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<wolfspraul>
university of illinois open-source license, reading...
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<wolfspraul>
always those licenses :-)
<wpwrak>
human stupidity may be incurable :)
<wolfspraul>
ah it's the same as the llvm license, bsd-like
<wolfspraul>
alright then
<wolfspraul>
at some point something like that shang (or c-to-verilog or legup) may be useful to me as a higher-layer to feed fpgatools
<wpwrak>
looks very interesting, yes
<wpwrak>
bring down another barrier of entry
<wolfspraul>
I will continue to focus on the bits, and access all the features in the chip
<wolfspraul>
but then I obviously need to plug something in above
<wpwrak>
yup. a nice translator from a popular language would go a long way towards making these strange fpga critters even more approachable
<roh>
wpwrak: well.. i dont bother too much with the languages.. rather the hostile development env.
<roh>
when using fpgas is more like mcu and cpus... use an opensource-compiler like llvm or gcc and be fine, have some loader tool like avrdude... then i guess the userbase will widen dramatically
<roh>
s/is/are/
<qi-bot>
roh meant: "when using fpgas are more like mcu and cpus... use an opensource-compiler like llvm or gcc and be fine, have some loader tool like avrdude... then i guess the userbase will widen dramatically"
<roh>
i got literarly piles of develboards in access here, fpga, mcu, some dsp i guess... but most popular is the avr for me (and most others here) .. i guess only because its very easy, streamlined, uncomplicated and you know you can work on your code and hardware, and will not that likely debug your development environment
<wolfspraul>
that makes perfect sense
<wolfspraul>
but I do see all sorts of tools slowly improving, high quality open stuff
<roh>
i know some people who love to talk meta-compiler-theory for hours.. but that doesn solve a broken one ;)
<wolfspraul>
the good stuff will slowly bubble up
<wolfspraul>
:-)
<roh>
wolfspraul: i sure hope, that one day i can just install some packages and be set up to compile verilog or vhdl from a git repo into a bitstream to upload with another tool
<wolfspraul>
yes of course. and that's just about the special case of fpgas, I also think there is a market for nice chips right on digikey and elsewhere that are designed and manufactured in an entirely open way
<wolfspraul>
open design, open tools, open cell libraries, etc. so that there can be an ecosystem of chips where it's easy to customize or optimize towards use cases.
<roh>
sure. also i find it neccessary to be able to do full CI
<wolfspraul>
general-purpose fpgas of course also being an option, why not
<roh>
compiling, testing every revision...
<wolfspraul>
at least those are made and readily available in latest-gen processes
<wolfspraul>
(if only from altera and xilinx nowadays)
<roh>
i want to build a test rig for openwrt stuff soon.. we'll see if we can make it work for some series of soc... test every build
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<wpwrak>
grmbl. i hate metal fatigue combined with fragile cables. one separated neatly without any damage visible from the outside.
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<DocScrutinizer05>
(tantalum mark) use a decent DVM and see what residual charge you find in the component ;-)
<DocScrutinizer05>
odds are that this is the correct polarization
<DocScrutinizer05>
(I found residual charge in the magnitude of several volts in 'normal' electrolytic capacitors, after they ripe for literally years in a box and bever were used)
<DocScrutinizer05>
never*
<DocScrutinizer05>
and even after shortcircuit that charge builds up again during minutes
<DocScrutinizer05>
so in a certain sense electrolytic capacitors are quite similar to batteries
<DocScrutinizer05>
also: after several years of non-usage a usual electrolytic capacitor can de-format and you need to format it again, which is a process identical to charging a battery
<DocScrutinizer05>
formatting building up AlOx dielectric membrane again, which seems to slowly deteriorate over the years when capacitor never is charged
<DocScrutinizer05>
sorry if last statement maybe is not entirely precise, it's knowledge I acquired 1969, I still recall my dad explaining it to me. Never checked back
<DocScrutinizer05>
it's just funny as for 99.999% of my factoids I don't recall the source they came from
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<wpwrak>
DocScrutinizer05: must have been a memorable factoid :)
<DocScrutinizer05>
yeah
<wpwrak>
caps degenerating in such a way after long disuse could explain some equipment failures
<DocScrutinizer05>
I asked him why he's keeping his "Metz mecablitz" electron flasher plugged in to mains and active for whole night
<DocScrutinizer05>
dang, that been a monster
<DocScrutinizer05>
like 5kg suicase with shoulder strap
<DocScrutinizer05>
with electromechanical step-up circuit
<DocScrutinizer05>
"wagnerscher hammer"
<DocScrutinizer05>
basically a small relay buzzing all the time
<DocScrutinizer05>
and alead acid battery
<wpwrak>
wow. did its brightness correspond to the effort that went into making it ?
<DocScrutinizer05>
yep
<DocScrutinizer05>
seems impossible to find a photo of that thing nowadays
<DocScrutinizer05>
anyway it had a dish reflector made of alu, with a ring shaped electron flash tube
<DocScrutinizer05>
diameter of the dish some 20+ cm
<DocScrutinizer05>
I loved to do all kinds of weird experiments with that flash, that's why I was very interested in what my dad was doing with it when he 'reformatted the capacitors'
<DocScrutinizer05>
wpwrak: I guess I already told you about the "Balsen Keksdosen Effekt"?
<DocScrutinizer05>
you can hear the photons bouncing off a thin tin lid, like found on cookie tin boxes
<wpwrak>
(flash) fun :) single-use bulbs ?
<DocScrutinizer05>
nah, no way
<wpwrak>
(balsen) photons ? why do i sense a sudden pull on my leg ? :)
<DocScrutinizer05>
>>...with a ring shaped electron flash tube
<DocScrutinizer05>
I'd guess some 150Ws, on hindsight
<wpwrak>
pretty powerful
<DocScrutinizer05>
what's with your leg?
<wpwrak>
do you know the expression "pulling someone's leg" ?
<DocScrutinizer05>
nope
<wpwrak>
ah :) i means that you're trying to fool someone.
<DocScrutinizer05>
hah!
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<DocScrutinizer05>
do your math! a 1m^2 mirror 'feels' ~1pond force from sunlight's photons bouncing off
<DocScrutinizer05>
iirc
<DocScrutinizer05>
also energy on 1m^2 is ~1000W
<DocScrutinizer05>
a 150Ws electron flash has an effective power of 150/10^-3 .. 150/10^-6 roughly
<wpwrak>
ah, you mean the whole output of the flash. i see. yeah, that should work
<lekernel>
1pond?
<DocScrutinizer05>
aka 1g
<DocScrutinizer05>
though gram is not a proper force unit
<wpwrak>
lekernel: a unit old people use :)
<lekernel>
btw, if you have a directional light source like a LED, does it serve as a (very weak) propulsor?
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<wpwrak>
why not ? anything else your little spaceship radiates could be made such that it doesn't counteract the led.
<DocScrutinizer05>
photon propulsion is a long considered interstellar drive principle
<DocScrutinizer05>
a considerable amount of the laser's energy will accelerate the mirror even further, while the light bouncing back from mirror to ship is shifted far into the red
<wpwrak>
(doppler) dunno
<wpwrak>
well yes, it'll be pretty inefficient
<wpwrak>
you could also pick destinations with a very high escape velocity.. then slow down just enough to get caught, and gradually bleed off speed over the next few centuries.
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