Greaseweazle

[Mattis Lind]

Den ons 3 feb. 2021 kl 15:07 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org>:

>
>
> > On Feb 3, 2021, at 2:51 AM, Peter Corlett via cctalk <
> cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 09:20:01AM -0800, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> > [...]
> >> When I last proposed the STM32F407, I was met with "Oh, but the Blue
> Pill
> >> is cheaper". Okay, use the Blue Pill, but my code won't work with it.
> Not
> >> once has anyone contacted me and said "I'd like to try my hand at doing
> >> this, what can you tell me?". I've described the methodology of using an
> >> MCU elsewhere several times.
> >
> > I have a pile of Blue Pill boards, and using it to read floppies was an
> > obvious application. However after running the numbers, it turned out
> there
> > isn't enough RAM to buffer an entire track from a HD floppy. It also has
> a
> > broken USB implementation just to liven things up a bit.
> >
> > The Raspberry Pi Pico has a similar price to the Blue Pill and seems a
> much
> > better machine for this task, although I haven't combed through its
> > reference manual yet.
>
> I haven't used RPi at all, since when I looked at it some years ago the
> SOC technical information was secret. Contrast the BeagleBone, for which
> there is a 5000 page manual.
>

The Pico is quite different. They use their own chip for the Pico, the
RP2040. There is a 637 page manual
https://datasheets.raspberrypi.org/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf
Unlike the other Rpi this is more like the STM32 chips where you develop
C/C++  or Python to run directly on the bare metal. No Linux involved.

The early Rpi used Broadcom chips. And like most Broadcom stuff you almost
needed signing a NDA to get a glance of the pinout of the chip.


>
> In any case, for work like this an Ardiuno might be sufficient and quite
> possibly easier to use.  I've used the ARM based Arduinos, they have quite
> a lot more memory, faster execution, and native USB.  In fact (if you
> should need it for something else) host side USB, not just device side.
> The Adafruit "Trinket" is great for cases where not much I/O is needed;
> there are a variety of others that have a dozen or so I/O connections, all
> for $10 or thereabouts.
>
>         paul
>
>