**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Sat Feb 20 02:59:58 2016 Feb 20 18:46:24 * alexanderhiam is changing nick to alexhiam, sick of all those letters... Feb 20 18:48:49 it's very exciting news Feb 20 19:16:27 alexhiam: what? Feb 20 19:16:49 what's the exciting news? Feb 20 19:17:27 that I changed my nick from alexanderhiam to alexhiam Feb 20 19:17:31 riveting, eh? Feb 20 19:19:20 yeah, mind-blowing Feb 20 19:19:32 like, totally :) Feb 20 19:20:39 hopefully I'll get my FSF irc cloak setup soon too, so it won't show everyone my ip address when I log on Feb 20 19:20:51 I'm really moving up in the irc world Feb 20 19:20:52 do you have to pay to get that? Feb 20 19:21:07 yeah, it's a member benefit Feb 20 19:24:57 but I think you get all the benefits at all the levels, including the $5/mo student member Feb 20 19:25:50 cool Feb 20 19:26:25 if you look at my hostname, it also carries a IRCCloud cloak it seems. Feb 20 19:26:44 ah, so it does Feb 20 19:26:57 I use hexchat Feb 20 19:27:26 IRCCloud is currently the only sane IRC client that works behind a proxy Feb 20 19:27:57 of course the all web clients do, but I prefer this Feb 20 19:28:05 *all the Feb 20 19:29:15 you just use it as a web based client? Feb 20 19:29:40 yep. Feb 20 19:30:02 I prefer having a desktop client... for no real reason Feb 20 19:30:28 other than it won't get lost in my waaaay too many open tabs Feb 20 19:45:42 * nerdboy thinks we need a beagle-y theme song Feb 20 19:45:45 https://archive.org/details/skb2005-10-09.flac16 Feb 20 19:51:51 Hey ! I would like to work on the idea of SPI flash emulator. How can I get started ? Feb 20 19:59:31 ZeekHuge: you probably want to start by touching base with bradfa about it here when they're online Feb 20 20:00:01 who I think would probably be the primary mentor for that project if it's accepted Feb 20 20:03:29 alexhiam: okay, so when, do you think, he'll be online ? Feb 20 20:03:37 if you have any idea . Feb 20 20:04:01 also, if you could just suggest me something .. ? Feb 20 20:07:24 no clue. That would be a fairly advanced project, so having some kernel driver experience as well as some bare-metal firmware experience is probably a must Feb 20 20:08:10 (he was on yesterday, hopefully back on by monday?) Feb 20 20:23:27 ZeekHuge: do you know what a SPI flash is? Feb 20 20:24:37 yes, flash memory is the next thing after EEPROM , and the one whoes contents are accessed through spi is SPI flash Feb 20 20:24:44 isnt it ? Feb 20 20:25:03 Atmega 8 and 16 probably use it. Feb 20 20:26:22 ds2: I am not sure, but i think i have used it in form of MCUs Feb 20 20:28:47 ZeekHuge: just curious - why are you interested in that project over the others? Feb 20 20:30:29 alexhiam: I dont know, probably because its useful. Feb 20 20:30:45 I mean other projects are useful too Feb 20 20:31:02 but it seems to have good impact on developers Feb 20 20:32:33 I wonder if it would really take someone who has a need for a spi flash emulator to implement one correctly... Feb 20 20:32:39 I am learner. I wanted to be part of the community and take pare in GSoC this year. I found this to project to be interesting. But still will need your (community's ) guidance to select what would be fit for me Feb 20 20:34:40 totally, not trying to discourage. It just seems like a pretty niche project to me - I'm an embedded developer and I've never needed a flash emulator (granted I haven't worked much with flashless processors...) Feb 20 20:36:10 but can't the majority of development and testing be done running from RAM? Feb 20 20:37:08 ZeekHuge: if you've seen an ESP8266 module, the SPI flash is the large 8-pin chip on it. Feb 20 20:39:24 oh ! ok , I have seen the module. My friend was working on it. Never used it though. Feb 20 20:39:50 alexhiam: running from RAM ? on embedded systems ? Feb 20 20:40:51 yeah, the code's gotta run somewhere! Feb 20 20:42:00 the program is stored in non-volatile flash, the volatile ram is used for runtime memory (it's much faster) Feb 20 20:44:27 this is found in most WiFi routers Feb 20 20:44:44 Even in the internal firmware of hard drives I believe Feb 20 20:47:13 yes, isn't the project all about the amount of time taken by the flash to be reprogrammed ? and to reduce it by deploying emulator ? am i missing something ? Feb 20 20:47:14 Abhishek_: ok ! Cool ! I'll open and see into my router then :) Feb 20 20:47:35 be careful :) Feb 20 20:48:20 The project is about replacing the chip with wires going to the BBB that emulates the chip - so firmware swapping is very fast. Feb 20 20:53:33 okay... do you know what is SPI then? Feb 20 20:54:00 * nerdboy always liked spy vs spy... Feb 20 21:07:16 Sorry, my internet ! ahh .. Feb 20 21:07:28 Abhishek_: Yes SPI flash is also used in hard drives (hack : http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack&page=2) Feb 20 21:09:58 ds2 : ok so SPI is a way to talk to electronic devices and uses mostly 3 pins MISO MOSI and SCK. So only onw can speak at a time and he is the master, the other one is slave. If the device is configurable to master as well as slave, then it would probably have one more pin as SS and it would show the status of the deivce as master or slace Feb 20 21:10:11 *slave Feb 20 21:11:28 ps : SPI stands for Serial peripheral interface . Its also somtimes said as serial programming interface. Feb 20 21:12:22 okay, he gets a cookie Feb 20 21:12:38 sorry, both can speak at the same time but only one can initiate. and he is the one who is th master Feb 20 21:14:59 MOSI is master out slave in and MISO in slave out and SCK is ths clock signal given by the master. if I am able to recall correctly,on Atmega 8 pin number 17,18,19 are the one used by SPI. Feb 20 21:15:26 *MISO : Master in slave out Feb 20 21:16:35 ZeekHuge: have you used SPI before? Have you bit-banged it? Used an SPI peripheral? Feb 20 21:17:14 I have used it. But not extensively. Did i say something wrong ? Feb 20 21:21:10 I have used the one inside Atmega 8 . bit-banged it ? you mean through software ? No, haven't tried it. Should i try and report ? Feb 20 21:21:26 okay, that's a nice cut and pasting Feb 20 21:21:31 now, what is it really? Feb 20 21:22:09 I didnt do any cut pasting ! I remember becuase i have used it . Feb 20 21:22:17 and thats all i know ! Feb 20 21:22:33 honestly ! Feb 20 21:23:17 I used it first when i had to upload firmware onto Arduino Feb 20 21:24:07 And then i made some simple program to understand all of them, SPI, serial TX RX, two wire peripheral. Feb 20 21:25:08 Oh Feb 20 21:26:26 Okay, give me some small project (preferably software, i am at home and all my hardware thing is in my college room) and i will report back . Feb 20 21:26:31 ZeekHuge: we're grilling you about it because that specific project would really require some solid previous experience with these concepts Feb 20 21:28:22 the disk drive hack is pretty cool Feb 20 21:28:32 * nerdboy hadn't seen that one before Feb 20 21:29:13 alexhiam: I understand that :) infact, i don't think i wouldnt be able to get on the project by cut and paste thing, but, seriously, that is all I knew myself, no cut and paste. Feb 20 21:29:25 *i would be Feb 20 21:29:50 "... before disappearing into the mists of the Internet again..." Feb 20 21:30:51 nerdboy: yeah ! its been there since long time. All his hacks are cool ! Feb 20 21:40:45 * ZeekHuge is really sorry if he has offended someone. He did not mean to do that . Feb 20 21:44:27 ZeekHuge: I'm not offended, just distracted! Feb 20 21:46:20 that being one of the more complex project ideas, it's not likely to succeed unless done by someone with a solid understanding of the foundational stuff, so we're just trying to get a sense for that Feb 20 21:51:24 alexhiam: Okay :) I am just a simple, small developer so having a project according to my ultimately help me, so thank you :) also, it would be really helpful if you could suggest me some kind of exercise or skill, that would help you ( and me ) to find if i can do the project or not. Feb 20 21:55:32 well, something like bit-banging SPI to communicate with an external device on the PRU would be a great start Feb 20 21:55:58 (and blinking a LED from the PRU is a good place to start if you've never written firmware for it) Feb 20 21:59:53 alexhiam: thank you ! I'll report back after completing this :) Feb 20 22:03:07 sounds good Feb 21 02:11:48 * nerdboy thinking again Feb 21 02:11:59 please don't call the fire dept... Feb 21 02:12:29 is BeagleSat project maybe 2 projects instead of one? Feb 21 02:13:09 ie, vehicle platform and magnetometer app extension/mavlink interface Feb 21 02:13:55 mr niko kinda got away with a prototype "stack" Feb 21 02:15:01 * nerdboy guessing he should split it in two **** ENDING LOGGING AT Sun Feb 21 02:59:58 2016