You might find some takers for the Zipit external serial port on the irc.freenode.net #zipit channel. It seems like there are a lot of folks on there who want to use the zipit for various things, but aren't much into hardware mods.
could be repurposed for general user I/O, instead of being a dedicated console TTY as it apparently is by default. Not sure if I can do that via a script or a kernel boot option, or if I would have to do some kernel hacking which I would probably not find the time to figure out.
For the GPIO, we may have to steal one meant for something else until we can find an unused one. No need for an expensive FTDI chip or expensive connector, just glue 4 pins (male or female header) to the pcb and a small cut in the case to make a propplug header.
That digikey part (H11462-ND) comes with the housing and inner shield plates which all together are sort of big, although the connector itself is pretty small. Here's a photo of it, attached to the Z2 mainboard. http://picasaweb.google.com/bealevideo/Zipit_Z2#5562158230855545458
Maybe we can use a switch and manually perform the reset - my need to ask Brad to widen the download poll time for this to work???
Otherwise, there are 2 leds - maybe we can reuse one of these until we find a pin - GPIO#10 apparently drives the Red Led 0=on.? Or use the USBIO pin?
From http://wejp.k.vu/zipit-z2/small_z2_linux_system_update :
rkdavis (web) says:
2010-12-02 19:12:49
if you set the direction of gpio 83 from in to out then you can use the middle led (the amber one) for your battery status stuff (i use it as the charging indicator in iz2se/ez2s)
I spent much of yesterday looking through the IRC conversations of Sept 2009 looking for the cleanroom reverse eigineering of the hw and in particular the expansion pinout. Unfortunately I could not find it and I am not sure where the Zipit2 IRC is these days. Aparently LokiChaos has a friend that was doing this and while I found some PasteBin references, they had been deleted.
However, for now, GPIO83 would be a good choice to get us a pin to be used as reset (simulate DTR pin). However, I have too much else to do for now so this must wait (and I don't know *nix anyway so would not be able to work through what is required yet).
Cluso99> ...looking for the cleanroom reverse eigineering of the hw and in particular the expansion pinout...
Below is the Zipit Z2 connector pinout you are looking for, including 13 different GPIO pins (and two unknown pins).
EDIT: I have been told that the established numbering system has pin 1 on the other side, so I made an updated document. The signals are in the same physical spot as before, but the numbers are reversed. Hopefully this will avoid confusion with documentation others may have. I did not sign up as a developer and have not seen any official docs, and I have not yet checked these signals myself, so please verify this pinout yourself before relying on it.
Anyways I just ordered one of these yesterday. Ive been wanting one for along time now, I had no idea this thread even existed till after I ordered my zipit last night. One thing I want to use it for is to program the prop. Now I know it can be done with usb host but im still intrested in doing it via serial. I was thinking you could find two gpios even then front all the data for dtr/rts to them, and run the wires through a level shifter to convert back to rs232 and then you could use a serial mouse!!
But back to the task at hand I dont see why finding a gpio is such an issue! here is a list that was linked to a few pages ago http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/openzipit/index.php?title=GPIO_List_WIP then you have this picture http://bealecorner.org/best/measure/z2/z2a-main-oil.jpg and the data sheet, which I cant find a reliable link to at the moment. But with this knowlege couldnt one reference the pin number of one of the many unused gpio pins in that list and just follow the traces until one leads to a place which can be accessed via a soldering iron? Originally i was going to suggest tapping a wire to the bottom of the board but it doesnt seem like the BGA breaks out on the bottom layer like other boards?
Im very excited to have a development environment using a nice ARM chip that doesn't lock me to some crappy dev tool and has a screen a KB built in. Im acually trying to save my usb for a BT kb lol . I mean I want to use this thing to roll my own linux from scratch with its kernel source. Something like this is a great all in one tool to learn embedded development. But it is also gonna make a sweet portable prop workstation. I mean now we have gcc to port and all kinds of good stuff, maybe ill even tackle writing a prop loader in python or C if the this gpio situation can ever get situated.
Does anyone know if you can run Uboot and have multiple distros on different SD cards? Unfourtantely im only getting one of these things but id like to be able to have a stable enviroment for prop codeing and another then just switch to an SD card that contains the rootfs for my roll your own distro?
I got linux installed, but stopped at cracking it open and hacking the second (spare) comport. A somebody posted instructions for adding blue tooth to the rear connector pins, but the connector itself was more expensive than the unit. Now that we have $6.44 blue tooth module, I may take this up again, or I may finish working on telnet, we can already telnet to the prop remotely if its hooked to a PC on the net.
I think I'm moving more towards Android phone as a field programming terminal, but since I already have a couple zipits I'll be watching your progress,.
Cluso so you did end up finding a usable GPIO for dtr is there easy access on the pcb?
I totally agree android is the way to go especially if your looking to make something others want to use. One thing is any dev done on the zipit can be easily ran on the android command line! For me the zipit is more of a personal micro controller dev solution! I figure i can write code on it the use it to program chips ot even use a pc to do all the dev then send it via wifi to the zipit and make the zipit program the propeller or whatever chip. This is usefull in situations when you have access to a pc but cant install ftdi drivers or something like that. Im intrested in the gpios and other stuff though becuase i look at this thing as a little are dev board with a great set of perephrials and the power to learn to build and utilize embedded linux systems on.
I looked at the bifferboard (for those of you that dont know just check it out) or a rasberry pi for this kind of stuff they all have there pluses, but the thing the zipit has is portability and it even brings alot of its pins to that nice clean port on the back, im hoping those camera pins can be reused.
oh ya @braino thanks for the link! the guy is basically hardwiring a usb dongle to the expansion though nothing special. The thing with those ebay wifi modules is they only support the SSP (simple serial protocol) profile, so there useless for using thing like bluetooth keyboards talk to a prop or zipit becuase those need to have HID profile support. There are othe bluetooth profiles too unfourtantely like I said the ebay chips only do ssp, unless thats all you need, then there great!
Comments
Absolutely.
At this point I'm more of a hardware than a software person. I do need a serial port, but I was assuming that the zipit's internal serial port mod, as described for example here
http://www.notanon.com/zipit/adding-a-serial-port-to-the-zipit-z2-with-an-internal-serial-level-shifter/2010/06/24/
could be repurposed for general user I/O, instead of being a dedicated console TTY as it apparently is by default. Not sure if I can do that via a script or a kernel boot option, or if I would have to do some kernel hacking which I would probably not find the time to figure out.
I would be interested in several, but I was thinking that the FT232 might not be needed?
Can you post the link to the connector at digikey?
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/328...36s-cv-80.html
as for workable GPIO, yes I am working on it but severe time shortage for this project- might have something in a week or so.
Digikey part number H11462-ND is the ST40X-36S-CV(80)
These are $5.63 each. 10 cost $46.50, or 4.65 each.
If anyone else is interested PM me and maybe we can get a discount.
From http://wejp.k.vu/zipit-z2/small_z2_linux_system_update :
rkdavis (web) says:
2010-12-02 19:12:49
if you set the direction of gpio 83 from in to out then you can use the middle led (the amber one) for your battery status stuff (i use it as the charging indicator in iz2se/ez2s)
I spent much of yesterday looking through the IRC conversations of Sept 2009 looking for the cleanroom reverse eigineering of the hw and in particular the expansion pinout. Unfortunately I could not find it and I am not sure where the Zipit2 IRC is these days. Aparently LokiChaos has a friend that was doing this and while I found some PasteBin references, they had been deleted.
However, for now, GPIO83 would be a good choice to get us a pin to be used as reset (simulate DTR pin). However, I have too much else to do for now so this must wait (and I don't know *nix anyway so would not be able to work through what is required yet).
nulluser has gotten his logitec c200 camera going on his zipitbot! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9AjzVsDSx8
Here is a link to his zipitbot: http://www.junklet.net/html/make_page.php?n=zipitbot
uboot flasher: http://www.mozzwald.com/zipit/z2uflasher_09022010.tar.bz2
root image: http://zipit.markamber.co/z2sid_u-boot_v5_rc1.tar.bz2
Kernel:http://www.mozzwald.com/zipit/z2sid/z2sid_2.6.36-rc2+_01142011.tar.bz2
He said he was going to write up his build instructions for the zipit, but it is probably similar to http://www.mozzwald.com/node/59
Here is how to wire up a usb connector as host: http://mozzwald.com/node/60
Below is the Zipit Z2 connector pinout you are looking for, including 13 different GPIO pins (and two unknown pins).
EDIT: I have been told that the established numbering system has pin 1 on the other side, so I made an updated document. The signals are in the same physical spot as before, but the numbers are reversed. Hopefully this will avoid confusion with documentation others may have. I did not sign up as a developer and have not seen any official docs, and I have not yet checked these signals myself, so please verify this pinout yourself before relying on it.
http://bealecorner.org/best/measure/z2/z2-connector-pinout-2011.txt
Here is my own Z2 page where I am putting together some information of personal interest:
http://bealecorner.org/best/measure/z2/index.html
Anyways I just ordered one of these yesterday. Ive been wanting one for along time now, I had no idea this thread even existed till after I ordered my zipit last night. One thing I want to use it for is to program the prop. Now I know it can be done with usb host but im still intrested in doing it via serial. I was thinking you could find two gpios even then front all the data for dtr/rts to them, and run the wires through a level shifter to convert back to rs232 and then you could use a serial mouse!!
But back to the task at hand I dont see why finding a gpio is such an issue! here is a list that was linked to a few pages ago http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/openzipit/index.php?title=GPIO_List_WIP then you have this picture http://bealecorner.org/best/measure/z2/z2a-main-oil.jpg and the data sheet, which I cant find a reliable link to at the moment. But with this knowlege couldnt one reference the pin number of one of the many unused gpio pins in that list and just follow the traces until one leads to a place which can be accessed via a soldering iron? Originally i was going to suggest tapping a wire to the bottom of the board but it doesnt seem like the BGA breaks out on the bottom layer like other boards?
Im very excited to have a development environment using a nice ARM chip that doesn't lock me to some crappy dev tool and has a screen a KB built in. Im acually trying to save my usb for a BT kb lol
Does anyone know if you can run Uboot and have multiple distros on different SD cards? Unfourtantely im only getting one of these things but id like to be able to have a stable enviroment for prop codeing and another then just switch to an SD card that contains the rootfs for my roll your own distro?
Lately I have been looking at the MK802. It is an android device in a dongle - no keyboard or display but has wifi and hdmi and 2 usb ports.
http://russelldavis.org/tag/zipitz2-3/
I got linux installed, but stopped at cracking it open and hacking the second (spare) comport. A somebody posted instructions for adding blue tooth to the rear connector pins, but the connector itself was more expensive than the unit. Now that we have $6.44 blue tooth module, I may take this up again, or I may finish working on telnet, we can already telnet to the prop remotely if its hooked to a PC on the net.
I think I'm moving more towards Android phone as a field programming terminal, but since I already have a couple zipits I'll be watching your progress,.
I totally agree android is the way to go especially if your looking to make something others want to use. One thing is any dev done on the zipit can be easily ran on the android command line! For me the zipit is more of a personal micro controller dev solution! I figure i can write code on it the use it to program chips ot even use a pc to do all the dev then send it via wifi to the zipit and make the zipit program the propeller or whatever chip. This is usefull in situations when you have access to a pc but cant install ftdi drivers or something like that. Im intrested in the gpios and other stuff though becuase i look at this thing as a little are dev board with a great set of perephrials and the power to learn to build and utilize embedded linux systems on.
I looked at the bifferboard (for those of you that dont know just check it out) or a rasberry pi for this kind of stuff they all have there pluses, but the thing the zipit has is portability and it even brings alot of its pins to that nice clean port on the back, im hoping those camera pins can be reused.