Electronics
It appears I'm developing an electronics itch that I need to scratch in a few ways.
Now here's the thing: I've spent decades tinkering with software, including some that's quite low level. I've played a cameo rôle a couple of times in semiconductor design. I know my way around a circuit diagram.
But I'm painfully aware that to create a PCB, you need to know how to scatter lots of capacitative confetti. You need to create Gerbers. You need to tie a squillion and one wires to one another and not screw up. I've never done these things.
So. I have some questions...
Are free PCB design packages any good, or do I have to spend silly money on the professional stuff? In particular, is DesignSpark PCB any good? A few online reviews say it is, and it looks promising, but I'd rather not sink time into experimenting with it if there's something better.
Has anyone played with the Bitscope Micro as a cheap and cheerful oscilloscope and logic analyser? I'm fully aware it would suck for stuff running at modern speeds, but it looks like it'd be OK for retrocomputing, messing around with Raspberry Pi hats, etc.
Exactly how doomed am I if I want to get an SOIC soldered to a board? There are videos suggesting it's far from impossible, some even making it look easy, but at the very least I'd need a much finer tip for my soldering iron and some thinner solder. Alternatively, does anyone know of a specialist around Cambridge that would do prototyping quantities for sensible money? (In the first instance dropping some SO20 onto breakout boards so I can experiment a little.
FPGAs. Which brand? Altera? Xilinx? Lattice? Someone else? Right now, I'm looking at an Altera MAX 10, simply because it seems to have the right combination of price, package size, IO, gates, flash and RAM. Is this madness?
Is the optimisation in VHDL synthesis for FPGAs as mature as that in software compilers? To pick an example, if I design a block that has various outputs and then don't use one of them, will it prune away any logic only needed for that output?
How resilient are 3.3V parts in the face of signals from old 5V 8-bit micros. The MAX 10 specifies an absolute maximum (won't break; might not work; degrades life expectancy) DC input voltage of 4.12V and a recommended maximum DC input voltage of 3.6V . To me, that says I have to put transceivers between it and 5V logic, but at least one person (you know who you are) has said signal voltages are lower than Vcc in practice and it'll be fine. If true, that would save me a huge amount of hassle and expense, but I'm sceptical.
Suppose I want to measure the voltage and current on a 5V supply using a 3.3V ADC. Am I being naïve, or would this circuit do the job?
(The supply voltage would be twice the ADC1IN2 measurement; supply current would be 2×(ADC1IN2-ADC1IN1)×0.1 . With 12-bit ADCs, this would give a resolution of 16mA. The circuit would consume 1.2mW. It would be possible to mess about with comparators, but they'd cost more, and this is a nice-to-have toy because the FPGA has free ADCs, not the main point of the exercise.)
Can someone recommend a cheaper and/or more efficient 5V to 3.3V step-down converter than the Intel EP5388QI? Ideally, it share the Intel part's virtue of not needing a huge count of ancillary components. In my dreams, it would provide a current-sense output as a freebie.
More generally, it feels like - especially around Cambridge - there ought to be some Makespace equivalent for electronics, with a reflow oven and nice 'scopes and a few thousand cheap, standard components. It feels like there ought to be a community for where I could mess about with this kind of thing and stand a chance of having someone be able to see instantly why I just let the magic smoke out (again).
It doesn't look like there is, though. Any suggestions?
Cross-posted from this Dreamwidth original. If you can, please comment there instead.
DW Comments: Read
or Add Your Own.
Now here's the thing: I've spent decades tinkering with software, including some that's quite low level. I've played a cameo rôle a couple of times in semiconductor design. I know my way around a circuit diagram.
But I'm painfully aware that to create a PCB, you need to know how to scatter lots of capacitative confetti. You need to create Gerbers. You need to tie a squillion and one wires to one another and not screw up. I've never done these things.
So. I have some questions...
Are free PCB design packages any good, or do I have to spend silly money on the professional stuff? In particular, is DesignSpark PCB any good? A few online reviews say it is, and it looks promising, but I'd rather not sink time into experimenting with it if there's something better.
Has anyone played with the Bitscope Micro as a cheap and cheerful oscilloscope and logic analyser? I'm fully aware it would suck for stuff running at modern speeds, but it looks like it'd be OK for retrocomputing, messing around with Raspberry Pi hats, etc.
Exactly how doomed am I if I want to get an SOIC soldered to a board? There are videos suggesting it's far from impossible, some even making it look easy, but at the very least I'd need a much finer tip for my soldering iron and some thinner solder. Alternatively, does anyone know of a specialist around Cambridge that would do prototyping quantities for sensible money? (In the first instance dropping some SO20 onto breakout boards so I can experiment a little.
FPGAs. Which brand? Altera? Xilinx? Lattice? Someone else? Right now, I'm looking at an Altera MAX 10, simply because it seems to have the right combination of price, package size, IO, gates, flash and RAM. Is this madness?
Is the optimisation in VHDL synthesis for FPGAs as mature as that in software compilers? To pick an example, if I design a block that has various outputs and then don't use one of them, will it prune away any logic only needed for that output?
How resilient are 3.3V parts in the face of signals from old 5V 8-bit micros. The MAX 10 specifies an absolute maximum (won't break; might not work; degrades life expectancy) DC input voltage of 4.12V and a recommended maximum DC input voltage of 3.6V . To me, that says I have to put transceivers between it and 5V logic, but at least one person (you know who you are) has said signal voltages are lower than Vcc in practice and it'll be fine. If true, that would save me a huge amount of hassle and expense, but I'm sceptical.
Suppose I want to measure the voltage and current on a 5V supply using a 3.3V ADC. Am I being naïve, or would this circuit do the job?
(The supply voltage would be twice the ADC1IN2 measurement; supply current would be 2×(ADC1IN2-ADC1IN1)×0.1 . With 12-bit ADCs, this would give a resolution of 16mA. The circuit would consume 1.2mW. It would be possible to mess about with comparators, but they'd cost more, and this is a nice-to-have toy because the FPGA has free ADCs, not the main point of the exercise.)
Can someone recommend a cheaper and/or more efficient 5V to 3.3V step-down converter than the Intel EP5388QI? Ideally, it share the Intel part's virtue of not needing a huge count of ancillary components. In my dreams, it would provide a current-sense output as a freebie.
More generally, it feels like - especially around Cambridge - there ought to be some Makespace equivalent for electronics, with a reflow oven and nice 'scopes and a few thousand cheap, standard components. It feels like there ought to be a community for where I could mess about with this kind of thing and stand a chance of having someone be able to see instantly why I just let the magic smoke out (again).
It doesn't look like there is, though. Any suggestions?
Cross-posted from this Dreamwidth original. If you can, please comment there instead.
DW Comments: Read
or Add Your Own.