<lekernel> I just got myself one of those composite USB recorders and a VGA-to-composite converter
<lekernel> the nice thing is that the VGA-to-composite converter also has a VGA pass-through, so I can simply insert it between the M1 and projector to record future performances ...
<lekernel> with this setup, the final picture quality is a bit lousy, but acceptable
<wpwrak> sounds like a nice concept. "final picture" is the one projected, the one grabbed, or both ?
<lekernel> the one grabbed
<lekernel> goes looking for suitable gigs in Berlin ...
<lekernel> hmm there's something on nov 11.. quite late
<wpwrak> if you had a little SATA block somewhere, you could grab to a harddisk ;-) that would solve all these pesky quality issues for good
<lekernel> could the disk handle uncompressed video?
<lekernel> that's 18MB/s sustained
<wpwrak> i think the faster ones do something like 50 MB/s these days
<lekernel> sustained write?
<roh> yes. especially that
<wpwrak> lemme see .. c't always has those benchmarks ...
<roh> linear write/read is the easiest to handle
<wpwrak> c't got for the latest seagate 4 TB a sustained write minimum speed of 50 MB/s
<wpwrak> not sure how much buffering you need, though
<wpwrak> (linear) yeah. start at block 0. write until reset ;-)
<wpwrak> then plug into PC and process the date
<lekernel> buffering shouldn't be a big issue, we can easily add more framebuffers than the current 3 into the M1 SDRAM, and add them to the HDD write queue instead of freeing them :-)
<lekernel> SATA uses the same signaling as HDMI, right?
<wpwrak> huh ? really ?
<wpwrak> i would expect it to be wildly different
<lekernel> both are LVDS... with some small difference it seems, but nothing that can't be taken care of by reconfiguring the FPGA I/Os
<wpwrak> thingking of it .. i wonder if uSD or at least SD couldn't handle 18 MB/s, too
<lekernel> maybe it can, but with an horrible overengineered protocol
<lekernel> not sure SATA is better though
<lekernel> if we have DVI/HDMI on board, we can also hack a simple passive DVI->SATA adapter to connect the drive :)
<wpwrak> (sata) i'm sure they had their committee meetings, too :)
<wpwrak> ah yes, that sounds nice
<lekernel> I think we should try to switch to the DVI connector (analog + digital) soonish... then we can have passive VGA and HDMI adapters (and composite), and also hacks like this one :)
<lekernel> it 'just' becomes a matter of FPGA design ...
<wolfspraul> yes we can try to switch to dvi-i in rc4
<lekernel> on the PCB side, it should just be about replacing the connector and wiring the extra digital signals to appropriate FPGA pins
<lekernel> wolfspraul, what do you think of "digital kaleidoscope"?
<wolfspraul> he
<wolfspraul> tell me more
<lekernel> well, instead of "video synthesizer" ...
<wolfspraul> ah ok, you mean to market m1 like that?
<wolfspraul> I shall start reading about kaleidoscopes a bit more, will let you know in a bit...
<kristianpaul> (dvi-i) sound like lekernel found a new exp header :-D
<wolfspraul> yes
<wolfspraul> that's also why I want dual-link if possible (enough space)
<wolfspraul> geting some more wires out may be helpful later in hacking
<lekernel> there are restrictions on FPGA pin placement for TMDS signals, we need to check that first
<lekernel> is hacking together a variable high voltage supply to trace the curves of the PWL triode
<wolfspraul> lekernel: ok can you check that? maybe some recommendation for the routing guys?
<lekernel> yes
<lekernel> and yes, I would expect some special routing requirements too...
<wpwrak> a "kaleidoscope" is a cheap and simple device ("mirrors and colored glass"). that could produce the wrong associations. even though many effects are kinda kaleidoscopic
<wpwrak> "digital kaleidoscope" sounds to me like the same product category as "lava lamp", i.e., more the gadget kind than a professional tool
<wpwrak> of course, if M1 manages to define a new product category, that perception would change ;-)
<lekernel> is abusing a nice variac from a 70's x-ray scanner
<kristianpaul> lekernel: the fact that CSR dont have a select input may lead to troubles when writing data at high speeds or continously right?
<lekernel> huh? no
<lekernel> yay! volts bonanza. now let's hook up that triode :)
<kristianpaul> but is okay ignore the wb_sel_i anyway?
<lekernel> if you're always using full-word write access, yes
<kristianpaul> ah ok
<lekernel> and btw that's a wishbone feature, not csr
<kristianpaul> i know :)
<kristianpaul> Btw if i'm syncing clock domains between a conbus master and an another csr bus with a separate clock, is okay to do just sync ack, cyc and stb signals as if they we're flags?
<kristianpaul> ah yes also we :)
<kristianpaul> i'm currently just doing the cdc using your psync from the minimac2 core, but a memory test again this another csr busgave m1 0.38% error when validing data writes for about 4 seconds :(
<lekernel> yay, i'm measuring some 1mA of cathodic emission at 95V :)
<kristianpaul> just sent a mail to the wb developer
<lekernel> ...and now controlling it with the grid. the triode is good! :-)
<lekernel> hmm, the thing isn't quite linear, especially for high |Vg|. the grid fails to block all electrons...
<wpwrak> setting up some death ray guns for the coming zombie attack ? :)
<lekernel> I made nice emission and amplification plots ...
<wpwrak> retro electronics ;-)
<lekernel> it's not the best triode in the world, but it definitely is a working and usable triode
<lekernel> which is impressive :)
<wpwrak> M2 will be a little larger than M1, i guess ? with all the vaccum tubes ...
<lekernel> I stopped playing with vacuum tubes ca. 2005 :) but this one was too cool for me to resist
<wpwrak> if you stick to the general concept, that would probably also be the first tube-based FPGA