#protonpack — Public Fediverse posts

@cmb Huh.. the datasheet says 1.5Gbps serdes. That's fun. My current project has approximately the same thing, but using a relatively large #FPGA and an FTDI FT600 chip.

I like the control and flexibility I have working in an FPGA, but if it just works on a $3 chip, I'm certainly not too attached to the complexity and cost of it.

How can I contribute to your ch32misery?

Can I put down a footprint on the board I'm about to spin?

#protonpack

Adding my logo. Why not?

#buildinpublic #electroncis #pcb #protonpack #artwork

I've decided to build a little break out board to get a second system up and running and prove out some footprints/pinouts before committing to the bigger board.

#electronics #buildinpublic
#protonpack

@geerlingguy I'm excited as I start to build up the second of my #protonpack telemetry capture devices. I don't need 5ns synchronization, nor do I even have an actual hard limit.

I'm going to go for "best effort" one-time sync and then they will be free-running off the local oscillators with no wifi or GPS input during telemetry capture.

Typically my captures won't run longer than several minutes, and the devices shouldn't drift longer than 8 hours.

You are my go-to when I need better!

Getting closer... but obviously not fully cooked. :-)

#protonpack

It seems like everything should fit.

I got these boxes in hand now, and they are refreshingly quite small.

#protonpack #buildinpublic #electronics

Adjusted the size of the motherboard to start to figure out how to get everything to fit. Looks like SSD will have to move to the back and CM5 will have to rotate, among other things. It's a good start, but it will be an almost complete re-route.

#protonpack #buildinpublic #electronics

I want to order but they won't ship to the US.

https://lectronz.com/products/lto-battery-pack-with-bms

#batteries #protonpack #electronics #buildinpublic

I just ordered two more sets of #FPGA boards for my #protonpack telemetry project.

Woot!

#buildinpublic

@RueNahcMohr

The feedback from the boost lets you toggle the switch to the off position without it shutting off. The only thing that will shut it off is if the MCU doesn't turn on the fet, or if the MCU decides to shut down and intentionally turns off the FET.

"A" represents the ENABLE pin of the boost. It also has UVLO on the rail, so the feedback shouldn't break UVLO.

I'm trying to do a higher power version of this:

https://uart.cz/2557/lto-bms-development-notes/

#protonpack

@RueNahcMohr I'm so honored to have been sent a hand drawn schematic!

I thought about a relay. But this is a small battery powered application.

My plan is to implement a toggle switch that is actually a soft power switch but feels like a hard one. At Shure we have lots of people who want to be able to toggle a device off without looking and momentary push-buttons are a no-no under costumes/robes/etc.

But you still want time to shut down an OS when you power off.

#protonpack

https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html?ctz=DwYwlgTgBAZgvAIgIwKgFwM6IKwDoAMhRxxSApgLQDsqYIiAzPrkgwGwAc7HHnSAnGzaoQAI0RUATKgAO4hNnyoAbhByoAtphyUkKAHwAoKFGAwoAD0QAWNtagU7UbJI4O7qeAgYMVaRChQomSIzPjSAPRGJsAA7pY4rg7Wbi5uFEjCsKEIUcam8VYKSRlsUGz46ZmeOXkxGAkIFBz4UJmtmW0VNQhKUDIBudEFjTytkthl-Nb2E1leSnWmDUXTs5Nt+Nbjkz2Lw3GjLVBzUC0787UHhYnpx2kOgntD+YdFDxlUZdwOSF-PSzet1+SEkzhKf0uvReMRu3i2vy+UB+nyh+1eACVGqVWhl+GCcQ5JNtnlBYgtNABDCzKdSAuEfQTgqqggHXUYpX5lCpVKG+emNTrtZFg9o9SLsooMFwOBhg6UEjzZaECorbXFOWz2RzWNmvaBFJBbDplI3bM59ClQNTIdGwjm8zbm0p6+2G41cp0m10jd3mySVL0nXbKu2+xCE1Fc3ECaShmHhhDEmNI06on3AA0BJAcdamnOzSqkm1GwgJoHIAsnQN6XNtfEZuG1+yxtpVl3x1XZuulIMdildyt107N5EuDMAc0FVYVbbr3EbjVnoLcco6rkn2L0YLT25OUkXUplK7HBLlh8YMp1UHV7l1ncljFFFRFbQ3D9eDKRkOcL8hF4QNhiS6VogJbd8B0fQDgNbMCTmJDNzHeb8kTg-9lXPKBlH8ZBcGwVBglCAgJU-RpJguX8On+D83UQNCkmwGY3w4Hp+QOLNkCYjIkiQLixXja0AhIcsmz4v8+OoyDXinIo4MkYC5JJGjEzsCjyODNERMaNgNlOc4NNYrS-XGGsPRaACdLKU5VIM5SK148DVwDZiAOaE0Y1BEDDMBEAt081sMk8+T7ytehkEoGgoDAWlegIfBAgwG0+mUAATIiiHk3N8Gwfhst4KgWhmFjB0C58PNFBs7LhUr4O1Pc5lc45hTc+s4ykmIOJagLjmTYshOEwEZIjHrnR6g8qsFJiTzlFyJsNJimQc2b2sTSMfxq9M5ojPco05TavDY0i1Sqb8JM0wdgsRU0kX2q4joCG6fyW26VSgxjHNPZa7topNnR-S6XrDCtdyRJg6sk77E2ek8lqeD9gAicAICMIA

How's it not counting that url against my 500 characters?

Anyway, I'm working on a soft toggle switch. And maybe some LTO battery stuff... possibly at a significant current.

I may be unreasonably excited about this.

#electronics #protonpack #buildinpublic #engineering

@mntmn

I'm going to order via my business credit card without any more hoops! Monday win!

I'm going to add a Quectel EM060K-GL
Module for GPS and Cellular to the order. This should let the MNT Pocket Reform provide time synchronization to the #protonpack devices I'm building.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C37CKVSJ

@mntmn
Project Manager seems to get my vibe.
#protonpack

@mntmn I just put in a request to purchase a mnt pocket reform for control and visualization on my #protonpack project. The project manager approved immediately!

They generally don't let me buyv things on my corporate credit card any more without special approval, so I sent screen shots of my cart to our purchasing person. It is all terribly inefficient.

I have requested they ship it to my house as I am 100% remote. Let's see!

I am not going to celebrate until I see the order confirmation.

#protonpack #buildinpublic

New phase of the project... already looking at the CM5 dev-kit IO board in kicad. Hooray for open schematics and layouts!

Next steps:

But together order for enclosures, cables, power supplies, FPGA boards, CM5 modules, SSD's, etc.

Modify dev-kit schematic to remove unused HDMI, headers, ports, buttons, etc. and add the Alchitry Pt connectors, LED's switches, and RF connectors we need.

Model enclosure (in FreeCAD) to make sure the stack up fits inside.

@mntmn My boss during my weekly one-on-one just told me we'll have a summer intern for our department. He asked if I had any tasks that might fit.

So I just put in my full pitch for using the MNT Pocket Reform as a visualization platform for our telemetry system.

I'm going to be putting together a request to buy a couple to "play with."

Wish me luck!
#protonpack #buildinpublic

@mntmn @crowdsupply I recently had my company order me a ThunderScope for my day job... I'm awaiting delivery.

Just today I was thinking that an MNT reform would work well as a controller/hub/visualization sever for my telemetry setup.

I'm currently using a RPI CM5 and Alchitry Pt FPGA board. But that means I'll have to roll my own battery setup, etc.

And now this post. Cool.

I think I'll try to get the company to buy MNT hardware for me to try out as a next gen platform.

#protonpack

#protonpack
I have successfully installed the c capture code on the #raspberrypi cm5 module, and successfully captured data via the #ftdi ft600 chip using the #arm drivers for the first time. I could find no documented success on the internet confirming this works, so this is a big relief.

Lots of other issues.

I want to #developinpublic but my employer made me take down my work. I'll soon try to ask for a raise which I won't get. I'll try to use this as a "free" alternative they can give me.

Making it match the sim.

Clock shows one clock between last data transition and rising edge of we_n, scope shows two.

Getting closer!

#protonpack #FPGA #Alchitry #Verilator #verilog

Start rtl counter with a timer that is initialized 10 seconds from a 32bit wrap point so that the software handling of wrap-around is well exercised during development.

#rtl #fpga #verilog #vhdl #xilinx #alchitry #eureka #protonpack #software #softwaredevelopment #hardware #embedded #fensterFreitag

I cleaned up a bunch of the vis code.
Added trigger settings buttons, status messages, and forward/reverse triggering.
Save settings in a json file automatically now.

Started capturing with all telemetry turned on.
It seems like the test_counter is getting corrupted on these captures.
It's not clear where in the pipeline this is happening.
Time to debug.

#protonpack #telemetry #python

I contributed to the #FPGA, #Modem, #PCB design, impedance detection, portable telemetry and lots of the testing for this project.

I'm still supporting it, and will be likely until I die or am fired. It seems people like it!

#shure #NAMM #AxientDigital #PSM #IEM #protonpack #proaudio #livesound

@jaseg @azonenberg I was recently reminded that I still need to make sure I have a "go-to" async fifo, and vet what I currently have in my #protonpack project.

@azonenberg I just started reading through your manual:

https://www.ngscopeclient.org/downloads/ngscopeclient-manual.pdf

I'm seriously considering connecting my #protonpack telemetry system to it to see how it goes. I have my own visualization and triggering system in python/matplotlib that works quite well, but I don't see why I can't do the same thing with ngscopeclient.

Hmm..

I feel like there must be a better xkcd for this scenario than this one, isn't there?

https://xkcd.com/979/

To be continued on Monday!

#protonpack

4/n

Oh, I've got a story tonight. Oh what a classic:

When I blew up my Alchitry Pt #FPGA board back in November, I ordered two more and took a break on the #protonpack project. When I got back to it two weeks ago. I put it together wrong.

I had put in the Ft+ instead of the regular Ft board.

And I damaged the coax.

Tonight I found and fixed the damaged coax and could see good data flowing again. A relief, but I still wasn't getting good data over the FT600 USB interface.

1/n

Working on the #protonpack again.

I'm now getting lots of packets with no errors.

The cause for the errors I've been seeing was fun...

@geerlingguy I have bookmarked this. I am going to need usec level synchronization across multiple devices for my "#protonpack" telemetry work.

But I first need to get the first device working reliably.

And another problem is that if you miss the enable around what should be a periodic toggle you get an oscillation!
#protonpack