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Calin Negru wrote: Do they have a general purpose usage or does the processor have specialized groups of pins where each group talks to certain type of resource
It varies a lot from chip to chip, or - for PC type chips - from socket to socket.
Chips meant for embedded use, IoT-style, may have general I/O-pins that can be configured by software to behave according to this or that signal standard, among maybe 2-4 different ones (but not too different from each other). This rarely if ever means that the CPU switches among different I/O-standards dynamically; at boot time, it configures the chip to the protocol it uses for communicating with other chips, and then is stays that way. The reason for having this configurability is that the CPU manufacturer can offer a single chip model to users of several different I/O-standards. Making two, three, four different chips, one per I/O standard is far more expensive. But note: I am not talking about x86 or x64 chips now - more like 8051 or ARM M0-chips.
When an program is run it’s machincode doesn have the data required to run the sound card or the Mother Board or another piece of hardware because all computers contain hardware that is different, it comes from different vendors. As Dave Kreskowiak pointed out: I/O on 'PC class' (general, x86/x64 or similar), is generally done using some standardized hardware at the physical level, e.g. USB, PCIe, ... (or earlier: FireWire, COM-port, VGA, ...). The external device is responsible for adapting to one such standard at the physical signal level.
The PC uses low-level, usually OS provided driver software for transferring bytes, or frames of multiple bytes, from the CPU out on the interface. This is independent of whatever device is in the other end. The device must be able to receive bytes or frames, but this is given by the standard (e.g. by USB) and is not device dependent. Of course this goes both ways, for both input and output.
The driver for the physical interface offers an API that is independent on the actual electronics, and usually standardized (although there may be a couple alternatives) for that class of physical interface. Say, the low-level USB driver offers a standard API for sending a USB frame to a given USB address.
The byte stream, or contents of the frames, contains commands and data that may differ from device to device. This is where you may need a device specific driver. Say, your scanner software uses a standard format for commands and data called TWAIN. You scanner vendor provides a higher-level driver that offers a TWAIN API, with scanner-related commands, and creates a message struct, which it asks the USB low-level driver to pass to the scanner. If you replace your scanner, the application software may still use TWAIN calls, but that scanner vendor provides a different driver, creating different scanner commands, as required by his scanner model. But both the old and the new driver will send their (different) scanner command structs to the same low-level USB driver API. Note that this higher-level driver doesn't relate to the electronics; it leaves that to the low-level USB driver. (Or in the old days: SCSI or FireWire drivers.)
In practice, there will be more levels of drivers. A scanner specific TWAIN driver doesn't go all the way down to USB low level drivers in one sweep. E.g. a command struct, or even more: returned data, may be far too large for a physical USB frame. So the TWAIN driver creates the struct of arbitrary length, and hands it over to a medium level driver which cuts the struct into suitable small pieces, and labels the pieces appropriately, e.g. with a sequence number, for sending one by one to the USB low level driver. For incoming data, this driver level will receive a lot of small frames from the low level USB driver, collect them in the order given by their sequence numbers, and when all pieces have arrived and been glued together to one large struct, it sends it to the higher TWAIN level (or whatever resides above it).
You may see quite a few driver levels, one above the other. Somewhere I read that the Windows driver model defines 32 levels(!). That doesn't mean that you have 32 driver software packages, only that if your protocol needs to do so-and-so, you should do it after this but before that. The so-and-so's are ordered into 32 groups. One driver package may take care of six consecutive groups, another of the next 8. Often, there will be nothing to do in a lot of the groups.
The lowest driver level(s) is common for all devices. Maybe the next few as well; e.g. splitting a large message into USB frames can be done the same way for all kinds of devices. The higher you climb the stack of driver levels, the more likely it is that from that point and up, you have device specific drivers - until you come close to the application, e.g. the TWAIN API that is common to all (or a lot of) scanners. Anything above that is not device dependent.
For some device classes, there are standards going all the way up from physical drivers to application level. E.g. for mass storage devices, there are USB standards covering magnetic disks, memory sticks, external 'passport' flash disks etc. The device will, in its end of the cable, implement all the relevant driver levels, and do the adaptation to its own technology on top of that. The application program on the PC uses the API to the uppermost driver level, and everything below it, with no concern about the technology at the other end. This of course requires the device to have some sort of CPU to decipher incoming messages and to build a reply message, but today even safety pins come with build in CPUs (maybe not this year's model, but I am sure that 2024 safety pins will have CPUs  ).
is it some kind of compile at runtime? A device vendor providing a driver will usually give you a binary, ready to run driver. So he must provide different drivers for CPUs with different instruction sets (e.g. x86, x64, ARM 32 or 64 bits). Usually, a driver is not completely self contained but uses OS services, at least for installation and activation, so there must be different driver versions depending on the OS. They will all be different binary versions, and the installer picks one of them. I.e. no runtime compilation.
Finally: You will rarely if ever see a driver that takes you all the way from the application program down to the physical interface. It will make assumptions that 'someone' provides lower level drivers according to this or that standard. And it will assume that 'If I provide an API according to this or that standard to drivers at higher levels than myself, they will be able to use it'. I have seen quite a few device drivers providing the truly device specific middle/upper layers, but the installer will check if the lower and higher level drivers exist in the system. If they do, they are used. If not, the driver packages has got its own implementation, and they are installed along with the main device driver.
Dave Kreskowiak wrote: Drivers are part of the O/S, not the applications.
At least for the most part, you are certainly right. It can be argued that, say, when I print an MS-Word document to a Postscript printer, the PS generating function is functionally identical to a top level driver for a PS device. A PDF print routine is a top level driver for a PDF device. Generating the PS or PDF protocol elements is usually done at the application level (it may be done by a library routine, yet at application level.)
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Thanks for taking the time to write down all that. In the case of my second question it all boils down to Windows being a very versatile piece of software.
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I have a very pure hardware question that only an electronics engineer would possibly be able to answer. And that is, how do I remove the infinitessimal dimples formed by lowering the "hammer" on a four-conductor zif ribbon using the tiny plastic squeeze wedge in the board-soldered receptor so-as to make the contact surface of each end of the thing flat again? I suspect, due to the nature of the moving fold, as a servo rotates, that these indentations have weathered to such an extent that my electrical signal is being lost. And I can't keep pulling the ends out and sticking them back in to get the motor swinging again ... because it's just not the solution.
I might possibly be able to obtain a new zif four-connector but if I had a solution to reduce the amount of gas required to motor north to the electronics store that would be better. A punch perhaps?
Any informed suggestions = very helpful.
Thanks!
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Hi All,
Using an Arduino to drive a servo motor (well trying).
#include <Servo.h>
Servo myServo;
int servoPin = 2;
uint16_t i = 0;
void setup() {
myServo.attach(servoPin);
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
HERE:
i = 0;
for(i = 1; i <= 180; i++)
{
myServo.write(i);
delay(15);
}
for(i = 180; i >= 1; i--)
{
myServo.write(i);
delay(15);
}
goto HERE;
}
Now what I believe Should happen is digital Pin 2 which is being used as the servo pin goes high and the due to the loop the pulse is 'stretched' from 1 to 180 which is taken by Servo and magiced it into a value and sent via pin 2, once this is done the value get counted down from 180 back to 1 by the second loop.
What happens is by scoping the pin the pulse is one get to 180 counts back and does not loop.
This started as a 'Hmmm' problem and has slowly been upgraded. I have put the loops in separate functions to see if that helps, no. Google has been a no and I can't log on to Arduino board as my Pass word was rejected ands the sent pass word link doesn't. Going fully bananas here.
Glenn
PANIC OVER THE CODE NOW WORKS!
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What did you do to get it working ?
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Copied into two separate functions and swore... Basically rubber ducking it.
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glennPattonWork3 wrote: ands the sent pass word link doesn't
You might want to spend some more time on that. Did you try manually copying and then inspecting (versus just clicking)? Sometimes something (either sender or email client) can end up adding stuff where it shouldn't to the url.
Or create a new account?
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No the saved log in didn't work went back to manual list tried again same problem.
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Why would you put the HERE label and goto statement in there when the Arduino constantly executes the loop function for you automatically?
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That was part of the problem it was hitting the bottom of the second for loop and not looping (or seeming too),
Oh man I hate the fact the Arduino servo library means you have to bit bang to change the frequency.
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It's not Arduino, but there are Arduino compatible, cheaper, more powerful boards made by a company called Espressif out of China.
They make good SoCs and used by many people, including me professionally.
I recommend the ESP32 based devices. You can get like an M5 Stack Core2 which is pretty neat, or like a Lilygo TTGO T-Display T1 (i have several), or my favorite - one of the Makerfabs ESP Display lines like the Parallel, the 4" or the 4.3"
You can also get them as raw devkits, but they don't use the arduino form factor (although a 3rd party makes arduino form factor ESP32 devkits I can't recommend them)
If you do go that route, reddit's /r/esp32 is a really good resource (when they get around to being finished with their reddit protest)
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch/gfx
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While programming an Arduino device from my Linux desktop, I've found it quite helpful to fill my code with progress output to the serial port e.g.
Serial.println(" CONNECTED");
and then watch the progress from another window with tail -f
tail -f /dev/ttyX
where ttyX is the serial port of the Arduino device. (On USB it can change every time you plug it in.)
You need to run the tail command as root or have added yourself to the "dialout" group.
p.s. you don't need the "goto HERE"
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Hi,
I know I don't need goto HERE that was left over from a previous hack to prove to myself it was looping (in the past I have used HELL as a label there's something oddly satisfying about type goto HELL!)
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I am considering buying an MSECORE Mini PC i9-9880H.
It comes with lot of stuff (SSD, WiFi, Windows 11, etc)
Canadian price $910.
Any (well almost any) comments appreciated.
73
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I need ports for at least 3 monitors. Digitial sound output. HDMI. USB ports. Firewire? Bluetooth. 16GB+. Windows Pro. (that I can think of)
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Gerry Schmitz wrote: I need ports for at least 3 monitors.
I certainly haven't tried but isn't that possible with USB (and a USB block of course)?
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Perhaps. I just know what I have and use now (2 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort) on my motherboard. My keyboard does have extra USB ports but are so underpowered as to be useless.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Hi,
The company I work for is using 13.56MHz RFID for a project. This project involves reading a tag and playing an audio track. I got a third party reader and could read the Tag UID fine but miss the 'extra' data embedded in the read/write section of the tag. Issue is I did my 13.56 Tag training at Texas Instruments and there was no mention of R/W sections of the tag, only an encrypted data section (used at the time for GasN'Go in Canada) so what I'm wondering has the spec changed or have we go a product using a protected area of the tag?
Glenn
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Thanks, I was thinking read back the UID, UID links to Audio track in the reader, plays audio track. I am not sure if this is the approach or not (I hope so). There does seem to be an issue with life of the batteries which indicates to me the RF Unit is being left on for too long. This then leads to why? I can power a reader than reads the UID from a low capacity power bank with no issues. From what I remember of the 13.56 training I did was there was a read only section that could only be read by a special reader which was developed and used on the Canadian GasN'Go system... Could we be possibly be using a 'protected' area of the card meaning some readers won't read all the data (other than the UID)... I will have read of the spec's you provide and hopefully have an answer..
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glennPattonWork3 wrote: life of the batteries which indicates to me the RF Unit is being left on for too long.
Huh?
Obviously you did not provide the full specification. There are musical devices that use RFID for control but those should have a fixed supply.
I was thinking maybe they wanted a security beep for each valid RFID and something else if invalid (or other states). But again should be fixed supply.
Perhaps a portable service reader and the beep indicates that it was read, successful or not. But then plans must be made for recharging or changing batteries (presumably rechargeables.)
But really none of that has anything to do with the RFID but rather with the design and engineering of the system/product.
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I am trying to prepare my guitar signal for as best as possible ADC response in order to detect harmonics to the 5th of the highest note of the guitar (1175 Hz for 22 frets), which is about 5875 Hz. This means that I need to be sampling at about 58.75 kHz, which is possible with the microcontroller and it's DSP functions.
I am using an STM32F407 Discovery board(https://www.chipsmall.com/Products/STM32F407G-DISC1_10343216.html).
So far, I have not come across any solutions that I am happy with.
Considerations that are important:
*Guitar output impedance: about 1M ohm.[br] *Anti-aliasing for the ADC[br] *Guitar signal of 500mV Vp-p max[br] *ADC input range 0-3.3V[br] *5V single supply[br] *Frequency range from 82Hz and 5875 Hz
Does anyone have any suggestions of a circuit that I can use? I have TL082, LM358 and LM741 opamps available, but I am open to other suggestions.
The goal of this element of the projects is to be able to use the first 5 harmonics and a sampled period of the guitar signal for further DSP.
This is what I have come up with so far - although I believe it's far from ideal.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
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Earlier this week, I started having problems with the local electricity supplier. My UPS'es kept triggering alarms and it turned out to be the power company lines were delivering over 130V.
Called the electric company and they determined that a line voltage regulator had failed. They bypassed the regulator and got my supply voltage down to about 125+- but then it would drop under the 105 volt low limit and cause my UPS'es to go into battery backup mode for a few seconds.
So here's the fun part:
One of the Windows 10 systems would failed to boot after a shutdown from the UPS---giving me a 0xc000021a stop code.
Tried Windows startup recovery, replacing the C drive, restoring backups, etc.---all the standard crap. System would not boot.
Tried disconnecting all four external disk drives that were attached via a USB 7 port hub. Still failed.
Finally disconnected everything, including internal drives and USB hubs (two attached) --- SYSTEM BOOTED!
Went through an isolation procedure to determine what was causing the boot failure. Got it down to one of the USB hubs, which was not plugged into the UPS, had gotten smoked somehow. It still looked like it was working but it caused Windows 10 to fail during the boot process.
Who would've thunk a USB hub could cause a boot failure on Windows 10?
Microsoft owes me for four days labor and several bottles of antacids.
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I always find these sort of failure stories interesting.
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