So, I now have my little battery monitoring computer. Shipping wound up being a little more than I was expecting… about US$80… but never mind. It’s here, arrived safely:
HTLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLFLC >> TS-BOOTROM - built Jan 26 2017 12:29:21 >> Copyright (c) 2013, Technologic Systems LLCLLLLLLLFLCLLJUncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel. /ts/fastboot file present. Booting to initramfs instead Booted from eMMC in 3.15s Initramfs Web Interface: http://ts7670-498476.local Total RAM: 128MB # exit INIT: version 2.88 booting [info] Using makefile-style concurrent boot in runlevel S. [ ok ] Starting the hotplug events dispatcher: udevd. [ ok ] Synthesizing the initial hotplug events...done. [ ok ] Waiting for /dev to be fully populated...done. [ ok ] Activating swap...done. [....] Checking root file system...fsck from util-linux 2.20.1 e2fsck 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012) /dev/mmcblk2p2: clean, 48540/117600 files, 282972/469760 blocks done. [ ok ] Cleaning up temporary files... /tmp /lib/init/rw. … ts7670-498476 login: root Linux ts7670-498476 2.6.35.3-571-gcca29a0+ #1 PREEMPT Mon Nov 27 11:05:10 PST 2017 armv5tejl TS Root Image 2017-11-27 The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. root@ts7670-498476:~#
The on-board 2GB eMMC has a version of Debian Wheezy on it. That’ll be going very soon. For now, all I’ve done is pop the cover, shove a 8GB MicroSD card into one of the on-board slots, wired up a 12V power brick temporarily to the unit, hooked a USB cable into the console port (/dev/ttyAMA0 is wired up to an on-board CP2103 USB-serial chip) and verified that it is alive.
Next step will be to bootstrap Gentoo. I could use standard ARMv5 stages, or I can build my own, which I might do. I’ve done this before for mips64el n64 using glibc. Modern glibc is a goliath on a machine with 128MB RAM though, so I’ll be looking at either µClibc/µClibc-ng or musl… most likely the latter.
That said, 20 years ago, we had the same computing power in a desktop. 🙂
I have a few options for interfacing to the power meters…
- I²C, SPI, a number of GPIOs and a spare UART on a 2.54mm header inside the case.
- Another spare UART on the footprint for the GPS module (which my unit does not have)
- Two RS-232 serial ports with RTS/CTS control lines, exposed via RJ-45 jacks
- Two CANbus ports on a single RJ-45 jack
- RS-485 on a port marked “Modbus”
In theory, I could just skip the LPC810s and hook this up directly to the INA219Bs. I’d have to double check what the TTL voltage is… Freescale love their 1.8V logic… but shifting that up to 3.3V or 5V is not hard. The run is a little longer than I’m comfortable running I²C though.
The LPC810s don’t feature CANbus, so I think my original plan of doing Modbus is going to be the winner. I can either do a single-ended UART using a resistor/diode in parallel to link RX and TX to the one UART line, or use RS-485.
I’m leaning towards the latter, if I decide to buy a little mains energy meter to monitor power, I can use the same RS-485 link to poll that. I have some RS-485 transceivers coming for that.
For now though, I’ll at least get Debian Stretch going… this should not be difficult, as I’ll just use the images I’ve built for work to get things going. I’m downloading a Jessie image now:
root@ts7670-498476:~# curl https://bne.vrt.com.au/technologicsys/ts7670d-jessie-4.4.1-20160226.dd.xz | xzcat | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 113M 0 544k 0 0 114k 0 0:16:48 0:00:04 0:16:44 116k
Once that is done, I can reboot, re-format the eMMC and get debootstrap going. I might even publish an updated image while I’m at it.
Recent Comments