Chris Anderson @chrisanderson1973@librem.one

More work on both Windows and Mac versions of the firmware update functionality. This two efforts are complete, minus code cleanup, etc. The project is going ahead full-steam!!

Light work to try and prove out the firmware update process. It is a success, and ultimately the procedure will involve only holding down a button to get things started! The video shows the update process in action, through most of it, anyway.

The protocol stuff is working.....basic reconnection / connection on startup works, and I have a demo packet for one "effect" here.

Good amount of work tonight in getting QT 6.6 working along with the macOS QT app for the audio module. Next up: comms protocols.

More work, upgrading the bare metal framework and continuing to work on the serial protocol!

A great night for work and figuring stuff out! Between the team at Analog Devices and myself, we figured out the codec issues. I had thought the audio path was working before, but that was not the case. In any event, I did some cool jamming with these mini effects processor…. Now for much more design work!

Very good update today - I’ve made the SC589 mini viable, at least for me, as an audio development platform! I’ve managed to get the audio loop back running through one of the two SHARC cores. Now, it’s on to the races!

Good one! After some issues trying to run a full-fledged synth straight away, I went back to the basics to make sure the ARM and DSP cores were booting at all. I found a guide for flashing and verifying the bootloaders for all three cores, and managed to run an application that was flashed via command line and a custom Analog Devices tool. Great experience, given what else I want to do with the SC 589 platform.

Setting up the development platform..... The very first thing I did was to clean up the work area and install the ESD mat, wristband, and ground. Only fools, or simply people. how haven't learned about ESD, play around when handling electronic components and open boards.

This all just became a little more real! I just received the Analog Devices SC 589 mini development board, along with the related adapter board earlier. So, I am ready to begin developing the actual DSP software and the client software (GUI) for the DSP / effects system! Exciting times!

Lots more to go on the SC 589 board.... I'm in probably one of the more intricate parts of the schematic, connecting various peripherals to the DSP processor.

A bit of work today: two schematics out of 18 (I had thought it was 8)! Also, I made a Hello World app for iPhone and Apple Watch to get things started on the fitness app.

ADSP 589 mini reference design: Memory interface - one of the trickiest parts of this design. I've run through most of the pinouts, outside of labelling some pins on the second memory chip. The first schematic page (of 8) is almost complete.

Time for Fitness! Starting on a new fitness app collaboration, with a focus on running and walking, starting out. The goal is to have a first prototype app for iOS and Android, along with Garmin, etc. syncing, by the middle of October.😎

Starting from scratch to design an Analog Devices DSP-based board (SC 589 mini). Using KiCAD. It's interesting what I am finding out about this particular board, as in it has plenty of obsolete parts listed in the BOM.

It has been halfway entertaining to deal with supply chain issues, firsthand. So glad that this kit is arriving the week of 9/1/23, though!

Stick practice today! Starting to learn pieces from Greg Howard’s “Tapping into Bach”. Minuet in G is the goal, relatively soon.

It looks like Analog Devices has a good number of products that are obsolete, or headed that way. So, in order to head that off a little, I looked around and found that newer designs are using the SHARC processor series. The SigmaStudio IDE has been updated, as well. I had to order a new kit in order to access newer features and being able to create custom DSP blocks. This is the new SigmaStudio IDE.

Analog Device's BF706 reference design bring-up: The audio pass-through and filter demo's worked great, and this platform is way ahead of the STM32 platform I used last year. This looks like a good module to use for prototyping distortion, reverb, filters, octave, etc. We'll how it goes.

The composer app effort is continuing. I've cracked the Apple Audio Unit code, and now I see that there is an easy path to integrate Audio Units into my own apps. This is going to be a Mac and iPad app, I think.