd cards here in the retail shops here
 
I dont mind paying for a regular SD card, but I have issue paying a premium. That seems to be the case as most of the SD cards available are microSD and I imagine SD cards are going to be replaced by flash drives in DVR devices. But then again, what do I know? lol
 
I can imagine there are issues...but what is baffling is why we're not hearing more about this? Is it because most people using microSD cards in their mobile phones, if at all?

I also have a Garmin GPS and they too use the micro SD and never has Garmin come out saying there could be issues. Perhaps it's because the device and card doesn't get as hot because it's reading vs writing?
 
Google said:
I can imagine there are issues...but what is baffling is why we're not hearing more about this? Is it because most people using microSD cards in their mobile phones, if at all?

I also have a Garmin GPS and they too use the micro SD and never has Garmin come out saying there could be issues. Perhaps it's because the device and card doesn't get as hot because it's reading vs writing?
Click to expand...
Satnavs does not process such a high volume / speed data as dashcams, there for does not have a memory cards overheating issues.
 
The adaptors slow things down a bit which is what causes the various compatibility issues - if you use a full size SD whenever there is a full size SD slot and a microSD in a microSD slot things are fine.

When you start using adaptors to use a microSD in an SD or vice versa things start to get complicated.

Native Komputerbay 128GB SDXC 90MB/s full size SD card in full size slot in Kingston USB3 reader:
Code: 
           Sequential Read :    89.317 MB/s
          Sequential Write :    38.927 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    61.762 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    28.826 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     6.529 MB/s [  1593.9 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     1.051 MB/s [   256.7 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     9.219 MB/s [  2250.8 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     1.502 MB/s [   366.7 IOPS]
Same card in same Kingston USB reader in microSD to full size SD adaptor:
Code: 
           Sequential Read :    23.657 MB/s
          Sequential Write :    21.551 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    20.895 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    18.216 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     5.369 MB/s [  1310.8 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.945 MB/s [   230.8 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     7.033 MB/s [  1717.0 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     1.291 MB/s [   315.1 IOPS]
It's the same card in the same reader, just in an adaptor, and you can see that the throughput of various IO patterns drops across the board.

This is why you can start to get glitches as the card just can't keep up - basically the adaptors can make the fastest cards run as slow as a card from years ago :) The above example actually worked but your milage will vary as cheap adaptors with microSD cards will slow them down and they're not usually the quickest to start off with!
 
Last edited:
reverend said:
The adaptors slow things down a bit which is what causes the various compatibility issues - if you use a full size SD whenever there is a full size SD slot and a microSD in a microSD slot things are fine.

When you start using adaptors to use a microSD in an SD or vice versa things start to get complicated.

Native Komputerbay 128GB SDXC 90MB/s full size SD card in full size slot in Kingston USB3 reader:
Code: 
           Sequential Read :    89.317 MB/s
          Sequential Write :    38.927 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    61.762 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    28.826 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     6.529 MB/s [  1593.9 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     1.051 MB/s [   256.7 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     9.219 MB/s [  2250.8 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     1.502 MB/s [   366.7 IOPS]
Same card in same Kingston USB reader in microSD to full size SD adaptor:
Code: 
           Sequential Read :    23.657 MB/s
          Sequential Write :    21.551 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :    20.895 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :    18.216 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     5.369 MB/s [  1310.8 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.945 MB/s [   230.8 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     7.033 MB/s [  1717.0 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     1.291 MB/s [   315.1 IOPS]
It's the same card in the same reader, just in an adaptor, and you can see that the throughput of various IO patterns drops across the board.

This is why you can start to get glitches as the card just can't keep up - basically the adaptors can make the fastest cards run as slow as a card from years ago :) The above example actually worked but your milage will vary as cheap adaptors with microSD cards will slow them down and they're not usually the quickest to start off with!
Click to expand...

Thats cuz the first one is USB 3.0
 
reverend said:
The adaptors slow things down a bit which is what causes the various compatibility issues - if you use a full size SD whenever there is a full size SD slot and a microSD in a microSD slot things are fine.

When you start using adaptors to use a microSD in an SD or vice versa things start to get complicated.

This is why you can start to get glitches as the card just can't keep up - basically the adaptors can make the fastest cards run as slow as a card from years ago :) The above example actually worked but your milage will vary as cheap adaptors with microSD cards will slow them down and they're not usually the quickest to start off with!
Click to expand...

Just an update.

I ran some speed tests using h2testw and I am looking for some feedback please.

The OEM Lukas 16 GB SD card gives me 7.43 MB/sec write and 16.3 MB/sec read
My Adata 32 GB MicroSD card in adapter gives me 9.65/sec write and 16.3 MB/sec read.

Looking at the above numbers, aside from the heat distribution issues, is it ok to use the 32 GB card?
 
speed isn't an issue, MicroSD cards in adapters don't run anywhere near as cool as a full size SD card does, the adapters buckling from heat is not uncommon
 
reverend said:
The adaptors slow things down a bit which is what causes the various compatibility issues - if you use a full size SD whenever there is a full size SD slot and a microSD in a microSD slot things are fine!
Click to expand...

jokiin said:
speed isn't an issue, MicroSD cards in adapters don't run anywhere near as cool as a full size SD card does, the adapters buckling from heat is not uncommon
Click to expand...

If you see from reverend's post. he is saying that speed is an issue when using adapters. I agree, that heat often kills or causes problems.
 
Just an update everyone. I mentioned to my dealer about Lukas cams and that you shouldn't be using microSDs. My dealer laughed. He showed my an email that Lukas told them that it's ok, besides he said. If it wasn't ok why did they include a MicroSD adapter with the dashcam kit. I had no response and looked like a fool. :(
 
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