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Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/20/2009 1:57 PM (GMT -8)

LOL!

mpark said...
OK, who's going to be the first to implement Cylon lights on Morpheus?

www.mikronauts.com - my site 6.250MHz custom Crystals for running Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Morpheus & Mem+ Advanced dual Propeller SBC with XMM and 256 Color VGA
Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/20/2009 2:00 PM (GMT -8)

MorphDiag v0.30 is now up on http://mikronauts.com/downloads/

This version has the following working tests:

1) Test Processor
2) Test EEPROM 1
3) Test Audio CH0
4) Test Audio CH1
5) Test Keyboard
6) Test Mouse
7) Test RTC
9) Test SPI Flash

For the RTC tests I just grabbed the RTC code from the Largos prototype

so you guys will now see the binary date format for Largos too...

Coming Soon:

8) SPI Ram test
a) VGA256 test
b) 512KB Morpheus XMM test

Coming not so soon:

x) Test Mem+ RAM
y) Test Mem+ SD Card
z) Test Mem+ PIO

hinv
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2007
Total Posts : 487

Posted 7/20/2009 2:16 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Bill,

I was wondering what it would take to do surface mount. I would like to use all surface mount components to get the board cost down and the size down. I would guess that a mem+ and morpheus would fit one of the same boards if carefully planned out.
I know you are busy, but what do you think?

What do you think?

Thanks,
Doug

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/20/2009 3:02 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Doug,

Ok, I'll let another cat out of the bag.

I am planning to offer for sale a surface mounted Morpheus/Mem+ combo board MID/LATE NEXT YEAR; the schematic and PCB layout are being worked on, with an extra goodie or two - tentative name "Morpheus 2" or "Morpheus Plus".

You see I don't think a surface mount kit is viable, so the board would have to come assembled and tested, and there are several MOQ's (minimum order quantities) in play - namely PCB's, with at least one prototype turnaround (maybe two), NRE for getting the assembly line set up, ordering all the parts, a lot of which have pretty high MOQ's, shipping them to the manufacturing site etc. At current sales levels, I simply cannot afford to do it in the near future, however to be fair, I have not advertised Morpheus yet, no reviews have shown up on the net (as the docs, drivers and demos are not done yet), only one retailer has come on-line so far (I will be contacting a lot of distributors as soon as all the docs are done, and the XGA and gaming drivers released). Releasing PCB designs is not possible, I've spent as much as I can afford to spend getting Morpheus into production and getting parts ordered. The Morpheus boards, like Hydra, are commercial products.

You asked what it would take to get it done...

Simple. I need to sell a lot of Morpheus, Mem+ and SchoolBoards plus kits and/or assembled and tested units in order to be able to afford the NRE, build and inventory costs of doing another variation of Morpheus. I've already sunk quite a few thousand dollars into inventory and prototypes, not to mention the opportunity cost of not consulting for five months (read no income).

So if you guys want to help, here are a few ways you can do that - since you asked what it would take:

- if you have purchased one, built it, and found any issues, TELL ME - so I can improve it!
- if you think the board is great, tell people!
- if you are thinking of buying one, buy one or two - it makes a great gift
- if you wait until I get the connectors in (due end of July), I will be selling full kits, and assembled and tested units
- if you have purchased one and like it, write a review on your blog, for a magazine, Make, Instructibles, etc
- if you have a neat use for Morpheus, write about it! (here, blog, mag, Make, other sites etc)
- port software to Morpheus - some is already coming, but not ready to be disclosed yet
- as soon as I release the gaming drivers, write/port some games! everyone loves games...
- if you see someone cloning Morpheus let me know so I can try to do something about it

Within six weeks there will be some additions to the Morpheus line:

- SOJ36DIP32 converter board for using faster SOJ36 memory with Morpheus/Mem+
- Proteus, a prototyping board with access to EXP1, EXP2 and MORPHBUS
- Propteus, all the features of Proteus AND an EEPROM, a Propeller, 3.3V voltage regulation, four user LED, a power LED, reset/user button

By October, there will be two additional boards that are in the pipeline that I am not ready to talk about yet (in case deadlines are missed, or initial boards are bad)

I want to make Morpheus be the best little single board computer out there, with the best documentation, best software and best support - at very affordable prices.

I don't want much, eh?

hinv said...
Hi Bill,

I was wondering what it would take to do surface mount. I would like to use all surface mount components to get the board cost down and the size down. I would guess that a mem+ and morpheus would fit one of the same boards if carefully planned out.
I know you are busy, but what do you think?

What do you think?

Thanks,
Doug

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 7/20/2009 11:36:20 PM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/20/2009 3:15 PM (GMT -8)

I've posted MorphVGA256_Diag on the downloads page of my site

It was too big to fit within MorphDiag, so it has to be stand-alone for the moment. I know a way of combining it later, but it will take a bit more time, and I *KNOW* those of you that have a board already wanted to play with VGA256!

hinv
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2007
Total Posts : 487

Posted 7/20/2009 7:52 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Bill,

I am waiting for the full kit personally. I like kits because I don't like sourcing the wrong parts and then waiting another couple of weeks, etc.
I also would like a 100MHz version with your 6.25MHz crystals. There is a note about 25MB/sec bursts, which is quite good IMHO. That's what I want.
512KB is OK for me to start, so I won't be needing the mem+ board, at least until Largos comes out. Since I have been a unix geek since 1989, I am a little anxious.
Is Largos going to be free?

Thanks,
Doug

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/20/2009 8:18 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Doug,

Thanks, I think a lot of people are waiting for kits and/or assembled and tested boards... that's why I am waiting for connectors

Currently my intention is that Largos will be free for personal/educational use, and I am currently intending to dual license it - GPL for personal/educational use, and licensed for commercial use (at a very reasonable rate) - the idea is that individuals can use Largos without charge, and only people who wish to include it with their own hardware or software that they sell will need to pay for it.

Bill

hinv said...
Hi Bill,

I am waiting for the full kit personally. I like kits because I don't like sourcing the wrong parts and then waiting another couple of weeks, etc.
I also would like a 100MHz version with your 6.25MHz crystals. There is a note about 25MB/sec bursts, which is quite good IMHO. That's what I want.
512KB is OK for me to start, so I won't be needing the mem+ board, at least until Largos comes out. Since I have been a unix geek since 1989, I am a little anxious.
Is Largos going to be free?

Thanks,
Doug

hinv
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2007
Total Posts : 487

Posted 7/20/2009 8:45 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Bill,

Another question about morpheus. Does it have an 8 bit data bus, or 16bit?. I'm confused, because you mention 20MB/Sec, I figured 16Bit data(out of the 18 lines from propeller to morphbus). But looking on the build instructions on the morpheus board itself, there is a 512Kx8 sram chip.
Yet another question: Since there are 512Kx16 and 1Mx8 sram chips available. Would it be a lot of trouble to upgrade to whichever of these(depending on question above)?

Thanks,
Doug

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/20/2009 8:57 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Doug,

8 bit data bus, and I still manage to burst read or write at 20MB/sec at 80MHz

1Mx8 is only readily available as a surface mount package, and per byte, it is notably more expensive than the 512KBx8; Mem+ is intended to address this by adding four more sockets for 512KBx8 chips, and you may actually have four Mem+ boards in the sytem - however then you need to move the 512KB from Morpheus to one of the Mem+'s and you need to leave one socket empty on one of the boards (for memory mapped I/O at $000000-$03FFFF )

I am also planning an 8MB board using four 2MBx8 smt parts, however I need to get a lot of pre-orders to justify the investment. With that board added, we will have a 15.5MB Morpheus system

Best,

Bill

hinv said...
Hi Bill,

Another question about morpheus. Does it have an 8 bit data bus, or 16bit?. I'm confused, because you mention 20MB/Sec, I figured 16Bit data(out of the 18 lines from propeller to morphbus). But looking on the build instructions on the morpheus board itself, there is a 512Kx8 sram chip.
Yet another question: Since there are 512Kx16 and 1Mx8 sram chips available. Would it be a lot of trouble to upgrade to whichever of these(depending on question above)?

Thanks,
Doug

Cluso99
We live onboard

Date Joined Apr 2008
Total Posts : 2277

Posted 7/22/2009 8:11 PM (GMT -8)

@Bill, attached is the ram test I did for the triblade.

Links to other interesting threads:

Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBladeProp, RamBlade, TwinBlade, SixBlade, website

Single Board Computer: 3 Propeller ICs and a TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)

Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)

Emulators: Micros eg Altair, and Terminals eg VT100 (Index) ZiCog (Z80), MoCog (6809)

Search the Propeller forums (via Google)

My cruising website is: www.bluemagic.biz MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm

File Attachment :
SramTest1MB.spin 12KB (application/octet-stream)

This file has been downloaded 21 time(s).

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/22/2009 8:30 PM (GMT -8)

Thank you!

Cluso99 said...
@Bill, attached is the ram test I did for the triblade.

heater
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2008
Total Posts : 1834

Posted 7/22/2009 9:07 PM (GMT -8)

Bill: "...only people who wish to include it with their own hardware or software that they sell will need to pay for it."

To clarify: One does not need to pay to redistribute GPLed code bundled with ones hardware provided they offer to deliver the source code as well.

For me, the past is not over yet.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/23/2009 6:10 AM (GMT -8)

You are correct about the GPL!

Thank you, I was writing in a hurry. I am still having a huge internal debate about how exactly to license it; however since Largos is till 3-6 months away from a public preview release licensing is a debate for another day (and thread).

heater said...
Bill: "...only people who wish to include it with their own hardware or software that they sell will need to pay for it."

To clarify: One does not need to pay to redistribute GPLed code bundled with ones hardware provided they offer to deliver the source code as well.

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 7/23/2009 2:20:15 PM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/23/2009 3:45 PM (GMT -8)

It's finally ready - here is the MORPHBUS pinout!

Image Attachment :

bus-pinout.png 23KB (image/png)

This image has been viewed 72 time(s).

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/26/2009 11:53 AM (GMT -8)

I have not been posting much in a couple of days - I was too busy writing the Mem+ Build Manual!

It is available for download from the "Downloads" page on my site (link in .sig)

Now I just have to get the diagnostics mentioned in the testing section running and integrated into the next version of MorphDiag...

Next manual: "Morpheus System Architecture and Developer's Guide"

however I want to clean up and post the XGA bitmapped driver first.

The connectors should be in end of next week, at which time I will start offering kits and assembled and tested units.

I will also start selling Proteus and Propteus - the first two prototyping boards in the Morpheus line - in less than a month.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/27/2009 10:29 AM (GMT -8)

I should have the connectors available for sale either this Friday or on Monday!

(I know this because I finally have a tracking number for the shipment)

FINALLY I will be able to sell connectors, full kits, and assembled and tested units. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to get production quantities of the connectors.

Thank you for your patience!

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/29/2009 9:01 AM (GMT -8)

I just realized that the Mem+ page on my site may not make it clear enough... Mem+ can be used to program Morpheus if the optional MAX3232 circuit is installed. It works fine with PC serial ports, and should work with most USB to Serial adapters.

FTDI based USB->serial cables should work at fairly high bitrates - maybe even 1Mbps with ViewPort (remains to be tested at such high speeds)

As a matter of fact, if you populate the serial port option of a second Mem+ board in the stack (normally not recommended) and run a three wire female header (RST, TX, RX) from the Mem+ H-COMM header to H-COMM2 on Morpheus, you could program both propellers serially.

Of course if you use four Mem+'s for LOTS of memory, you could use two serial ports for the two Propellers on Morpheus, and use two more (without transistor reset circuits) with two wire cables (TX,RX) going to Propeller pins as two more RS232 ports :) however you would have to use four pins from EXP1 or EXP2 for this - sacrificing either the PIO on the first Mem+ or the SD card there.

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 7/29/2009 5:08:44 PM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 7/30/2009 2:56 PM (GMT -8)

THE CONNECTORS HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

Funny thing is my second source supplier beat the prime supplier in delivering connectors - even though I ordered from them almost two weeks later!

After I crunch some numbers, I will be posting pricing for connector kits, full kits, and assembled and tested units!

All of the above will be available for ordering by Monday; due to the dip Propeller shortage I will only be selling Propellers as part of a assembled and tested Morpheus or full kit.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 8/1/2009 4:54 PM (GMT -8)

Hi guys,

My apologies for how long it took - basically my suppliers let me down, I still don't have the "premium" Major League connectors, fortunately I was able to have some "standard quality" connectors manufactured for me. Unlike the distributors, I have a LOT of connectors in stock, without a 5 week lead time :)

I will post the prices for the "premium" connectors after I get them in and can account for shipping, brokerage etc.

The standard connectors work just fine, I tried them, they are just a little lighter than the "premium" ones, and allow me to offer *MUCH* better prices.

Morpheus, Mem+, and bundle full kit and assembled and tested pricing will be announced this weekend, I am still crunching numbers and trying to sharpen my pencil as much as I can.

If you want to order, please email me your full name and full address to "mikronauts _at_ gmail.com" so I figure out shipping and handling charges. I only take PayPal at this time (or bank transfers for big orders)

Thanks!!!!

Bill

Prices:

Short connector kit (for Morpheus) - comes with:
---------------------------------------------------------

Qty.1 - 2x20 Female connector, gold plated
Qty.2 - 1x10 Female connector, gold plated
Qty.2 - 1x5 Male connector, gold plated

$2.95 USD (for the five connectors) + s/h

Stacking connector kit (for Mem+, Proteus, Propteus) - comes with:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qty.1 - 2x20 Female connector, 14.8mm (0.506") long legs for stacking, gold plated
Qty.1 - 1x10 Female connector, 14.8mm (0.506") long legs for stacking, gold plated
Qty.1 - 1x5 Female connector, 14.8mm (0.506") long legs for stacking, gold plated

$5.95 USD (for the three connectors)+ s/h

Bundle of both sets of connectors: $7.95 (for eight connectors total) + s/h
==========================================================

"Schoolboard" - as pictured at my site, comes with:
------------------------------------------------------------

Qty.1 - support PCB with space for the stacking connectors
Qty.1 - 400 hole (35 rows of two groups of five pins, four rows of 25 power pins) same as in PE kit
Qty.1 - stacking connector kit

NOTE: the 1x5 female stacking connector in this case is for allowing an external PropPlug after you bend the legs 90 degrees.

$29.95 USD (for support PCB, breadboard, three connectors)

Special: only $24.95 when ordered with a Morpheus/Mem+ bundle

Availability: NOW

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 8/2/2009 2:35:59 AM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 8/1/2009 8:29 PM (GMT -8)

Announcing Morpheus and Mem+ Kit and Assembled & Tested pricing

Kit Pricing:
------------

Morpheus Full Kit ..... $119.95 USD Includes all parts needed to build a fully populated Morpheus, with standard connectors
Morpheus Lite Kit ....... $99.00 USD Does not include the two Propeller chips, otherwise same as above.

Mem+ Full Kit........... $89.95 USD Includes 2MB ram and all parts needed to build Mem+, with standard stacking connectors
Mem+ Lite Kit........... $75.00 USD Includes 512KB ram and all other parts needed to build Mem+, with standard stacking connectors

Morpheus Bundle Full kit ..... $189.95 USD (Save $19.95) Includes both Morpheus Full Kit and Mem+ Full Kit, including 2 Propellers and 2.5MB of memory
Morpheus Bundle Lite kit ..... $157.00 USD (Save $17.00) Includes both Morpheus Lite Kit and Mem+ Lite Kit, no propellers, and 1MB of memory

Morpheus Bundle Ultra Light .... $149.00 NO PROPELLERS, NO RAM, otherwise same as Morpheus Bundle Lite

You can add a SchoolBoard to any kit above for $24.95

Assembly & Testing Service:
---------------------------------

In case you want me to assemble and test any of the kits above, please see rates below.

Morpheus Assembly & Testing .... $60
Mem+ Assembly & Testing .... $40

Morpheus Bundle Assembly & Testing .... $70 (Save $30)

Please note that I will use my parts to test "Lite" kits - Assembly & Testing does not include any additional parts.

I want to thank all of your for your support!

If you would like to order any of my products, please email me at "mikronauts _at_ gmail.com" with your name, address, and what you wish to order, so I can figure out the shipping and handling.

Coming Real Soon Now:

- The System Architecture and Developer's Guide is more than 70% done, I believe I will be able to release it next weekend.
- XGA driver will follow shortly thereafter
- Gaming driver after that

The Developer's Guide will have detailed information on how to use the memory, bus and 256 color VGA interface, and will include schematics for your reference.

william chan
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 851

Posted 8/1/2009 8:47 PM (GMT -8)

Can Morpheus play hydra games?

www.fd.com.my
www.mercedes.com.my

Mike Green
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2004
Total Posts : 13558

Posted 8/1/2009 9:04 PM (GMT -8)

CPU #1 can have a Winbond Flash on pins 8-11 and a Microchip SRAM on pins 12-15. Is there any particular reason in the plans for the OS why you can't share the Clk/ DataIn / DataOut pins and just have separate CS pins? That would free up 3 I/O pins for other uses.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 8/1/2009 9:06 PM (GMT -8)

If they are ported to Morpheus, YES!

Exactly as written for Hydra, no.

Why?

First let me say that I love the Hydra - I have one, and it is an EXCELLENT platform for learning to write games. Andre's book is priceless, and as a matter of fact, I want to look into selling it.

Heck, I'd love it if he got a Morpheus and did a Morpheus version of the book!

Even if he does not, I highly recommend that people who don't have the book get it.

Hydra has a number of limitations that Morpheus does not share - which is not surprising, as the Hydra was built partially as a "technology demonstration" of what could be accomplished by a propeller with very little external hardware - and it does that extremely well.

I had the benefit of a "clean slate" design, incorporating all of my past experiences as a developer and consultant.

Why would people want to port their games, and write games for, Morpheus? Because due to its design, it makes an excellent Propeller gaming platform.

Tons of memory, Lots of colors, twice the cogs = potentially much better gaming experience!

Morpheus allows for high resolution bitmap VGA graphics, and 256 colors at more moderate resolutions. It comes with 512KB standard, and can be easily expanded to 7.5MB, up to 15.5MB later. There is another 32KB of extra ram, 1MB of FLASH, and RTC for the primary Propeller - did I mention it comes with TWO Propellers? You have 16 cogs on the board! Of course it also has keyboard, mouse, stereo audio and eight user I/O's. Mem+ adds a serial/programming port, SD socket and 16 bits of parallel I/O (but uses the 8 bits of user I/O from Morpheus).

Right now, I have running a 1024x768 four color (out of 256) XGA driver.

I've started work on the next driver: 256x192 at 256 colors per pixel. I will add a sprite engine to this driver after it is released, and according to my calculations, I should be able to support at least twenty 16x16 255 color (plus transparent) sprites - per scan line! On a 512KB morpheus, you could flip between 10 pages! If that's not enough, add one or more Mem+'s - the display buffer can be anywhere in the memory map.

I have preliminary designs for even better gaming drivers, but I do not wish to release that information until I know that they WILL work, and work well.

Over the next few weeks I will start releasing drivers, then demo's, and I hope to see a flood of software - including games - ported to the Morpheus platform.

william chan said...
Can Morpheus play hydra games?

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 8/1/2009 9:12 PM (GMT -8)

Hi Mike,

Yes - the reason is concurrent I/O access by different cogs.

This way the SPI RAM, SPI Flash, SD card on Mem+ can all be accessed at the same time, by different cogs, giving 3x the potential I/O throughput.

Actually I normally have the RAM on 8-11 and the Flash on 12-15, as the Flash will be 100% required for Largos as the root file system, but the SPI ram will be optional but highly recommended.

For people who need more Propeller I/O pins, I will soon be offering "Propteus" - a nice prototyping board with a Propeller, EEPROM, and large prototyping area that also has EXP1, EXP2 and MORPHBUS connectors - so it stacks on Morpheus, and you can use one or more I/O lines to communicate with Morpheus. "Propteus" is a simpler prototyping board, just offering bussed proto area and EXP1, EXP2 and MORPHBUS headers.

Mike Green said...
CPU #1 can have a Winbond Flash on pins 8-11 and a Microchip SRAM on pins 12-15. Is there any particular reason in the plans for the OS why you can't share the Clk/ DataIn / DataOut pins and just have separate CS pins? That would free up 3 I/O pins for other uses.

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 8/2/2009 5:17:49 AM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 8/2/2009 3:22 PM (GMT -8)

I've uploaded a preliminary version of the XGA 1024x768 4 color (from 256) bitmap driver for Morpheus onto my site.

It is on the Downloads page.

Enjoy!

Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheus & Mem+ Advanced dual Propeller SBC with XMM and 256 Color VGA - PCB, kit, A&T available NOW!
www.mikronauts.com - my site 6.250MHz custom Crystals for running Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller

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