#1

sorry if this is the wrong section. im wondering if it’s possible to hook up a jtag probe to the DSP processor with the case removed, and if this would be helpful with module development. i see a jtag header in the board file but im not sure which probe i would need. popping the SD card in and out between my computer and the aleph every time i recompile is sort of a drag, and it would also help to step code. has anyone done anything like this?

1 Like
#2

Hey I also got bored of SD-wrangling for module dev! So much so that I came up with a couple of solutions which both have their place… So there’s a blackfin module ‘hotswap’ utility here: https://github.com/monome/aleph/blob/dev/utils/serial-com-proto/module-hotswap.c which is tested & works fine on linux.

There’s also C emulation of the fract arithmetic primitives & build targets for most of the existing modules which generate linux/jack executables. This technique was used to develop & debug a lot of the recent bfin dev work. I’d advise setting up some single-step tests for new DSP code on linux, catching all the segfaults with gdb then you can use printfs to generate csv & visualise what’s going on in different bits of the new algorithm…

Try “make” sim in the module directory for, e.g acid, on monome’s dev branch…

1 Like
#3

wow! i had the idea to do something like that also, but had no idea where to start and figured a debug probe would be easier. but not having to buy something/open the case is a definite plus. this looks really cool. how is this handled on the device side? is there already a serial handler in place that can accept these commands?

#4

yeah latest dev build of BEES should respond to the hotswap util. At some point I’ll get round to a puredata external or little scripting interpreter to make more of BEES’ moderately capable & well-tested serial protocol! (but for now it mostly just functions as a bfin serial-loader)

#5

cool im having a hard time getting the aleph to show up as a serial port in my vagrant box. may just have to use actual linux. im very interested in the possibilities for this now that i know there is some serial handling going on in the aleph

#6

yeah, I really got down to brass tacks on the core functionality of BEES so serial did get forgotten… Although actually believe it or not a few BEES bugs were caught using a serial stress test set up in common lisp under linux!

I’ve been thinking about ways to make the aleph simultaneously handle duplex midi & run grid apps. A really awful but probably effective way of doing this would be to write an aleph-serial-midi bridge & run it on linux.

#7

i’ve found that some bees programming tasks are downright arduous on the device, so using the computer to work on bees scenes in real time with debug feedback sounds amazing. i got an aleph to get away from the computer a little bit, but using it constructively during hard parts of patching is ok with me.

1 Like
#8

great job with this, i managed to get my serial drivers sorted in my linux vm and now it’s working like a charm. for anyone following at home, make sure you have a bees build from the dev branch for this to work

2 Likes
#9

to answer the original question, yes you can definitely use jtag with bfin on aleph. I can’t remember if the headers are populated on production units so you may need to do that yourself (use right angle header)

also can be hard / expensive to find the jtag adapters these days

1 Like