Introducing the Tools: IDE for STM8

For this project we are using a STM8S Microcontroller from STMicroelectronics. To be honest using this Micro wasn’t selected through a carefull research, but rather through the fact that STMicroelectronics gave away free-Kits of this uC on a number of occasions. So i had those kits lying around at home. The STM8S is certainly a descent 8bit uC with reasonable pricing so i don’t regret this decision. But it has one big drawback in my eyes – for developing with this uC one has to use Windows Operating-system. Again on the other hand the development kit for this uC is dirt cheap and it provides an integrated incircuit debugger – which also has some limited possibilities for non-intrusive variable monitoring.

The IDE for developing this uC comes directly from STM – it is called: ST Visual develop IDE

The C-Compiler (freely available, limited to 32kB) comes from Raisonance

To monitor variables in Realtime – STM provides the STM Studio Tool

Under http://www.emcu.it/STM8.html you can find valuable information about developing on the STM8 platform.

 

 

“Defining goals” or “When is a Project finished?”

Today I had a very nice talk with a friend of mine. He asked me whether I have defined my goals for this project and when it is finished? I am very thankful for this question because sometimes I only sum up all the tasks that still need to be done and it looks endlessly.

The project started as a hobby in Feb 2010 – I was impressed by the capabilities of the VS1053 chip – an Audio DSP from VLSI Solutions, which is capable to encode ogg/vorbis with just about 32kB of RAM – pure admiration. Then i heard about the Lantronix XportPro designcontest and ambition set in. (It scored 2nd 😉 ) And as i am working with free radiostations – i saw that there is a need for such a device. So it started and the project evolved and i set the bar higher, i wanted it to become a full OpenHardware/OpenSource production-ready Device – like a professional product. Do you see the dilemma arising? I just continued one step after the other and there probably wont ever be an end.

So now I try to define when the project is finished in my eyes:

• Finishing the Hardware – 10 pcs. of OggStreamer manufactured and in use by various Radiostations
• Working Firmware (including builtin icecast2-Server), configurable over ssh – but no WebGUI
• Availability of PCBs to the OpenHardware-Community (maybe with all the smd components presoildered)
• Documentation of this Project, so that other developers can adjust the OggStreamer to their needs.

The just defined goals should be achieved by April 2012. The Timeline below shows details:

New Supporter: VLSI Solutions

The friendly people at VLSI Solutions agreed to sponsor this Project with 25 pcs. of their VS1063 Audio DSP. The Oggstreamer Projects uses this chip for converting the Analog Audio into compresssed ogg/vorbis.  Many thanks for your support! 🙂

 

 

git repository for MCAD files added

under https://sourceforge.net/p/oggstreamer/mcad/ you can download the mechanical design files. (For now i only put the sketchup-file, but more to come …)

Introducing the Tools: Sketchup for MCAD

Sketchup is free and simple. Yet it is a powerful tool for MCAD. I run Sketchup 8 and Sketchup 7 under WINE one my Linux computer and it works quite decent. So why am i using Sktechup 7 also? The answer: Google provided a DXF Importer for Sketchup 7 – which is not included in the Free Sketchup 8 Version anymore. From the PCB designer i get a DXF (including the height information of the components) – with Sketchup 7 the DXF is imported and saved. The resulting .skp file is opened with Sketchup 8 and automatically converted to the new Version.

For those of you who are using Eagle for the ECAD – there is also a great project interfacing Eagle and Sketchup. Check it out: http://eagleup.wordpress.com/

git repository for STM8 Firmware on Sourceforge

Today I uploaded the Sourcecode of the STM8 Mikrocontroller (the bridge between XportPro and VS1053/VS1063) – Please note this sourcecode is just a sketch for the Prototyp and urgently needs rewriting, formating and documentation.

The STM8 Firmware is devloped with “ST Visual Develop” IDE and uses the free 32kB-Version of the Raisonance Compiler. So it needs a windows environment for compilation.

The git repository can be found under: http://sourceforge.net/p/oggstreamer/stm8firmware/