Hi everyone!
I keep running out of disk space on my SV08 (which means that I have to clear out old files on MainSail a few times per week).
What would it take to increase the disc space on my SV08?
As far as I understand, it can be done by upgrading to a maximum 32GB SD card size on the motherboard.
Is it possible to upgrade to a higher-capacity USB drive and port files there instead?
Hi,
Can’t you connect an external drive on the USB port ?
I’m currently using the USB that came with the printer, but it looks like files go to the SD card on the motherboard when I upload them via Wi-Fi (I could be 100% wrong 
).
If it’s just the USB, then it’s getting upgraded asap. Thank you for your reply!
I’m not sure, it’s just a suggestion.
I don’t know if the file system of the external drive will be seen.
Yes, when you send from the slicer to the printer (Wi-Fi) they are on the printer space.
If you put the USB in your computer & save the Gcode, they are on the USB.
Yes it’s possible to create a mount point to replace the filesystem point at print directory. That is not difficult to configure…but if you are not used with linux filesystem that maybe frustrating for you because you may have issue if the usb key is not reconnected well at restart or if the mount point changing. In addition you will have to reformat as ext4 the usb key (if you using unix system at home that is fine but if you using windows it’s will not managing it).
The other option is to replace the eMMC by a bigger one. That is better because all the filesystem will be bigger, that is not expensive and that will not require to manage tricky things with mounting point of external device. You can move also to mainline klipper (or just using the guide to backup the previous emmc and replace by the new one without following the others part with firmware flashing). GitHub - Rappetor/Sovol-SV08-Mainline: Getting the Sovol SV08 onto mainline Klipper
Thank you very much for your help and information, @mich0111 , @Lion & @mistral
I’m primarily working from a Mac, so I think that I’ll likely copy everything from the existing SD card on the machine to a fresh one with more storage (formatted in FAT-32) and clear it up every 32gb or as needed. The current Klipper upgrade path doesn’t seem to yield as many benefits to me, but that may change over time.
I’m grateful for everyone’s advice and input; thank you again!
While connecting and mounting an external USB drive is a cheap option, alternatives exist. You can, provided the printer will reliably be connected to your local network, also mount a network share. Optionally, by using the Linux automounter, having that network share mounted automatically on demand.
The external USB drive can be set up such that it replaces the storage
space where uploaded gcode files are now stored, so that future uploaded go right to USB drive.
But the most elegant solution would probably be to purchase a 32 GB eMMC flash module, possibly together with an USB adapter to write a boot image onto it by connecting it to a computer, thereby quadrupling the printer storage capacity (and giving you about 6 to 10 times the amount of free space for gcode file which you have available with the original 8 GB flash module) . Cost of both together: about 10 to 12 €.
I’d take two of those, so you can swap them against each other, allowing you to flash a fresh image to one, while the other stays in the printer until ready to swap. This is a useful option in case you meddle with the installed OS, possibly risking having to reflash it.
I actually have an external USB thumbdrive mounted where uploaded gcode files are stored, in /home/sovol/printer_data/gcodes. The thumb drive appears as /dev/sda1, and is a partition on a 32 GB device:
Steps to do that aren’t very complicated, but involve several steps:
Unless I forgot a step, that’s about it. I can explain in more detail what to do for each step.
I’m just now seeing your message, wow, thank you so much for your incredibly helpful and insightful reply @Bushmills! The network mount sounds appealing, but I imagine that a power outage or some sort of network interference could take out a print if I’m not mistaken 
.
I’ve decided to go with the eMMC Flash module, and just found this video from Sovol on how to swap it out. Also just ordered the 32GB eMMC flash module (for some reason I thought that there was a MicroSD card mount on the motherboard, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case).
I have a 128GB USB drive, which I’d love to use as well if it makes sense to run that directly on my printer, but am quite clueless on how to mount it/prepare the files but am more than willing to learn 
, thank you again for taking the time to reply and share such helpful advice. Please let me know if there’s anything that I can do to repay your kindness 
Ok, then let’s do it step by step, because I will give instructions from memory. I assume that you don’t have a Linux machine available, so we’ll use the printer itself for some tasks.
You need to get to the command line of the printer, by connecting with a program like ssh or putty (the common windows option), as user sovol, with password sovol. You’d then, if not done already, insert the usb stick into one of the printer USB ports. Execute, by entering and pressing return, the command “lsblk” which shows the devices found. USB stick should show as sda, with probably a partition sda1 below.
Latter will probably be mounted at /home/sovol/printer_data/… which is shown in the last column, below MOUNTPOINT.
Next steps will erase everything on the USB stick:
execute:
sudo sh [Enter] ( [Enter] is the enter key, don’t type that, press the Enter key instead )
( this will give you superuser privileges, enabling you to perform actions which user sovol isn’t permitted to )
umount /home/sovol/printer_data/… [Enter] (Enter the complete path as given under the mount point) (This will detach USB stick from file system - confirm by executing “lsblk” again, the path under MOUNTPOINT should have disappeared now).
you’ll now reformat the USB partition. To that end, you want to decide what file system (what “format”) you want to use. Common choice would be ext2 or ext4. ext4 is more robust against power outage, slightly slower, but leaves a but less space for your user data. I have chosen a different file system for mine, which is f2fs, a file system specifically made for some types of flash storage). Either of these will work. To apply the new file system to the USB stick, you’d execute:
mkfs.ext4 (or mkfs.f2fs) /dev/sda1 [Enter] (the sda1 is taken from the line which showed the MOUNTPOINT in lsblk, very likely it’s the same for you but may be different should you have inserted two USB sticks). You may get a question or two, asking you to confirm your intention, which you want to do.
At this point has the USB stick been prepared, and you can proceed to the next step: Testing. Leave a note when you have succeeded.
