Kristian Paul's Blog

Some time ago i started to get in touch with Milkymist code, mostly because wanted to understand verilog modeling part wich call my atention as this project brings a well made Copyleft SoC (Free Computers yay !).

I started reading Sebastien Bourdeauducq Master's thesis report later move to CSR, System Controller and UART core documentation, all this info is linked at the milkymist SoC page .I still need to re-read and review code for more core i'm interested (Ethernet, PFPU, USB host and Mico32). But thats for later.

So far i just made a small tutorial linked to some code at github about how add a simple counter, in the wiki page to point the files needed to edit and add in the process and in someway try to expose coding style and some of verilog basis wich btw i'm learning too with all this :). Feel free to edit or commit if you feel i missed something.

What's next? Well i want to make a core not for the CSR Bus, may be something related to a specific processing task like FFT or something that will help procesor keep working smoth.
May be ,try explore Mico32 and add a custom instruction?..
Navre core is also interesting, mostly because USB is implemented using it too.


Time and other ongoing projets needs will hope related on next tasks.
Thanks for reading !!

PD:
hmm i missed the software part (visualization) for the milkymist basic counter example :/ thats a TODO for sure :-)

Hi again,

This is a one day project, so be aware of posible bugs, and dirty hacks in the code !!

I wanted learn lua, as i found very interesting language, lighter than python, used
from router, networks scanners (nmap) and even window managers.

So i decide start with the port, you can get it working follwing:

 git clone https://github.com/kristianpaul/milkymist-lua.git
 git checkout milkymist
 cd milkymist-lua
 cd src
 make rtems
 lm32-rtems4.11-objcopy -Obinary luam
 ~/milkymist/tools/flterm --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --kernel luam

Last two steps asume you have a MM1 Board, but you can try it on qemu as well,
 http://milkymist.org/wiki/index.php?title=Using_QEMU

Still missing full integration with rtems, that will allow load lua scripts easilly.

I bought a Milkymist One Early Adopter Kit byt End of decemenber of 2010, I got the board in early January,
but of course no case was avaliable for that time...

A case is very important, dust is always there, and also you want to show Milkydrop effects to your friends
from time to time :-). Actually why not make a PARTY !!

So as the mm1 case source code is avaliable [1] i decided to fab it here, why not?.
I was told for a friend who own a RepRap machine about a company called Dataprint [2], he got from then
some cutted sheets for his reprap at good prices, so i decide to give a try.

I call then by phone initially asking about data formats. so i knew it it could be a trouble,
of course they told me about propietary cad software, but as some of us already may know qcad is an alternative
to some of then and its format seems to be copatible, so i sent the .dxf file plus a picture of a mm1 already made
case. I also told then about it must be acrylic of 3mm.

Next day i got the quote, materials and cutting work, all for ~10usd (21700 COP)  plus 5usd of shipping to
home. So i wow this is really cheap !!. I actually doubt it if they really knew it the real size of the sheets.

So a week later i did the money transfer to get the work started, just before that they gave me to choose,
some colors:

(green) Verde Neón
(Smoke) Humo
(Red) Rojo
(Blue) Azul
(Orange) Naranja
(Transparent) Transparente frost

I choosed Smoke, as i wanted something neutral.

Today i got the package from then, two days after payment.

I fully asembled the whole case without the board so i knew it fits okay.

So i started to assemble the case with board ,at the first try i dint noticed the top and botton sheets needed same orientation.

Also you need fit the sides at once by moving it backward and forward so it fits smothly.

The missing parts now are mainly the buttons, i also noticed spacers that came with the mm1 board are not "compatible" with
the proper height to make side connectors to fit well when you are decide to put screws or buttons.

At the end i got a working case, my board is protected now and i can carry it easy.

I may print the buttons my self or try find some from a old remote control or console gamepad.

Oh, sure there are pics here http://kristianpaul.org/gallery/mm1%20case/index.html


[1] http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/m1/source/tree/master/cad
[2] http://dataprint.webs.com/

Has been a while since the last update in January, starting because for now
this implementation will no run in the nanonote :-) Not because it cant be do it,
just because i get more close to Milkymist platform so i feel more confident with it
(libre knowledge is my power) :-)

After read/skim some books/links [1][2] about GNSS/GPS and check Namuru proyect (thanks to Fabrizio)
i decided to port this namuru core to milkymist soc [3], this in beta stage and the current
effort  is around making and tunning the correlators to get a proper signal acquisition and tracking [4],
this is a software asisted task that will be acomplished by osgps, and thanks to Artyom from gnss-sdr [5] wich
ported this project to a simplified version [6], getting started will not be hard.

Still more code in osgps that could be ported to get a fix, but for now having and stable method to get
navigation data from the GPS satellites is the priority.

Thanks for reading !
And all qi-hardware/milkymist comunity for supporting me :-)


[1] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/GPS_Free_Stack/Books
[2] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/GPS_Free_Stack/Web_Links
[3] https://github.com/kristianpaul/milkymist/tree/gps-sdr-testing
[4] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/GPS_Free_Stack/Notes_About_Namuru
[5] http://gnss-sdr.ru
[6] http://code.google.com/p/gnsssdr/source/browse/#svn/trunk/OSGPS_MOD