Test Drive

[codifies]

lol - I was gonna buy one (TWL6040) at £3.25 it would have made a quick cheap experiment.... until I noticed its a BGA package so I'm not slapping that into my breadboard!

but I gotta say it looks like a nice bit of kit! looks like it will handily do the job not just for output but also for micophone...

 

[TrashyMG]

Well the OMAP5 EVM does have a line level output jack.

High level view:

Spoiler

 

[codifies]

... the advantage of a reference design like this too... no nasty surprises! TI will have no doubt tested this circuit themselves and its no doubt in a number of devices too... so its gotta work!

 

[pyra_enthusiast]

Does "Charging Bypass" mean that the Pyra can use mains power instead of using the battery, when plugged in to the wall? And if so, does that mean the Pyra can work with the battery taken out?

 

[levi]

Oh, good spot! Now I'm wondering the same.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

So on the CPU side, we know OMAP5 is not as cutting-edge as various current SoCs out there. Therefore on the sound side, please balance it out by  giving us the cutting-edge pcm1793 chip instead of TWL6040.

 

[codifies]

I have to say I use my laptop without battery most of the time and after three years I can still fully charge it (keeping it constantly topped up in a laptop is the worst for batteries) so being able to use without battery would be nice indeed, it also potentially means for hackers who want to use the para as the base for some other custom device much more flexibility

 

[codifies]

So on the CPU side, we know OMAP5 is not as cutting-edge as various current SoCs out there. Therefore on the sound side, please balance it out by  giving us the cutting-edge pcm1793 chip instead of TWL6040.

What particular features of the pcm1793 are you after? Looking at the data sheet its functionally got much less features than the twl6040 - is it renowned for awesome audio clarity or something ?

 

[WizardStan]

Just because something is newer doesn't mean it's better.

 

[levi]

I have to say I use my laptop without battery most of the time and after three years I can still fully charge it (keeping it constantly topped up in a laptop is the worst for batteries) so being able to use without battery would be nice indeed

FWIW, I recently upgraded the kernel on my laptop from 2.6x to 3.something, so I can now discover the state of my battery.  According to those stats (which are the same ones I use on my Pandora to test its battery), that battery only has 20% of its stated capacity left, despite leaving it half-charged out of the machine most of the time, and never letting it run out completely.  My Pandora battery on the other hand still has 85% of capacity (although it's about a year newer than my laptop).

But yeah, now I'm trying to work out what to do with my Pandora once I have a Pyra, I'm thinking of apps where it's going to be plugged in all the time, so I'm looking for ways to be able to run it without the battery.  The hackers guide PDF gives one approach, it should be noted, but a system that can run off-battery without any hacks would be even nicer.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

So on the CPU side, we know OMAP5 is not as cutting-edge as various current SoCs out there. Therefore on the sound side, please balance it out by  giving us the cutting-edge pcm1793 chip instead of TWL6040.

What particular features of the pcm1793 are you after? Looking at the data sheet its functionally got much less features than the twl6040 - is it renowned for awesome audio clarity or something ?

It's because Exophase said it's a superior chip

(Sorry Exophase, don't want to put you on the spot, but you're one of the most respected member here so I had to quote you )

 

[rygD]

I thought this thread was related to a game (I didn't read who started it, or which forum it was in).  I will have to read all of it later.  What I have read so far looks excellent.

 

[Exophase]

It's because Exophase said it's a superior chip

(Sorry Exophase, don't want to put you on the spot, but you're one of the most respected member here so I had to quote you )

Superior to PCM1773, which is its direct predecessor. I don't know anything about how it compares with TWL6040, with or without external amp.

 

[levi]

https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717/statuses/583692346207956992

"Yay, after one week of debugging, measuring and testing, Nikolaus managed to speak to the LCD panel through the rotator chip."

Nice!  I'm not sure they've got the rotator chip doing any rotation or other fancy stuff yet, but it sounds like they've got it working to pass through the video data already, and presumably got around the LCD init code problem they were having before.  Awesome work guys!

 

[Bosbeetle]

https://twitter.com/EvilDragon1717/statuses/583692346207956992

"Yay, after one week of debugging, measuring and testing, Nikolaus managed to speak to the LCD panel through the rotator chip."

Nice!  I'm not sure they've got the rotator chip doing any rotation or other fancy stuff yet, but it sounds like they've got it working to pass through the video data already, and presumably got around the LCD init code problem they were having before.  Awesome work guys!

Whoop

 

[Bosbeetle]

Any more updates in this list with the arrival of the latest parts and the dubugging of the rotator chip lcd interface.