Author Topic: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?  (Read 5713 times)

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Offline ebclrTopic starter

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Online ataradov

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2021, 08:56:27 pm »
C-Sky core is somewhat annoying with tool support.

And it looks like QFN56 version is available cheap, but it does not have any wireless support, and QFN32 has wireless, but not available. And dedicated wireless pins take up half the pins of the device.

It is obviously something purpose designed, and not intended as a general purpose MCU.
Alex
 

Offline ebclrTopic starter

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2021, 05:38:55 am »
Do you have any info on this CPU ?
 

Online ataradov

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2021, 05:42:55 am »
You yourself linked the datasheet and SDK. I don't think English versions exist for any of this. Instruction set of the S-Sky is (mostly) the same as old Motorola M*Core.
Alex
 

Offline GromBeestje

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2021, 07:45:36 pm »
Seems there is mainline gcc support as this documentation exists: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-SKY-Options.html
But that's only part of what is needed. I'm not sure yet about a C library for the c-sky architecture,
And for debugger support, I found w6xx support, (which is an ARM chip) for OpenOCD, but I haven't been able to find anything about the w8xx series.

 

Offline thm_w

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2021, 10:03:45 pm »
To me its just a complete waste of time unless you want to kill time learning some new architecture for fun.

https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/11/08/winnermicro-w806-240-mhz-mcu-2-development-board/
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003493284920.html

Code: [Select]
MCU – WinnerMicro W806 32-bit XT804 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 1MB Flash, 288KB RAM, FPU, DSP, crtypto engine
Expansion – 2x 24-pin headers with (based on MCU specs)

    1x SDIO host with support for SDIO 2.0, SDHC, MMC 4.2
    1x SDIO device up to 200 Mbps
    Up to 6x UART, 1x I2C
    1x SPI slave up to 50 MHz, 1x master/slave SPI
    LCD controller with support for 4×32 interface
    1x I2S
    Up to 4x ADC (16-bit, 1KHz sampling rate)
    Up to 44x GPIOs, 5x PWM
    Up to 15 touch sensors
    ISO/IEC 7816 smart card interface
    Reset, Wakeup, 3.3V, and GND signals

Debugging – CH340 via micro USB port
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Offline GromBeestje

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2021, 02:33:32 pm »
Considering they are for cheap (like pre-2020 bluepill prices) on AliExpress, they might become interesting for hobbyist, provided there is decent toolchain support.
And for the new architecture, well, if there runs a proper GNU Toolchain, most will write in C anyways.

For what I can see now, there is upstream newlib, gcc and binutils support.

There is this binary distribution in AUR ( https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/csky-elf-tools-bin/ ) However, that is rather old ( GCC 6 )
I am now trying to compile the current versions of the toolchain by taking the ARM PKGBUILDS and changing the target.
It's building right now, but compiling it all will take some time.

So it seems, what is required to build a binary is covered. What concerns me more is debugging support. I haven't been able to locate any debugging support for the thing. And then the line

Quote
Debugging – CH340 via micro USB port

looks scary. It would imply it will be Andruino-style printf debugging, in other words, none.

Looking at the datasheet, there appear to be debugging pins present, without looking at the details, it implies the hardware has proper debugging support, but the software part is missing. There is this package in AUR https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/csky-debugserver-bin . I haven't looked at it in detail, but it seems to be requiring a debugger manufacturer-specific debugger probe.
 
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Online bingo600

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2021, 07:43:19 am »

Googled a bit

SDK -seems there's a ubuntu vers
https://github.com/IOsetting/wm-sdk-w806
 

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Offline tszaboo

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2021, 10:57:47 am »
Considering they are for cheap (like pre-2020 bluepill prices) on AliExpress, they might become interesting for hobbyist, provided there is decent toolchain support.
I don't think is stack up against the Pi Pico that well. There doesn't seem to be any killer features that would warrant a larger adaptation. And the various ESP32 chips are making a killing in the high performance microcontroller home segment. I'm sure this is fine for some Asian built products though.
 

Offline daming

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Online ataradov

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #11 on: December 26, 2021, 06:19:38 pm »
My post is missing again
Your posts are not missing, they are being deleted as spam. What are we supposed to do with this wall of code with comments in Chinese?

If you think this is useful somehow - please share how it is useful. And also, it is better to attach a file to your post instead of pasting the whole contents for large files.

Same goes for random links without comments.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2021, 06:22:22 pm by ataradov »
Alex
 
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Offline daming

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2021, 02:04:06 am »
Chinese parts were for me to see, and I couldn't live without them
 

Offline jscottbee

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2022, 04:21:11 pm »
I have done a little playing around with this MCU. When compared to chips like the RP2048, it seems "plain". The biggest negative is the lack of documentation for the chip and tools.

The tools are easily found and installed, but outside of China, you have to try a bit harder :)  The SDK for the chip is based on a HAL type function set, but there are no docs for its particular brand of HAL.  There are a good set of demos included in the SDK to help find usage examples.

Right now, I see a few things going for it... 44 usable GPIO pins, 288k of internal PSRAM with the ability to use up to 64MB of external PSRAM, and its programmable via a TTL serial interface.  The LCD drivers may be of use as well for many.

Its big negatives are the lack of good docs that live on the chipmaker's site. This goes for the tools, SDK, and the chip.

The board that HLK made is quite large, to say the least! It is as large as an RPI Zero and possibly a little bigger.  My main gripe about the board though is the lack of a VIN-type pin...  I hate powering from USB for real use.

I have created a Github repo with some basic type "blink" code, as well as a chip pinout, and pin function assignments.

https://github.com/jscottb/w806-blinky

 
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Offline Canis Dirus Leidy

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #14 on: February 05, 2022, 02:00:01 am »
 
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Offline jscottbee

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Re: HLK W806 What is this ? Mistery very cheap and powerfull CPU ?
« Reply #15 on: February 05, 2022, 02:09:11 am »
Nice!  Thanks for the info. :)

There are a lot of examples in the SDKs for their chips. The build setup is a little rough around the edges but still usable.

Thanks.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2022, 02:16:06 am by jscottbee »
 


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