Chris Anderson @chrisanderson1973@librem.one

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!

Doing some basic work, for now: I am waiting on the SC589 mini development platform. At least one should arrive by 9/20, at the latest, and a second (backup) board should be here in the first half of September, Meanwhile, I am trying to get into the very dry/dull aspect of porting a Mentor Graphics PCB design to Altium. My calendar for today: Noon-1pm, 6-8pm - work on the PCB design.

I think this is the platform I need to use!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUB8ru-76qw

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.

I’ve been considering the hardware-based effects idea again; and, while I cannot locate any SHARC Analog Devices development kits, there is an older (and trustworthy) platform called the BF706 (Blackfin). So, my plan, at the moment, is to try getting the schematic for that design and adding it to the iMX8 reference design. Much more to come.

https://www.analog.com/en/products/adsp-bf706.html#product-overview

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.

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Working on AudioUnit Extensions for Mac and iPad. Turns out, it is kind of fun. I am building a synth module (which would be a re-imagined AnaddrSynth) for a new DAW I am working on.

Another post on this new direction: I'm building a performance app from Mac and iPad. It may be more like a digital audio workstation, and it may even be more like a lot plugins placed together, for software like Logic Pro on iPad.

Another swing of the pendulum, and I am looking into macOS/iPadOS apps once again. I have a much better grasp of Core Audio this time (versus 2011-2014 and 2018), and I will probably refactor AnaddrSynth completely and, of course, introduce a new app.