Good news Colin,
If this is successful, our intention is to continue to stock a few V2 PCB and FTDI modules for use with MiniTiouner but encorage new builders to use the V3 with the Pico and run Ryde / Open Tuner.
Noel
Minitiouner
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This forum is run by the BATC (British Amateur Television Club), it is service made freely available to all interested parties, please do not abuse this privilege.
Thank you
Re: Minitiouner
When you need some early users to try out the design I can sharpen my soldering iron!
Spare Ryde and tuner module already waiting......
Martin G8LCE
Spare Ryde and tuner module already waiting......
Martin G8LCE
Re: Minitiouner
There is a LED on the Pico Board, I am sure that can be made to flash randomly.
Some of the clone Pico boards with USB C connectors have a tri colour LED.
Some of the clone Pico boards with USB C connectors have a tri colour LED.
Re: Minitiouner
A progress update...
The Pico is now being recognised as a device by Longmynd with no changes to the Longmynd code. A small change is currently needed to the Ryde code because this tries to read the EEPROM which is present on an FTDI device but not on the Pico.
It is successfully using i2c to control the NIM which seems to be working correctly. The received TS data is being transferred but currently there are some glitches preventing a good picture decode.
When tuned to the QO-100 beacon I am getting slightly broken audio and the occasional still image. (I have confirmed the beacon is working OK at the moment with another minitiouner.)
The Pico USB link is working hard when receiving the beacon as it is only USB1.1 which has a top speed of 12 Megabits per second. The FTDI module is USB 2 which is a lot faster. However the Pico should still be fast enough.
Lower sample rate signals have a similar decoding issue, so I don't think it is speed problem. More likely some bug in my TS buffer handling.
Overall still not 100% sure it will work but the results so far are encouraging. I have also learnt a lot about USB devices and the Pico's PIO programming.
More debugging this evening.
Colin G4EML
The Pico is now being recognised as a device by Longmynd with no changes to the Longmynd code. A small change is currently needed to the Ryde code because this tries to read the EEPROM which is present on an FTDI device but not on the Pico.
It is successfully using i2c to control the NIM which seems to be working correctly. The received TS data is being transferred but currently there are some glitches preventing a good picture decode.
When tuned to the QO-100 beacon I am getting slightly broken audio and the occasional still image. (I have confirmed the beacon is working OK at the moment with another minitiouner.)
The Pico USB link is working hard when receiving the beacon as it is only USB1.1 which has a top speed of 12 Megabits per second. The FTDI module is USB 2 which is a lot faster. However the Pico should still be fast enough.
Lower sample rate signals have a similar decoding issue, so I don't think it is speed problem. More likely some bug in my TS buffer handling.
Overall still not 100% sure it will work but the results so far are encouraging. I have also learnt a lot about USB devices and the Pico's PIO programming.
More debugging this evening.
Colin G4EML
Re: Minitiouner
On the bus speed - an Ethernet hat would probably solve that.
Mike
Mike
Re: Minitiouner
Yes it probably would, however I am concentrating on trying to create a FTDI USB replacement at the moment.
There are also only few GPIO pins left available, so there may not be enough to support a hat.
Colin.
There are also only few GPIO pins left available, so there may not be enough to support a hat.
Colin.
Re: Minitiouner
What I mean is it's not a show stopper as if it can manage the beacon it will surely cope with RB DATV on USB at sensible bandwidths. If anyone needs anything using more bandwidth they can use ethernet.
I would work on the principle the Hat is there from the start, we know what it will be more or less from the work Brian did. I am surprised you are running out of IO pins given there are 26 of them. Are you using the serial TS interface or the parallel one?
I would work on the principle the Hat is there from the start, we know what it will be more or less from the work Brian did. I am surprised you are running out of IO pins given there are 26 of them. Are you using the serial TS interface or the parallel one?
Re: Minitiouner
Didn't know there was a serial TS!
I am trying to reproduce the existing FTDI module so I am using the parallel TS.
8 Pins for the TS.
3 pins for the TS control signals, (planning to make the the 74 chip unnecessary)
8 Pins for the LNB polarity control, nim reset etc.
2 pins for the I2C
2 pins for debugging.
Only 3 pins left at the moment but I could probably get a few back if needed.
I watched the net this evening using it with only a few dropouts. So it does work better on the reduced bandwidths. Still not perfect though. It looks like occasionally a TS packet (or part of it) gets lost in the USB transfer. I am pretty sure the Pico is sending it but Longmynd for some reason doesn't receive it. I need to learn and investigate USB bulk transfers a bit more.
Colin.
I am trying to reproduce the existing FTDI module so I am using the parallel TS.
8 Pins for the TS.
3 pins for the TS control signals, (planning to make the the 74 chip unnecessary)
8 Pins for the LNB polarity control, nim reset etc.
2 pins for the I2C
2 pins for debugging.
Only 3 pins left at the moment but I could probably get a few back if needed.
I watched the net this evening using it with only a few dropouts. So it does work better on the reduced bandwidths. Still not perfect though. It looks like occasionally a TS packet (or part of it) gets lost in the USB transfer. I am pretty sure the Pico is sending it but Longmynd for some reason doesn't receive it. I need to learn and investigate USB bulk transfers a bit more.
Colin.
Re: Minitiouner
WinterHill and PicoHub use serial TS mode: TS_VALID, TS_CLKOUT and TS_D7. I didn't use TSERR. It would be useful to have both receivers available in a new design.
P2_TSCFGH:6 = 1 selects serial mode
P2_TSCFGH:7 = 0 turns off the clock when there's no data
The serial data can be switched to TS_D0 if required.
The WIZnet boards and hats use pins 21-27, GP16-21. https://docs.wiznet.io/Product/iEtherne ... 0-evb-pico
The default USB COM port implementation on the Pico gave me about 6M bits/s max from Pico to PC. It may be better using endpoints.
Brian
P2_TSCFGH:6 = 1 selects serial mode
P2_TSCFGH:7 = 0 turns off the clock when there's no data
The serial data can be switched to TS_D0 if required.
The WIZnet boards and hats use pins 21-27, GP16-21. https://docs.wiznet.io/Product/iEtherne ... 0-evb-pico
The default USB COM port implementation on the Pico gave me about 6M bits/s max from Pico to PC. It may be better using endpoints.
Brian