ok so lots has happened in the past couple of weeks, firstly thanks to christopher for doing some concept drawings on the micro-desktop dock. turns out that we may have to try something slightly different in order to keep the cost down, chris. we got a prototype back (in MDF laminates), i have some ideas on how it looked and assembled, so i will wait to see what the reaction is, there. the case is what we are waiting for to start the campaign btw. and yes, i really really want it to be wood not plastic.
second thing i have been playing with the EOMA68-IC3128 CPU Card - everything works *except* the LAN9514 USB-Ethernet Hub. there are a number of issues, most likely related to unstable power but possibly due to unstable kernel code, and it's simply impossible to tell properly which. so i made a decision to replace the USB-Eth Hub with a GL850G Hub and an MCS7832, because ICubeCorp have tested that combination and we know it properly works. space is *very* tight so it is a bit of a mess.
so the revision 1.2 has been done, it now needs review, and then it can go for assembly which is great. i'm not going to push things, so if it's ready when the crowdfunding campaign starts great, if not that's fine we do another campaign separately.
also just so people know, one thing we may try is to push the IC3128 to 440mhz (remember it's quad-core so a total of 1.76 ghz of processing power instead of 1.6 ghz), and, also, the whole CPU Card uses only 2.5 watts at 400mhz, which is pretty good for a 55nm SoC. so it is well within the 3.5w margin set for ensuring that no fans or special cooling is needed.
l.
Regarding the art -- you're welcome! Please do let me know if I can be of further help there ;)
One question that seems germane to the list -- doing some random EOMA-68 tinkering in my head, lol -- would it be possible to generate say a PS/2 keyboard port from the GPIOs, reasonably easily (ie without having to dev up a homebrew driver)...? I'm thinking specifically of the A20 card here -- I have an AT101W keyboard (mechanical, from the mid-90s or so) that I'd love to tuck an EOMA card into -- it's just the right size that I may be able to fit the Micro Desktop Board in there if I do a custom enclosure for it... then again since I like the junkyard look I may go enclosureless on this one... prolly will in fact since I've lost the screws that hold the thing shut...
On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl@lkcl.net
wrote:
ok so lots has happened in the past couple of weeks, firstly thanks to christopher for doing some concept drawings on the micro-desktop dock. turns out that we may have to try something slightly different in order to keep the cost down, chris. we got a prototype back (in MDF laminates), i have some ideas on how it looked and assembled, so i will wait to see what the reaction is, there. the case is what we are waiting for to start the campaign btw. and yes, i really really want it to be wood not plastic.
second thing i have been playing with the EOMA68-IC3128 CPU Card - everything works *except* the LAN9514 USB-Ethernet Hub. there are a number of issues, most likely related to unstable power but possibly due to unstable kernel code, and it's simply impossible to tell properly which. so i made a decision to replace the USB-Eth Hub with a GL850G Hub and an MCS7832, because ICubeCorp have tested that combination and we know it properly works. space is *very* tight so it is a bit of a mess.
so the revision 1.2 has been done, it now needs review, and then it can go for assembly which is great. i'm not going to push things, so if it's ready when the crowdfunding campaign starts great, if not that's fine we do another campaign separately.
also just so people know, one thing we may try is to push the IC3128 to 440mhz (remember it's quad-core so a total of 1.76 ghz of processing power instead of 1.6 ghz), and, also, the whole CPU Card uses only 2.5 watts at 400mhz, which is pretty good for a 55nm SoC. so it is well within the 3.5w margin set for ensuring that no fans or special cooling is needed.
l.
arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk
On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 12:11 AM, Christopher Havel laserhawk64@gmail.com wrote:
Regarding the art -- you're welcome! Please do let me know if I can be of further help there ;)
yes please, let's talk off-list.
One question that seems germane to the list -- doing some random EOMA-68 tinkering in my head, lol -- would it be possible to generate say a PS/2 keyboard port from the GPIOs, reasonably easily
yeah i don't see why not. if you google it there are plenty of people trying it.
(ie without having to dev up a homebrew driver)...?
ahh you _might_ get away with a userspace service, using /dev/gpio/xxxx and libuevent. libuevent is designed to interact with the uevent (user-generated event) driver so you could do bit-banging gpio emulating the keyboard then generate linux keyboard events in userspace and have the kernel think they're kernel events.
I'm thinking specifically of the A20 card here -- I have an AT101W keyboard (mechanical, from the mid-90s or so) that I'd love to tuck an EOMA card into -- it's just the right size that I may be able to fit the Micro Desktop Board in there if I do a custom enclosure for it...
cool!
then again since I like the junkyard look I may go enclosureless on this one... prolly will in fact since I've lost the screws that hold the thing shut...
bit of sticky-back plastic never did any harm... [1]
l.
whew ok the schematic review for the EOMA68-IC3128 board has been done, and a preliminary review of the PCB. lots of work done in the past couple of weeks to increase the width of power tracks, tidy up the power and ground planes around the MCS7832. i'm now happy with it, so one last final check and it can go to PCB printing and assembly.
l.
On 11/27/14 14:35, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
whew ok the schematic review for the EOMA68-IC3128 board has been done, and a preliminary review of the PCB. lots of work done in the past couple of weeks to increase the width of power tracks, tidy up the power and ground planes around the MCS7832. i'm now happy with it, so one last final check and it can go to PCB printing and assembly.
l.
arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk
eggs granny suck
you might check that all the connectors are wired the right way around. seems like that has been a problem on a couple of occasions.
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk
-
Christopher Havel -
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton -
Simon Kenyon