FPGA-based Controller for Kinematic Systems

[Matt Denton]

I guess you didn't buy the Eddy Development Kit then?

I believe you have to buy the DK in order to have full access to the Lemonix OS and LemonIDE?

[wuselfuzz]

I guess you didn't buy the Eddy Development Kit then?

No, that's a bit expensive...

I believe you have to buy the DK in order to have full access to the Lemonix OS and LemonIDE?

That's downloadable from embeddedmodule.com without any login.

But I plan on building a gcc toolchain myself and putting my own code on that.

It would have been easier to get one of the carrier modules.

http://shop.trenz-electronic.de/catalog ... cts_id=497

I should have picked that instead.

Anyways, it should be possible to build a small bootstrap binary that initializes the SDRAM controller and loads your code from the 32 mbit dataflash to memory and jumps there. According to the data sheet, you can also automatically boot this bootblock from the same flash.

I suppose the bootloader from the original Eddy firmware works similar, can't wait to get the source.

Another edit: Account creation on embeddedmodule.com works with IE.

[Matt Denton]

Anyways, it should be possible to build a small bootstrap binary that initializes the SDRAM controller and loads your code from the 32 mbit dataflash to memory and jumps there. According to the data sheet, you can also automatically boot this bootblock from the same flash.

I'm a novice to Linux.. and I think that would be a bit beyond me right now. I need the development process and learning cureve to be simple and painless , whihc is why the Lemonix route was luring me in. I've also been looking at these:

http://www.axis.com/products/dev_82p/index.htm
http://www.axis.com/products/dev_88/index.htm

I would guess these would not be as powerful as the ARM 9 board? does the ARM 9 have a FPU?

I can't remember where your based now.. but I'm guessing your not in the UK?

[wuselfuzz]

I'm in Germany.

Here's free tools: http://yagarto.de/

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/produ ... rt_id=3870

[wuselfuzz]

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod ... source.zip

And another interesting find. check the PDF inside. It also lists some different evaluation boards and sources, prices starting at $70.

[wuselfuzz]

Code: Select all

Net:   macb0
macb0: Autonegotiation timed out (status=0x7849)
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK
OK

Starting kernel ...

Uncompressing Linux....................................................................................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.6.21-rt1 (root@linuxdev) (gcc version 4.1.1) #12 PREEMPT Fri Feb 27 17:31:52 KST 2009
CPU: ARM926EJ-S [41069265] revision 5 (ARMv5TEJ), cr=00053177
Machine: Atmel AT91SAM9260-EK
Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writeback
Clocks: CPU 198 MHz, master 99 MHz, main 18.432 MHz
CPU0: D VIVT write-back cache
CPU0: I cache: 8192 bytes, associativity 4, 32 byte lines, 64 sets
CPU0: D cache: 8192 bytes, associativity 4, 32 byte lines, 64 sets
Real-Time Preemption Support (C) 2004-2007 Ingo Molnar
Built 1 zonelists.  Total pages: 8128
Kernel command line: root=/dev/ram rw console=ttyS0,115200,mem=32M
WARNING: experimental RCU implementation.
AT91: 96 gpio irqs in 3 banks
PID hash table entries: 128 (order: 7, 512 bytes)
CLOCK_EVT_MODE_SHUTDOWN
CLOCK_EVT_MODE_PERIODIC
AT91 timer period: 62061
Console: colour dummy device 80x30
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Memory: 32MB = 32MB total
Memory: 26700KB available (2952K code, 254K data, 108K init)


full boot log: http://wuselfuzz.de/hexapod/eddy-bootlog.txt



Connect Serial console @ 115200, 8,N,1 to pins 23,24 (RXD,TXD) of J3, put a bridge between pin 19 and J1 and VCC (or the module won't boot from flash), see Eddy_DK_Programmer_Guide_Eng_V2.1.0.1_9303.pdf, pages 11pp.

[wuselfuzz]

Serial dbg connection on the far left on J3, right of that FPG bridge to enable the dataflash, power on the right (there's more than that pair of pins for power).

[Matt Denton]

full boot log: http://wuselfuzz.de/hexapod/eddy-bootlog.txt



Connect Serial console @ 115200, 8,N,1 to pins 23,24 (RXD,TXD) of J3, put a bridge between pin 19 and J1 and VCC (or the module won't boot from flash), see Eddy_DK_Programmer_Guide_Eng_V2.1.0.1_9303.pdf, pages 11pp.

Interesting, so this is pre-loaded on the Eddy board, do you know what the errors are at the end of the boot log?

Also, how long does this boot procedure take?

I have one of THESE, I'm just waiting to get it back from a friend, pretty similar hardware so I might see if I can do something with it

[wuselfuzz]

Interesting, so this is pre-loaded on the Eddy board, do you know what the errors are at the end of the boot log?

Hm, it boots into a bunch of segfaults, maybe because some expected i2c hardware isn't there.

Also, how long does this boot procedure take?

A few seconds, maybe 20-30. However, I'm not planning on using Linux yet. Since I got access to the u-boot bootloader, I can as well upload custom code instead of a Linux kernel via the debug serial. I just finished soldering another pin header for another set of gnd/3.3v/rxd/txd signals onto the servoboard and added an SPI interface between the CPU and the FPGA.

The current FPGA design lets me switch the serial console between the eddy debug port and the Plasma console uart via DIP switch.

I have one of THESE, I'm just waiting to get it back from a friend, pretty similar hardware so I might see if I can do something with it

Interesting board, but IMO it's too large for a robot.

Image of the complete electronics so far:



(when it's nearing RC1, I'll make a proper PCB for everything, should shrink stuff again)

[wuselfuzz]

Shortened servo cables today and had another idea. Here's an eddyfant.



I hot-glued the eddy module on the bottom of the fpga board.

Front view when assembled: