New Prototyping Board for Xorro

[mechanic]

As the title states, and I do feel this should be a A-eon/AmigaKit product as no PCIe x8 boards are available in the wild.

In order for hobbyists to make use of the Xorro slot a usable prototyping board is necessary.

If a more usable board, than what is presently available, is possible then discussion of its design can begin.

Thank You.

[xenic]

As the title states, and I do feel this should be a A-eon/AmigaKit product as no PCIe x8 boards are available in the wild.

In order for hobbyists to make use of the Xorro slot a usable prototyping board is necessary.

If a more usable board, than what is presently available, is possible then discussion of its design can begin.

Thank You.

What happens if 2 people design different projects? Will you need to switch boards internally to use both?

[broadblues]

What happens if 2 people design different projects? Will you need to switch boards internally to use both?

If the board using additional hardware then defintly yes. Otherwise probably, maybe.

[broadblues]

As the title states, and I do feel this should be a A-eon/AmigaKit product as no PCIe x8 boards are available in the wild.

In order for hobbyists to make use of the Xorro slot a usable prototyping board is necessary.

If a more usable board, than what is presently available, is possible then discussion of its design can begin.

Thank You.

What is wrong with this?

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... ts_id=1135

[LyleHaze]

I use a header file to assign hardware that's on the Xorro board to symbolic names, like the serial port and the SD card socket.

This allows the Xena program to "find" the resources by name easily enough.

This does NOT solve all issues, but it's a fair start. The remaining problem is mostly getting the right code in the correct Xena core,
as there are two cores there. Communication between cores is supported, but it's not transparent.

[edit] if you're not recompiling the source into an XEcutable, this doesn't help.

[mechanic]

As the title states, and I do feel this should be a A-eon/AmigaKit product as no PCIe x8 boards are available in the wild.

In order for hobbyists to make use of the Xorro slot a usable prototyping board is necessary.

If a more usable board, than what is presently available, is possible then discussion of its design can begin.

Thank You.

What is wrong with this?

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... ts_id=1135

If you run the video at

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... ts_id=1135

and look at the wired connections at 9 and 35 seconds you will notice there are no wires going up to the LEDs from the chips. This is possible because all the holes are connected vertically on the back side of the board, and they are also coated on the backside.

At 9 seconds in the video you will notice one of the chips is above the PCIe x1 slot. This is because the Xorro slot lines were brought out almost to the front edge of the board, making it very difficult if not impossible to use the x1 slot.

Also the board does not fit in the X1000 case unless you cut about 20mm off the rear edge.

It is a good board for testing the Xorro slot, but not for prototyping. Adding a single transistor to this board means cutting at least 3 traces and possibly 5.


And Lyle, . . . . . . . . Huh?

[LyleHaze]

Quick replies never make much sense..
There was a question about needing to change xorro boards if you have multiple projects.
With just a little organization that is not a problem.
As an example, the sentinel data logger requires a serial port and an SD card socket. But any other project you make can make use of those easily enough, as the program configures the chip when it is loaded.
By putting all the details of where the serial port is connected on xorro, where the SD card is connected on xorro etc.. Then any other xena programs can just include that file to find the interfaces, and if someone else has them connected differently, just change that header and re compile.

[mechanic]

Quick replies never make much sense..
There was a question about needing to change xorro boards if you have multiple projects.

Yes.

Which is an advantage to Xmos on board. However, having more than one project on a single board does further point out the need for a different (read as Better) prototyping board.

Snuck that right in there.

[broadblues]

If you run the video at

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... ts_id=1135

and look at the wired connections at 9 and 35 seconds you will notice there are no wires going up to the LEDs from the chips. This is possible because all the holes are connected vertically on the back side of the board, and they are also coated on the backside.

So it's essentially a strip board. But isn't that point?

At 9 seconds in the video you will notice one of the chips is above the PCIe x1 slot. This is because the Xorro slot lines were brought out almost to the front edge of the board,

What are you saying here? The chip is not part of the board but the project. Are the PCIe lines not connected at all? There does appear to be a connector, or is that just for stabilty?

Also the board does not fit in the X1000 case unless you cut about 20mm off the rear edge.

So cut it It's for prototyping not end product.

It is a good board for testing the Xorro slot, but not for prototyping.

Adding a single transistor to this board means cutting at least 3 traces and possibly 5.

Three legs, 1 in one track 2 in the other with a cut between, that's just one trace cut

This does seem a board for prototyping after some initail design giving some though to the layout (especially at £45.00 per go) are you looking for something more along the lines of a breadboard with socketed plugable components? But would that work at the frequencies involved?

My questions are not to say, this board is perfect, but how would you improve it?

[LyleHaze]

The difference may be an American vs European, but this is a strip board with essentially all strips already in use. Every strip is pre connected to a pin of Xena. Over here that is quite unexpected. Perhaps if the Xena pins were connected to 2 or 3 pins, then an empty strip was left free for whatever.. Or even a "sea of holes" all unconnected for maximum flexibility without needing to cut the traces up.