- pacsat-dev - mailman.amsat.org

Summary of several bits of work
by Burns Fisher (AMSAT) 06 Dec '22

06 Dec '22

Rich, Chris, and I have had a number of private emails, so this is a quick summary: 1) We have all been able to "talk to" the Pi 5043 board over SPI from the LaunchPad, although one of the boards had a short that required fixing. 2) Chris has managed to get it to transmit. 3) Rich and Burns (mainly Rich) determined that L8 on Pi 5043 board is actually a 0-ohm resistor. That's ok for 70cm. But for 2m, an inductor is needed. Rich has made a hand wound air core coil that seems to work. Burns tried one that did not work. I probably screwed up soldering the big coil to the tiny pad. In fact I probably lifted the foil. I recommend if we are going to continue with the Pi board we get the actual SM 0603 or 0402 or whatever inductors. 4) Eric made up 3 MRAM-on-DIP adapter boards for me to check out, but we think Chris has successfully done that too. I will write the s/w to test more thoroughly and to allow multiple MRAMs to work and to sleep when not in use. 5) The I2c temperature chip on the Pi board works fine with the Launchpad. In summary, I think we are convinced that the chips are all usable with the Launchpad. I'd recommend going ahead with a board that contains a couple of MRAMs and a couple of 5043s. Jumpers are REAL easy to make mistakes with, and jumpers to 4 different boards (2 mrams, 2 5043s) would be a real bear to use. I'm most likely not going to be available on Thursday unless my monthly 6:30 in-person meeting gets out early! 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ *AMSAT(R) Engineering -- Flight Software*

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Updated pacsat sw
by Burns Fisher (AMSAT) 05 Dec '22

05 Dec '22

Hi All, I've just merged in a branch (after testing by Chris) which has a HALCoGen configuration that is specifically for the LaunchPad. In addition, I've moved the console to be on a real UART rather than the N2HET emulated one (which has some problems with missing characters). The console serial connections are now: Ground: pin 32 Rx: Pin 33 Tx Pin 34 Chris and I are both able to talk to the 5043 chip on the Pi board, but at some point during initialization, the crystal stops oscillating. As soon as I get a couple MRAMs to use (maybe today or tomrorow?) I'll try to get them set up both to sleep when not in use and to make the fact that there are multiple MRAMs transparent--just specify an address and it will choose the right one. 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ *AMSAT(R) Engineering -- Flight Software*

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New HALCoGen ready to test
by Burns Fisher (AMSAT) 02 Dec '22

02 Dec '22

Hi, As discussed last night, I have a HALCoGen configuration set up that is specifically designed for the LaunchPad. I've also added a command "test mram" and another called "mram wren". The former writes 10 bytes into the mram at a specified address and then reads them back. It prints what it was writing, and what the read-back results are. It does this twice with one pattern of data and once with a different one. You can specify an address following the command. For example "test mram 100". It will take 0xnnn" as well for hex "mram wren" sends a write enable command to the mram. The existing command "get mram sr" should show this. If it returns "40" the chip is not write enabled. If it returns 42, it is write enabled. There is also, in config.h, a #ifdef FRAM64K. If this is set, the address sent to the non-volatile RAM is 2 bytes. If it is not defined (just comment it out) it will be 3 bytes. I've left it set up for 3-byte addresses since that is what Chris is using. Please let me know if you have tried this successfully, especially with a real MRAM (most of those tests were for my funky F-RAM). If so, I'll move it to the main branch. 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ *AMSAT(R) Engineering -- Flight Software*

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Last nights dev meeting
by Bill 02 Dec '22

02 Dec '22

Thanks for attending. See you next Thursday. Bill

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AX5043 I/Q Data
by Jim McCullers 02 Dec '22

02 Dec '22

Interesting side note on the AX5043. https://www.onsemi.com/forum/t/i-q-data-from-ax5043-and-ax5045-experimental- feature/879

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Pacsat Dev Meeting tonight
by Bill 01 Dec '22

01 Dec '22

Pacsat Dev Mtg #5 Thu, Dec 1, 2022 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (CST) Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://meet.goto.com/542795717 You can also dial in using your phone. (For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.) United States: +1 (408) 650-3123 - One-touch: tel:+14086503123,,542795717# Access Code: 542-795-717 Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: https://meet.goto.com/install Agenda: Review task list Discuss Fram/Mram daughter board. Bill

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Suggested order for Pacsat devos
by Burns Fisher (AMSAT) 29 Nov '22

29 Nov '22

Hi Jonathan, I'm thinking that if we want to write software before we are producing any boards, that a few more devices to attach to the Launchpad processor eval board would be good. We have the AX5043 boards that you designed which (at this point) I am assuming can be connected (Chris is currently attempting that). But what we don't have is an MRAM except for the one board that Zach designed and RIch has used (Chris has that now, and it works). We can get an MRAM on a DIP board for use in a solderless breadboard from Proto Advantage. This would require jumpers from the LaunchPad to the solderless breadboard and to the AX5043 board. Here is an example: *http://www.proto-advantage.com/store/shopping_cart.php?cartnum=8cc208e06c96db <http://www.proto-advantage.com/store/shopping_cart.php?cartnum=8cc208e06c96…>* Another possibility is to design a pretty simple little board that would plug onto a Launchpad and would have both an MRAM and either a soldered-on 5043 or a place pins/sockets for a Jonathan-5043-board. What do you think? Hope you had a good trip to the cape! 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ *AMSAT(R) Engineering -- Flight Software*

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Fwd: [FOXTELEM] 4th Quarter FalconSAT-3 Chicken Little Report, Thanksgiving Edition
by Chris Thompson 28 Nov '22

28 Nov '22

For anyone not on the FOX list: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Alan <wa4sca(a)gmail.com> Date: Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 8:48 AM Subject: [FOXTELEM] 4th Quarter FalconSAT-3 Chicken Little Report, Thanksgiving Edition To: Fox Telemetry Analysis <foxtelem(a)amsatfox.org> As of today, 27 October 2022, this is the current predicted lifetime from the NASA DAS program: The calculated reentry date continues to move somewhat earlier, with the current expectation around 14 February, 2023. I fully expect that trend to continue. 73, Alan ----------------------------------------------- FOXTELEM mailing list -- foxtelem(a)amsatfox.org View archives of this mailing list at https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to foxtelem-leave(a)amsatfox.org Manage all of your AMSAT-NA mailing list preferences at https://mailman.amsat.org -- Chris E. Thompson chrisethompson(a)gmail.com g0kla(a)arrl.net

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MRAM size
by Burns Fisher (AMSAT) 26 Nov '22

26 Nov '22

It appears that there are 8Megabyte MRAM chips available at Digikey at about $50. Everspin is the brand we have been using. I think they invented the technology. 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ *AMSAT(R) Engineering -- Flight Software*

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AX5043 Pi Boards from Alan Johnston
by Burns Fisher (AMSAT) 19 Nov '22

19 Nov '22

Just to help you all decide about how many AX5043 Pi boards need to be built: I just heard from Alan. He only had two boards in the end. He is sending one to Jim and one to me today. I already have one board, so I may try to ensure that I can run two 5043s from a single TMS570 at some point, but if someone can use a 5043 before any can be built, let me know. 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ *AMSAT(R) Engineering -- Flight Software*

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