Author Topic: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag  (Read 25293 times)

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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #25 on: July 14, 2013, 11:56:12 pm »
Please weigh the quarters. My prediction would be that the compressed one is slightly heavier due to oxidation on the surface.

I think that would be pretty pointless unless you knew the mass of the shrunken coin to begin with.
I doubt the usual mass variation in two (used?) coins would be substantially lower than any measurable oxide layer.
 

Offline dexters_lab

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #26 on: July 15, 2013, 12:08:17 am »
nice to see the counter arrived ok, the sbm10 tube is actually at the other end of the pcb under the wax, the mtx90 is i think just a light

Offline LoyalServant

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #27 on: July 15, 2013, 12:09:46 am »
Another  :-+ for FPGAs...

It's something that I have been meaning to dabble in myself.
 

Offline crisr

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FPGAs!
« Reply #28 on: July 15, 2013, 04:35:12 am »
I too would love some segments about FPGAs! Like what kinds of applications they are best suited for or what can be simpler / faster / better with them, and also how VHDL / Verilog work...

About the quarter, it either got some mass vaporized or it is thicker,  I don't think the magnetic field could change the density of the metal.
 

Offline CodyShaw

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #29 on: July 15, 2013, 04:53:03 am »
I have the DE0-Nano, it's a great board.

See a little sample of something I made here:

http://codyshaw.ca/2012/06/02/8-bit-adder-update/

I really need to update my website...
Candidate for Bachelor of Applied Science, Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Sept. 2011 – Present
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Offline ukee1593

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #30 on: July 15, 2013, 06:30:54 am »
I would love to see some FPGA based tutorial videos Dave!!  I might have to get one of those development boards so I can play along at home :)

 

Offline skylersaleh

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #31 on: July 15, 2013, 07:50:57 am »
I would very much like to see some FPGA videos.

I actually own the exact same board, and have rather enjoined using it.
 

Offline FrankBuss

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #32 on: July 15, 2013, 08:07:07 am »
See a little sample of something I made here:

http://codyshaw.ca/2012/06/02/8-bit-adder-update/

Nice. I don't know much Verilog, can you do loops with it to avoid instantiating every single one bit adder by hand? Would be worse for a 32 bit adder.

Here is a 4 bit multiplier I created when I learned VHDL:

http://tinyurl.com/odkh58p

See the "generate" loops, which would make it easy to implement a 32 bit multiplier without more code (but very many gates, because it is all static and parallel).
« Last Edit: July 15, 2013, 08:09:09 am by FrankBuss »
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Offline mrflibble

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #33 on: July 15, 2013, 09:21:35 am »
Nice. I don't know much Verilog, can you do loops with it to avoid instantiating every single one bit adder by hand? Would be worse for a 32 bit adder.

Yup, verilog has a generate block that works pretty much the same way.
 

Offline TheWelly888

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #34 on: July 15, 2013, 12:29:03 pm »
One question I have about FPGAs: What is the difference between microcontroller/processor based digital systems and FPGA based systems?
You can do anything with the right attitude and a hammer.
 

Offline Rigby

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #35 on: July 15, 2013, 12:31:32 pm »
Dave, you said to let you know if we were keen on seeing a video where you generate video from GPIO (as my admittedly faulty memory is telling me, anyway) and I'd love it if you could show how to drive a 15kHz arcade monitor with GPIO, or something like it.
 

Offline ptricks

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #36 on: July 15, 2013, 01:04:13 pm »
I have some of the microFTX usb-serial and like them a lot.  The price is right and because they are so small it makes it possible to easily add them to things that have internal serial connections like routers, media player set top boxes, so that I don't have to wire up a serial port any time I want to access them, just connect a USB cable.
 

Offline gardner

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #37 on: July 15, 2013, 01:17:35 pm »
show how to drive a 15kHz arcade monitor with GPIO, or something like it.

There is a widely used library for Arduino that bit-bashes B&W NTSC or PAL video using two pins and some resistors.
The AVR ATMega is fast enough, but there is so little memory on the typical Arduinos that managing a frame buffer is pretty challenging.

http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/TVout
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Offline carbon dude oxide

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #38 on: July 15, 2013, 01:21:25 pm »
I would definatly like to see some fpga videos, i have never used them or understood what they were so it would be very helpfull :D
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Offline ThomasChr

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #39 on: July 15, 2013, 01:33:22 pm »
@TheWelly888:
FPGAs are some kind of programmable Logic.
Think of them as Millions of Transistors which can be connected in any kind of way by a programming language (Verilog or VHDL).

A FPGA Chip can make some simple AND, OR, NOT or it can be a whole Atmel Processor, or even an Intel Processor.
You tell it what it is :-)

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jucole

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #40 on: July 15, 2013, 01:36:42 pm »
I would definatly like to see some fpga videos, i have never used them or understood what they were so it would be very helpfull :D

You're in for a treat!  when the penny finally dropped for me I couldn't sleep properly for a whole week! ;-)
 

Offline tridentsx

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #41 on: July 15, 2013, 02:00:49 pm »
I want to see some projects with the fpga
 

Offline c4757p

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #42 on: July 15, 2013, 03:18:13 pm »
Quote
Think of them as Millions of Transistors which can be connected in any kind of way by a programming language (Verilog or VHDL).

Logic gates, not transistors! You're not going to get a long-tailed pair! Though I suppose you could build a CPU and stick SPICE on it... :)
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Offline iva

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #43 on: July 15, 2013, 05:32:11 pm »
That's probably about as likely as a chemist having a 6.5 digit multimeter.
Not sure.
I'm into ancient roman silver coins (besides software and hardware!) and I bought a jeweler's scales having a 0.001 g resolution for 70 euro, if you could point me to a 6.5 digits dmm for the same price that would be great  ;D

The cool part is that having that resolution you could measure the specific gravity of a coin helping you determine fake ones or their composition - not that I personally did it but was fascinated by the idea:
http://www.attilacoins.com/Calculate_Specific_Gravidity_coin.asp


Sorry for the OT which is still geeky enough for this forum (!), in any case +1 for the FPGA stuff, I usally play around with Xilinx tools and boards (I like them a lot) and would be great to have something about the competition.  :-+
 

Offline mikepa

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #44 on: July 16, 2013, 12:13:41 pm »
One more vote for some FPGA videos
 

Offline joab

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #45 on: July 16, 2013, 03:16:17 pm »
Nice! I also have a DE0 NANO. I got it just a short while ago so I haven't done anything with it yet, but my goal is to learn how to use FPGAs using it, together with my DE1 board. I've worked a bit with FPGAs in school, but haven't done much yet. I would love to see some videos where you use the FPGA.
 

Offline deephaven

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #46 on: July 16, 2013, 03:31:06 pm »
FPGA videos are a brilliant idea. I'm just wondering if there will be Altera vs Xilinx fights like there are with Microchip vs Atmel  :box: :-DD
 

Offline nitro2k01

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #47 on: July 16, 2013, 04:17:26 pm »
FPGA videos are a brilliant idea. I'm just wondering if there will be Altera vs Xilinx fights like there are with Microchip vs Atmel  :box: :-DD
"Some prefer one, some prefer the other. Both are perfectly good alternatives." Done!
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Offline ptricks

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Re: EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #48 on: July 16, 2013, 08:57:02 pm »
FPGA videos are a brilliant idea. I'm just wondering if there will be Altera vs Xilinx fights like there are with Microchip vs Atmel  :box: :-DD

Nothing to fight about,  everyone knows that Altera is the best !
 

Online ddavidebor

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EEVblog #494 - Mailbag
« Reply #49 on: July 16, 2013, 09:30:57 pm »
So, dave, seems like you have a 100% thumbs up for fpga!
David - Professional Engineer - Medical Devices and Tablet Computers at Smartbox AT
Side businesses: Altium Industry Expert writer, http://fermium.ltd.uk (Scientific Equiment), http://chinesecleavers.co.uk (Cutlery),
 


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