Everyone that has fiddled with this consistently state that you cannot use a regular MMC card as a Siemens MMC card.
Well I read the posts from about 2006 and wondered if wnything had progressed since then. Obviously not significantly!
About the excessive pricing, then I think you are partially correct.
Only partially, because a standard MMC card isnt intended for industrial use. Especially temperature ratings are different.
Well I see your point about the "industrialised" issue, however I don't think the temperature rating should be an issue, as most PLC installations are in a control room intended for occasional human occupation also. I would not expect to see a temperature swing of a wide amount.
Imagine a digital camera, which is intended for mobility and therefore could be (and is) often used in low and high temperature environments. This can and does use a standard off the shelf 2GB MMC card for about $50!
Kingston specify the temperature range from 0°C to 60°C for their standard versions. Would this not be sufficient formost PLC application??
There are 3rd party suppliers of Siemens-compatible MMC cards (Deltalogic and Helmholz I think). They are slightly less expensive than the Siemens cards.
Well thank you for the info, I wasn't aware of these suppliers until now, appreciate that.
Only consumer pressure (= buying at the competition) can make Siemens reduce its prices.
Or someone figure out how to get around this by:
1) Reverse engineered firmware - anyone brave enough for this?
2) Finding an MMC card supplier willing to add the right info to the CID etc..
3) Finding an MMC card supplier willing to supply MMC cards without the OTP area with the CID in it being programmed, and obtaining / writing software to program this area..
Personally I would have thought that option 2 would be the easiest especially a supplier from the far East, as the birthplace of mass copying electronics.
Formatting the cards is already documented on this very forum.