Project: HDMI/DVI out for STFM

[Smonson]

This is amazing work @Icky. Congratulations on this achievement!

[Icky]

This is amazing work @Icky. Congratulations on this achievement!

Thanks @Smonson - this project has come a long way since your first board. I'll send you over a full assembled board once I do the next run.

[ijor]

Fabulous work. Congratulations @Icky

But I must say that I'm not much of a fan of the TANG hardware. The problem is not the clones, I'm not sure there are any, the problem is the product itself. It is known to be unreliable, buggy, and not very well documented. I know a couple of people that were chasing a bug in the code for a very long time, until they find out the bug was actually at the silicon in one case, and at the compiler in the other.

I realize the temptation to use a product much cheaper and widely available. Nowadays this is fabulous. Just be aware that you might get what you pay for.

[ijor]

If you see what happened to Mr SideCart man I understand he had to stop selling the sidecart separately without the rasberry pi pico as too many people were getting cheap/ripoff copies not fully compatible and was making support a nightmare ...

Is there a way to test if they are genuine like there is for the Blue Pill?

I doubt there are TANGO or PICO clones like they plagued the Blue Pill. Both PICO and TANGO products are marketed at rock bottom prices at small quantities. This is completely different than STM32 chips that target the embedded industry, and then they are expensive in small quantities.

I suspect that what happened with Sidecart was that some people didn't setup the hardware correctly, or their soldering wasn't that good. It is also possible that the design itself (hardware or firmware) has some issues that just works fine in some cases but it doesn't in others.

[Icky]

Fabulous work. Congratulations @Icky

But I must say that I'm not much of a fan of the TANG hardware. The problem is not the clones, I'm not sure there are any, the problem is the product itself. It is known to be unreliable, buggy, and not very well documented. I know a couple of people that were chasing a bug in the code for a very long time, until they find out the bug was actually at the silicon in one case, and at the compiler in the other.

I realize the temptation to use a product much cheaper and widely available. Nowadays this is fabulous. Just be aware that you might get what you pay for.

Thanks @ijor — the caution is fair, and I found much of the same in practice but ironed a few kinks out.

The TANG was never intended as the end product. It's a development twin: the v5 of the MAX10 board is still being developed. The TANG initially was for proving the architecture before committing to having the MAX10 board made. That was the idea but the TANG went beyond my expectations.

However having some beta testers to hone the firmware and features is a path I am taking to help grow this project.

Mock render of v5.0 MAX10 version of the Phoenix Shifter of the H4/5.

board.png (272.63 KiB) Viewed 19 times

[ijor]

However having some beta testers to hone the firmware and features is a path I am taking to help grow this project.
Mock render of v5.0 MAX10 version of the Phoenix Shifter of the H4/5.

Wise approach and beautiful board. Remember to connect the analog outputs if you have enough pins, as we discussed some time ago.

Btw, Altera now has an "official" mini JTAG connector directly supported by the (super expensive) USB Blaster III. Not sure if it's small enough, but might be worth to check it. Even when the USB III is extremely expensive, using an officially supported connector might still be a good idea.