Fates - a DIY norns DAC board for Raspberry Pi

[okyeron]

Do not run today’s norns update yet. ( Norns: update 191230)

IT WILL BRICK YOUR SYSTEM

If you already ran the update and bricked yourself like I did… here’s a possible fix. You need to remove the SD card, put that in another computer and replace the /boot/config.txt file with the correct one for Fates.

Here’s a replacement for pi4 (I’ve not double checked this is the same for pi4 or pi3 - but i think they are the same)
config.txt (2.0 KB)

EDIT - Although - getting SUPERCOLLIDER FAIL after replacing config.

EDIT EDIT - Unfortunately I was not able to get my “updated” card fixed and I don’t have a recovery method for this yet. I had to start with a fresh image and then recover my dust directory from the bricked sd card (with a usb card reader).

I’m working on uploading new disk images tonight/tomorrow.

[vehka]

I’ve booked a timeslot for a lasercutter in my local library for tomorrow. Just took a look at the .ai files – should I go with the “bigholes” version or the regular version? What’s the difference? Sorry if this is a dumb question. =)

[okyeron]

The “bigger holes” are in reference to the tab-slots that join the pieces. I had some material that was slightly larger than 3mm and would not fit together. So I made the holes a wee bit bigger (~0.25mm)

So it depends on your actual material thickness.

Use the bigger holes version if you’re not sure.

[ground_state]

Strongly advise. I had to file down all of the tabs and still ended up with cracks in the material.

[muncky]

Ok - I’m nervous as first serious SMD work, but I’m going in…!

Quick q on the Pi board - the 3b+ I got has a header preinstalled as marked. Is it ok to clip these pins to enable a flat mating with Fates PCB?

Thanks

[okyeron]

Those pins on the raspi are for Power over Ethernet. It’s a normal feature to have that header there.

You should not have to clip or do anything with those to properly mate the pi to the fates board. If something is in the way, pehaps you’re trying to mount the pi the wrong way round?

[muncky]

Thanks for the super quick response!

I don’t think I’ve got the Pi misaligned, but definitely can’t get it to mate with that header:

Apologies for the basic level question!

[okyeron]

you need a header there (out the bottom of the fates board)

one of these: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2222

once the header is there, you mate the pi to the header and those other pins will clear

[muncky]

Doh! I was being daft and thought they mated directly - totally makes sense now. Have one of those from the BOM. thanks so much. and first two components mounted while you’ve helped me along… much appreciated!!

[coreyr]

@okyeron, is it safe to update from inside the system menu since your GitHub commit yesterday? is there a different update procedure I should run? Is it best to just make a snapshot of my machine as it is now (via pibaker or similar) before I make any attempts?

EDIT: Ah, didn’t look at your edited post from yesterday upthread yet. Will hold off for now.

[okyeron]

So yeah… making a backup/snapshot is probably a good idea

Best update method right now is to do a git pull on the norns directory, and then recompile. However, this might throw an error if you do it manually.

So I’ve got a script for you (as a temp fix to get updated)…

SSH to fates and do the following:

cd ~/fates
git pull
./install/norns/scripts/pull_norns.sh 

Then do SYSTEM>RESET

[static]

I just tried this but it is stuck compiling 43/49 “crone/src/softcut/softcutvoice.cpp”. Frozen currently. What next?

Edit: it just stopped. I could not get it to respond to the shutdown command, so I just cut power to it and when I rebooted, it loaded right up with no errors.

I followed your steps again and it notified me that build finished successfully. It’s working well now, thank you!

[okyeron]

Did it error or just stop (like for how long)?

Probably cntrl-C then try to run the script again?

EDIT: Just did a followup test on Pi3B+ and it worked ok for me here.

[bunkbeds]

thank you for this!

[coreyr]

Works like a charm, thanks @okyeron

[ground_state]

Successful update here (after a teensy bit of foot-shooting )

Also read through norns’ update.sh, and

• applied the new maiden
• removed webdav
• installed samba (working nicely)
• turned off rsyslog (I suffered from and somehow successfully diagnosed the “huge log” issue a week or so ago, but I thought it was just me >_<)

[okyeron]

Ah, good to see samba install worked ok. I had a couple problems with that update step on my dev machine since i already had it installed. Need to check that on my clean install (I’d skipped it earlier)

[forestcaver]

My fates update (following the directions above) is also hanging on the compilation. I can ctrl-c if I do that within a minute or two of hanging. If I leave it much longer then fates locks up - I’m guessing a memory leak.

I’m not getting any debug info but when I interrupt - I am getting this report:
Waf: Entering directory `/home/we/norns/build’

[46/49] Compiling crone/src/OscInterface.cpp

[48/49] Compiling crone/src/MixerClient.cpp

^CWaf: Leaving directory `/home/we/norns/build’

Interrupted

Exception in thread Thread-3 (most likely raised during interpreter shutdown):

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py”, line 801, in __bootstrap_inner

File “/home/we/norns/.waf-2.0.14-b622f2ab824891c8ef265a3ce53f48c6/waflib/Runner.py”, line 60, in run

File “/home/we/norns/.waf-2.0.14-b622f2ab824891c8ef265a3ce53f48c6/waflib/Runner.py”, line 236, in process_task

File “/home/we/norns/.waf-2.0.14-b622f2ab824891c8ef265a3ce53f48c6/waflib/Task.py”, line 178, in process

<type ‘exceptions.AttributeError’>: ‘NoneType’ object has no attribute ‘format_exc’

Any ideas anyone ? Thanks…

[ground_state]

Yeah, weirdly, norns wants to downgrade all of the samba and associated packages. I let it proceed and it did so without issues…

[bloc]

Anyone knows where you can get good screws that fates need? (especially 6mm and 8-10mm long 2,5 width prefer black) i can’t find any good screw on mouser and im lost.