SW(MF)-LION

[terminusx]

sweet... cant wait to get my hands on this one...

[Gandolf]

A technical thing...

How much noise is there running around on the analog side...

I hooked up the scope with long term capture and full extreme level settings...



Probably a worst case, but the currents are not too super extreme...



About 0.05 to 0.1 volt of error...   

I am thinking of taking five samples and throwing out the lowest and highest.  Then averaging the remaining three for a sample...

Gandolf

 

[Gandolf]

HI,

I have all the stuff for REV. C boards due in Thursday now   This should fix:

1.  The "new" (20,000 'in stock') 20MHz resonator is now supported and actually wired right so it should really work 
It is important to be able to run the thing at the full 20MHz speed right away for development!

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=PX200BCT-ND

2.  The AVcc line is wired in now     That was a boo boo, but that will fix the A/D converter and A ports voltage drive real quick 

3.  I got rid of the trigger input jumper wire     We had to do that since we needed boards ASAP even if it needed an extra wire soldered on it.  Latter, we solved it

4.  I added a RED LED now since "I" just really want that   Optical output is super useful to the user and two colors (red and green) makes Christmas time perfect!!

5.  Jiggled some parts locations around to help the Lion control board to "fit" on top of the Panther Long power board.  The power board has an alternate drain lead option that will now be used so the wire does not bend as much.

One big new "next time" thing is to wire the the serial USART into the AUX ports to!!!     Gosh(!!!) that was a painfully trivial thing!!!!  But we never saw how simple it was to do.  Then you can run those LCD displays and hook it to your Palm, RS-232, and all serial things.  That also allows you to plug it into a PC (with a serial port) to read and mess around with the settings....  This was the #1 future hardware request.  Soon you have more "serial" than you will know what to do with!!!  Even "I" can make PC programs to talk to the serial port animal on this when I get bored again 

Also adding an external interrupt port now in case anyone can figure out how to use it!!    

So the usual easy  problems and adding in the new stuff as possible...

Terry

[Gandolf]

Thinking far ahead...

Here is the latest Rev105 schematic with the USART and interrupt port added...

http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/MF-LION-V1.0-D-mike.jpg
http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/SW-LION-105.sch

The Layout now looks like this:

http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/MF-LION-V1.0-D1-mike.jpg
http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/MF-LION-V1.0-D-mike.pcb

Working late tonight 

Gandolf

[Gandolf]

I have the new boards and Rev. C lion now    

The batteries on the camera were dying so this is the only picture:  



Not much more to see really, other than all the jumper wires are gone and the AVcc and resonator work perfectly now!!  The running frequency is 19.989 MHZ showing that the resonator loading and all is just fine.

I need to move the 150uF 16V cap more inboard...  There are components between the FETs and logic board that will need mechanical pads.  I am thinking Kapton tape...

I want to add a real temp sensor...  Not sure where...  The logic can compute the unit's heat output though too...  Prolly a software solution there...

The hardware is quickly becoming all "solved"...  Software will quickly take over now

I am now taking requests for early prototype samples to experimenter folks out there that want a Rev. C one.  PM me if you need one to work on.  And you know who your all are  

There is no significant software to run it yet.  But with the target ATMEGA644P-20AU processor being already taxed at like 2.5%, running RISC at 20MHz, you will only hurt yourselves tying to find things it can do!!  

The current parts list is here:

http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/LionParts.ods

Gandolf

[Gandolf]

Hi,

Don't count on the ATmega1284P version...  The memory space went from a simple 64K (2 Byte address) to a third Byte of memory addressing there...  That hosed up the whole farm......

I know the Dragon programmer and Raven are sporting those CPUs, but something is all wrong there

So this is the machine of choice for us:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=ATMEGA644P-20AU-ND

I hope to pull in INT0 and INT1 into the AUX ports...   But we have to be able to mask them away too....

Gandolf...

[Gandolf]

Ok here is the BIG update!!

The Devil is in the details...  So I have been mostly chasing them little demons out of it  

Here is the basic form factor:



http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/P1010060.JPG

Same size as the Cheetah...

The guts inside 'almost' look like this from a Rev. C ago.



The Rev. E PCB is 'almost' the GO version when I remember to change the rev. letter on the board too    But everything else should be very good  



http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/MF-LION-V1.0-E-mike.gif

http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/MF-LION-V1.0-E-mike.pcb

It now has full serial Tx/Rx data to run LCD displays and can pull data for the serial things fully...  Many wanted that so they could run their Palm computer things with it.  All the software to do that does not exist.  But the hardware does exist now  

It also has 'two' full power Interrupt ports in case your need to use it to run your Systema PTW  

The schematic is here:



http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/SW-LION-schematic-107.jpg

http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/SW-LION-107.sch

The changes are...

1. R9 is now 1K ohm to make the LEDs really brighter     We have to shine through the label paper  

2. C1 is now 220uf Since I have room for a bigger drop protection cap.

3. The CPU is the full 64K program, 2K EEPROM, 4Kram chip now...

4. Serial RX and TX added with external interrupt ports 0 and 1 on the corresponding  AUX ports.

5. Emergency Clock Input....  If the programmer messes up, that saves the boat      

6. I am 'toying' with a new breaking FET!!  The SUM110P06-07L-E3.....  It might be better...  Much more work to be done to qualify such an important part though...

Here are are parts and costing:



http://extreme-fire.com/Lion/SW-LION.gif

Looks like the retail price will be an even $100  

If you can do it cheaper, go ahead!  Make my day!!   

There is a power issue!  This SOB pulls 40mA!  So the droop time is only 33mS!  Use "good" batteries and connectors!!    We will also shut the CPU big show off if the battery goes too low for those folks that forget to unplug it storage so we don't hurt the left plugged in batteries...

There is not temp sensor (at 0.2 watts, the CPU is warm enough all by itself  )...  We will be "calculating" how bad the FETs are heating...  There will be a variable that reports that and a software module that shuts the show down if it gets too bad...

All the protection is in calculated software now    If your battery is a weenie and can't suppy enough current to keep the voltage up, we will slow the motor speed as needed    That will screw your mind's up!!!  You gun will still fire the best it can, till you go buy a "real" battery 

Gandolf

[jomarx]

At last! its done!

So is it ok to take orders now?  

And another thing, can the Dragon or AVRISP program it? Or should I buy a new programmer??

[terminusx]

the lion can be programmed using the avrisp...

[Gandolf]

the lion can be programmed using the avrisp...

Since the go version will be with the 64K CPUs, the Dragon will not work on them (it only goes to 32K).  The AVRISP-MKIIs are only $34 and really are much nicer and easier anyway.  You need a little adapter cable to go between but that is easy.

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=2621667&k=avrisp

Of course, people only need these if they are actually programming them.  Normal end users don't have to worry about it.

Gandolf

[jomarx]

Thanks TMX and Gandolf for the info!

Cant wait to lay my hands on the Lion! 

[DarkAgent]

Your work makes me want to be an electrical engineer or something. This stuff is exciting I can only imagine where its going next.

[terminusx]

Thanks TMX and Gandolf for the info!

Cant wait to lay my hands on the Lion! 

with the lion being a power hog makes we want to design a tiger... 

[Wutang]

When is this going to be up for sale?

[Gandolf]

When is this going to be up for sale?

This is what I just wrote another guy. 

"Hi, I just learned about the SW Lion that was coming out. Can you give
me a date on when they are expected to be up for sale and the
advantages of a SW Lion over a Cheetah? Thanks a lot. "

Hi,

I just got the prototype in it's final form working late last night.  The PC board has a trivial error and there is a cap that needs to be moved.  But that is just a week for a board turn.  The power platform is mostly from the Panther/Cheetah but there is a new braking FET that has to be verified.  But the hardware is coming along fast and should be easy now.  So far the real prototype is working perfectly after microsurgery to fix the board error.  An errant via got added that needed to be micro drilled out...

The new board will have to be reflow soldered.  I have all the equipment for that but I need to actually try it out, test it, and work out any bugs before I can make a lot of them.  Right now I make them by hand under a stereo microscope which is sort of slow.  But I hope to get three more units working ASAP to send the programmers in a day or two.

I have the basic machine drivers for the software ready now so the C programmers can do the code without having to worry about odd byte commands on the CPU.  To turn the motor on the command is simply "Motor(1);" instead of a lot of odd register manipulation.  Those commands also have protection inside them if the programmer messes up.

So the long pole in the tent is software that does something cool.  Myself, Don in Canada, Mike in Manila build and program the things and we all tend to have our own versions of software.  But at this moment, there is no software that does anything useful yet.

The Lion's CPU has 16 times the memory space and operates 20X faster than the Cheetah.  It can do all the fancy functions and drive things like LCD displays.  It has direct external interrupt ports so it can replace all the electronic guts in a systems PTW (I get a lot of requests for that ).  It would even have the ability to hold all three of our versions of software and the user could select which they want to use.  We basically ran out of power on the old CPU that was 98.6% full.  The Lion solves all that.  There is also a real time clock now and LED indicators.  The software can also be easily re-flashed with the latest version at the factory.  End users can also reprogram it themselves if they want to buy a $35 ATMEL programmer.  We put all the power we could into it while still staying the same size as the Cheetah.  Target price is $100.  If you really want the long story

http://forums.airsoftmechanics.com/index.php?topic=2251.0

http://forums.airsoftmechanics.com/index.php?topic=2252.0

So that is what I know.  When I can make the hardware fast then they could start selling since I can alway upgrade the software for folks at any time for $5 to cover mailing.  But the programmers are fast too...  I really have not thought much about selling any since I am just worried about designing and making them right now

Best Regards,

   Terry