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Messages - andersm

46
General discussion / Re: shorter soldering iron tip?
The grip of Weller's RT tips is about 4.5 cm from the top of the tip, but the stations that use them seem to be in the same price range as Metcal's. In Weller's approach both the grip and the heating cartridge is part of the removable tip.
48
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: USB Isochrnous Transfer Mode
That's more data than you can transfer using (full-speed) interrupt transfers, but no problems at all for FTDI's chips (or bulk transfers in general).

Every OS I know of supports opening audio devices at their native resolution and sample depth, it's just more APIs you have to learn.
49
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: USB Isochrnous Transfer Mode
First off, are you absolutely certain you need a custom USB device or isochronous transfers at all? If there's not much other USB traffic, something like an FTDI USB FIFO should do just fine.

Next, if your bandwidth requirements are small enough, it'll be easier to make an interrupt transfer based HID device. Interrupt transfers don't guarantee that the polling rate set in the descriptor will actually be used, but in my experience it will as long as there's no other bottlenecks in the system.

If you need more bandwidth than interrupt transfers allow, making eg. a class-compliant audio device removes the need for host drivers. However, getting all the details right can be tricky, especially as different OSes interpret the specifications slightly differently. The problem will then be to read out the raw data without the OS audio subsystem performing sample rate conversions or anything else. Also keep in mind that iso transfers don't support retries, so if there's an error the data is lost forever.
50
Bus Pirate Support / Re: STM32 F103C8T6 Programming?
If the device manufacturer hasn't enabled read protection, you can read out the firmware either through JTAG or the embedded serial bootloader (see ST application note AN2606). If the designs really are identical you can then use the same interface for programming the other board.
53
Project development, ideas, and suggestions / Re: Alternative to Raspberry Pi?
[quote author="Squonk"]My contact in China informed me of a new competitor for the RPi[/quote]
There's been tons of those Android HDMI dongles released lately. Many use the same Allwinner Soc, but some are using Cortex-A9s or Cortex-A5s. There's even a MIPS-based one coming soon. A few examples:

http://liliputing.com/2012/06/oval-elep ... linux.html
http://liliputing.com/2012/06/kimdecent ... d-4-0.html
http://liliputing.com/2012/06/geniatech ... ex-a9.html
http://liliputing.com/2012/06/cx-01-53- ... stick.html
http://liliputing.com/2012/07/equiso-sm ... stick.html
http://liliputing.com/2012/07/ippea-tv- ... stick.html

If you want something more complete, there's devices like the Mele A1000 or the Gooseberry board.
54
General discussion / Re: Allwinner.....
You're right about the package, I misremembered the datasheet. I still think expecting documentation is very optimistic, and you'd be better off looking at parts from the likes of Freescale and TI. But even then some parts will remain undocumented (especially anything related to 3D).

I suppose we're lucky to actually get the Linux source code for the Allwinner chips, so there's no massive-scale GPL violations going on as is usually the case (though how many of those cheap tablets/HDMI dongles/whatever actually come with the sources or the necessary notifications?)
56
General discussion / Re: Allwinner.....
A high-density BGA chip without documentation and closed IP blocks hobbyist friendly? I'd hate to see what you think a non-hobbyist friendly chip looks like.
58
Bus Pirate Support / Re: Should the BP vX understand USB?
[quote author="ian"]USB sniffers and analyzers are quite complex and costly. I think there is an open source project for one (or maybe it was just a kickstart project, not open), but I have no idea if they succeeded (nor the name now...).[/quote]
The OpenVizsla was successfully funded, but they're still working on it. They seem to be using an XMOS+FPGA combo for the capture engine.

It still costs a bit of cash and is limited to full speed (12Mbit), but the Beagle USB 12 is quite nice and is supported under Windows, Linux and OS X. The Packet-Master USB12 is in the same price- and feature-class, but only supports Windows.
59
Bus Pirate Support / Re: Problems with I2C binary mode write-read
The write-read function looks like this:
Code: [Select]
int bp_bin_i2c_write_read_bulk(BP *bp, const unsigned char *write_buf, size_t write_count,
                              unsigned char *read_buf, size_t read_count)
{
    __debug__("WRITE %u, READ %un", write_count, read_count);
    _bp_check_state(bp, BP_STATE_BIN_I2C);
   
    unsigned char wbuf[5] = { BP_BIN_I2C_BULK_RW, write_count >> 8 & 0xFF, write_count & 0xFF,
                              read_count >> 8 & 0xFF, read_count & 0xFF };
    if (bp_write(bp, wbuf, 5) != BP_SUCCESS)
        return BP_FAILURE;
    if (write_count > 0 && bp_write(bp, write_buf, write_count) != BP_SUCCESS)
        return BP_FAILURE;
    if (bp_read(bp, wbuf, 1) != BP_SUCCESS)
        return BP_FAILURE;
    if (wbuf[0] == 0)
        return BP_FAILURE;
    if (read_count > 0 && bp_read(bp, read_buf, read_count) != BP_SUCCESS)
        return BP_FAILURE;
   
    return BP_SUCCESS;
}
...and it is called like this:
Code: [Select]
    const unsigned char wbuf[1] = { (I2C1_ADDRESS << 1) | 1 };
    if (bp_bin_i2c_write_read_bulk(bp, wbuf, 1, (unsigned char*)&packet, sizeof(packet)) != BP_SUCCESS)
    {
        printf("Error reading data packet.n");
        return BP_FAILURE;
    }
   
    return BP_SUCCESS;
The bp_write()/bp_read() calls work fine when reading bytes manually, so I believe they work as advertised.
60
Bus Pirate Support / Problems with I2C binary mode write-read
I'm having problems getting the I2C binary mode write-read command to work. I can successfully communicate with my device using both terminal mode and the simple binary mode commands, but I can't read any data using the write-read command.

Using a logic analyzer I can see that the device address is written and acknowledged, but when reading the Bus Pirate never ACKs any of the incoming bytes. I've tested with a BP3 and a BP4 (both running firmware 6.1), using my own code based on libusbpirate and by entering the commands manually into Hercules. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated (even a "works for me"), as I've run out of ideas.

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