9Xtreme Upgrade Board for 9x Radios

[jhsa]

It is not a "turn off" Steven. I'm just sad that "I" can't do it
Obviously the more people that test the equipment, the more chance there is of catching flaws at an early stage of the development.

João

[MikeB]

Firmware testing is now about to start, I have two prototype boards just arrived (2 in case of a problem with one or I do something very silly and damage one!).
I'll be a couple of hours work getting it set up on the bench, and connecting it to various test equipment, putting it in an actual 9X will be for later on.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Nice.. if you need any help for testing the firmware using other platform, just shout..

João

[s_mack]

Mine should be arriving today too. Yesterday was a holiday here. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

[OctavioS]

Can somebody tell me untill when these boards will have the 20% discount?
thx

[MikeB]

Progress update.
Power regulators working correctly
Had a small problem getting the crystal oscillator working, but sorted now.☺
USB ROM bootloader working, I can flash a program to the chip.
Uncommitted serial port working as a debug port.
I've flashed the ersky9x I've built specifically for this board, this runs through some initialisation, then gets stuck when trying to read the external EEPROM (flash). Since this is using a driver I've specifically written, I've probably got something wrong in it. With the serial port working I'll be able to debug this fairly easily, something to investigate tomorrow now.

Mike.

[jhsa]

That sounds very good Mike, thank you..

João

[s_mack]

Can somebody tell me untill when these boards will have the 20% discount?
thx

As long as I don't have an ETA to provide people. The discount is specifically to reward those willing/able to put their money, trust and patience in our hands while we work through the steps necessary to bringing this product to market. Here's a graphic to help:

[s_mack]

I've flashed the ersky9x I've built specifically for this board, this runs through some initialisation, then gets stuck when trying to read the external EEPROM (flash). Since this is using a driver I've specifically written, I've probably got something wrong in it. With the serial port working I'll be able to debug this fairly easily, something to investigate tomorrow now.

Any possibility I threw things off by swapping the original 4Mbit flash chip for its 8Mbit twin?

[MikeB]

No, that's fine. In fact everything is OK so far (EEPROM driver running), the code is stopping at the report of "BAD EEPROM", but as I havent got the M64 connected, I can't see the message or press a button to continue!
Next step is to connect a 9X to get the display and buttons working.

Mike.

[OctavioS]

I just pre-ordered 2, its a good discount. . I´ll order a third, probably next month, lets hope that the discount is still there.

Can somebody tell me untill when these boards will have the 20% discount?
thx

As long as I don't have an ETA to provide people. The discount is specifically to reward those willing/able to put their money, trust and patience in our hands while we work through the steps necessary to bringing this product to market. Here's a graphic to help:

9xtreme_progress_report.gif

[s_mack]

I just pre-ordered 2, its a good discount. . I´ll order a third, probably next month, lets hope that the discount is still there.

I suppose if someone who ordered two sends me an email asking for the discount on a 3rd, I would try to accommodate

[jhsa]

That is what I call a good and fair business man

João

[Kilrah]

Do you need a shipping address right now? My prob is that I'm moving around about every month for work right now so with no ETA I have no idea where I'll be when it gets available...

[s_mack]

Just send me an email after the order is placed and I will change the shipping address to my address to serve as a reminder not to ship until I get your correct one. That way if I screw up and ship it as-is, it will at least not go very far

[OctavioS]

Great, I think i might do that.

I just pre-ordered 2, its a good discount. . I´ll order a third, probably next month, lets hope that the discount is still there.

I suppose if someone who ordered two sends me an email asking for the discount on a 3rd, I would try to accommodate

[MikeB]

Progress report(2)!
I have data going between the 9Xtreme and a M64 mainboard. This means I have the display working and the buttons working. I still have some problems with the EEPROM to sort (probably the driver I wrote), but I get the well known "MODEL01" main display and I can navigate to other menus using the buttons.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Nice

João

[lancaster]

Well done Mike
Keep up the hard work
I'm sure there are many like me who are keenly watching progress
regards
Hans

[MikeB]

A few more things working, ADC giving battery voltage for example.
Still having trouble with the EEPROM, but I now think I know what to do, too late now.

Mike.

[MikeB]

Got the EEPROM operating properly now, so I can save settings etc.
I'm connecting to a M64 in a 9X that has a rotary encoder and this is also working!
I can see both PPM outputs operating and I can vary a channel using a pot. I don't have the sticks connected to the board yet, the pots are fed across from the 9X.
It's beginning to look good now, although I can see a few minor bugs that need investigating like the switch warning comes up, but doesn't show any incorrect switches!

Mike.

[s_mack]

Like most of this project so far, I think things are going along as well or better than should be expected. Good work Mike!

For my part, I realize there are some physical deficiencies. Nothing major, but since we have to make some changes anyway I'll take the opportunity to move the connectors into better positions to save some knuckles and swearing.

[jhsa]

Hey, we like swearing
Please leave some hw mistakes and fw bugs in so we can complain and swear at you guys.. Don't take all the fun away from us

No, really, I'm joking.. Good work both of you

João

[MikeB]

SD card tested and working, I backed up and restored a model file. Also voice output, but only at full volume, is working. I have my wife shouting at me when I switch on. That's because it's her voice on the SD card for the welcome message!

Mike.

[jhsa]

That's why I don't use my wife's voice, I would never be able to lower the volume without getting into trouble

Thanks Mike, that is an awesome progress..

João

[MikeB]

The inactivity alarm works! Gave me and my wife quite a fright!
Volume control now working.
Backlight generally working, just all 3 channels set to the same brightness. I'll need to add software and settings to control the three outputs separately.
Both module outputs working, together with the module power switches.
RTC almost working, a problem with the oscillator stopping when on battery power, but the date and time at power off is retained.

Mike.

[jhsa]

woow, it looks like you got it nearly ready..
People that do night flying will find that setting the backlight color to red will help a lot.
To add a bit of fun you could implement a random backlight color setting at startup

How many DACs for the voice does that board have??

Thanks

João

[s_mack]

We have 2 DACs, but it seems as though one may be good enough, freeing up a pin.


I know from experience that random coloring may not be a good idea. Out of the 16 million combinations, only a handful work well. Random from a pool could work.

I am confused on how the date and time can be retained at power off if oscillation is failing? Internal RTC function? If it is good enough for fike timestamps maybe we can lose components rather than fixing a problem that isn't really a problem?

[jhsa]

We have 2 DACs, but it seems as though one may be good enough, freeing up a pin.

Please keep both

Maybe in the future we could have 2 wav files playing at the same time.. OpenTX for example seem to have an option for background music or something like that.
I won't lie that I would love to have that option in ersky9x
Not only for the music but also for training aerobatic maneuvers without having to look to a paper, or someone telling them to me..
Like that the alarms and the background could be played at the same time. When an alarm sounds the volume from the other audio could be lowered while the alarm plays.. That would be perfect. Opentx users can explain it better than I how it works

João

[MikeB]

It helps with the RTC if you don't muddle up batteries. I had an old, flat battery lying around, and took out a brand new battery to put in the board. Somwhere along the line I swapped them over! So the battery I put in gave 0.35V, enough to hold the date-time, but not enough to drive the oscillator.
I now have the good battery in and the RTC is keeping time when the board is powered off.

Trainer input is all working.

We wired the DACs up so one gives full drive, and the other gives about a tenth. I've tested reducing the volume by scaling the output values down to about 1/17 and it still sounds OK to me.

Mike.