Black Swift: Why We Made It
As dear habrovchane know, for almost a year we have been developing a small computer (approximately with an SD card), working under OpenWRT, with integrated Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet, gambling and affordable women. Dmitry Dzhe has already written about him several times - and, in general, each time he collected in the comments the same question: why do you even do it? Well, because there is the Raspberry Pi, it costs the same, there is VoCore, Carambola, Edison, in the end - why do we need another “nanocomputer”?
Perhaps we should finally answer this question - at the same time noting with this answer the appearance of a corporate blog with us (thanks, Habr!), As well as the launch of a separate website dedicated only to this project.
')
In short: although initially the project began as “and not whether we make a nanocomputer like the Chinese, but cheaper for ourselves?”, The motivation quickly shifted - we realized that we can make it, if not cheaper, then better and more convenient, and not only for myself.
In general, if you look at existing micro and nanocomputers (I nominally define “nano” as everything comparable to a matchbox, and if it is comparable to a cigarette pack, then it’s already “micro”, probably; it’s necessary somehow to introduce a gradation of dimensions BlackSwift stopped comparing with RPi?), Then they are quite clearly divided into two categories:
So, we realized that we can and want to combine two things: to make a nanocomputer with a low input threshold and at the same time not only suitable, but also convenient for professionals (after all, we ourselves want to use it in our developments).
What do you need for lovers? The simplicity of the basic connection (ideally, the power supply and some peripherals should be connected without a soldering iron at all - so that you can immediately start experimenting), ease of setup, simplicity of writing and debugging your software.
What do you need for professionals? The minimum dimensions, a lot of I / O, many different interfaces, ease of sealing in their design. The simplicity of writing and debugging software also does not hurt: after all, a person can be a professional from electronics, and with OpenWRT, only have experience in setting up a home router.
Actually, Black Swift was born from combining these requirements (I’ll just say that it’s work-in-progress - we’re messing with the software and the ready-made prototypes of the board do not have, for example, a stabilizer of 2.75 V - it will appear in the final version) :
(connection of the periphery - yes at least just with wires)
At the same time, the board has enough computational power and memory for practically everything that a soul may wish from a computer of this size. For example - on the same Atheros AR9331 chip they make cheap routers, the most famous example is TP-Link TL-MR3020 and its derivatives. There 4 MB (in words: four megabytes) of flash, while OpenWRT fits into it with the web interface, and still about half a megabyte of space remains. On Black Swift there are 16 MB of flash and 64 MB of RAM - that is, to exhaust its resources, with OpenWRT you need to do something very serious (and in this case you can connect a regular USB flash drive to USB - OpenWRT can use them to expand the root file systems). From the periphery - 26 GPIO, USB-host, UART, I 2 S, I 2 C, SPI, Ethernet ...
Moreover, if the MR3020 is equipped with DDR-memory, on systems on Ralink RT5350 (the same VoCore) - and does SDR, then we have - honest DDR2, with a corresponding increase in performance.
(I blink LED!)
How do we see the application?
Firstly, the trendy topic is now “smart home” and dummies with Wi-Fi. If you want to play around with this direction, then you can easily do Black Swift with automation and output almost any device to the Internet, from the outlet (to make a Wi-Fi outlet on Black Swift is how to flash LEDs on Arduin, everyone has to go!) to at least a washing machine. Dimensions allow you to embed Black Swift in almost anything, the abundance of GPIO - connect buttons and indicators either in parallel with the device's giblets, or simply instead of them. In the simplest case, when you need a few GPIO (teapot!), The strapping can be done even with a mounted installation, if you need a little more difficult or a little more beautiful - draw and make at least LUT, even though the Chinese have a “motherboard” under Black Swift.
You can make an old, but your favorite printer wireless, you can turn the speakers into a Wi-Fi radio, you can into an mp3 player that will play music from the file dump on your home NAS, and be controlled from any smartphone (by the way, the speakers are very convenient Zayuzat one GPIO under the power-off their amplifier, depending on whether the music is playing). In all cases, all this will be easy, neat and hidden inside the device itself.
Raspberry Pi in this capacity, as you understand, is somehow not very good - it simply doesn’t fit inside most devices. So stop comparing us with it.
If you wish, you can make the entire controller of the “smart home” on Black Swift by hanging the transceivers you need on it. It will be easy, inexpensive and very compact.
Secondly, although it is a narrow niche, radio-controlled models. Dimensions, for flying - weight (the board weighs 3 grams), the presence of USB under the webcam, if the camera is not needed - the ability to power from one can of Li ... In general, those who want to have fun here is where to turn.
Thirdly, of course, their own development. A few people can design a computing module of such performance, especially (you can, of course, also AR9331 manually solder, but this is very much for aesthetes), but to make a motherboard for a ready-made module is already a more than feasible task, more so for a comb , and not soldering directly to the surface of the "motherboard". The module can even not be soldered, but put on the connector - in it solder the comb PLLD (double row 1.27 mm), and in the board - the PBD socket.
For professionals, it will be just an easy-to-use ready-made board (which, moreover, can be officially bought in Russia, with all invoices and without FEA), for beginners it’s not just an easy-to-use embedded computer, but also a kind of ladder for more complex development. The fact is that with Black Swift you can develop your work gradually: start with standard USB peripherals, then connect to the GPIO via an adapter or simply wiring wires, then make your board with LUT, then with the help of the Chinese or Resonit ... The advantage of BSB is that the central part will remain the same at all these stages.
By the way, if we talk about motherboards, there will be an adapter to the comb 2.54 mm, and we also think about the devboard, which will immediately have the maximum of all peripherals (impractical for practical use, but convenient for debugging), a small board with several power switches and logical inputs , and a board with AVR, on which ADC can be made for several channels and PWM.
By the way, about the AVR. Since there is a UART on the Black Swift, it is possible to use Arduino as a periphery (with the matching of levels, of course: Black Swift has a power supply of 3.3 V, and the Arduin has 5 V). On Arduino, you can do the above-mentioned ADC and PWM, you can do something hard real-time, and on Black Swift you can do basic logic, Wi-Fi, a web interface.
By the way, about the web interface. The ability to easily raise an HTTP server with PHP on the board (and even HTTPS if you want) is not only an interface in the browser, but also a simple smartphone application. On Android, you take the WebView component, which will show your interface, add a pinch of Network Service Discovery to it, start the web server and the avahi daemon (it is available for OpenWRT) on the board. Avahi broadcasts “callsigns” to the network, NSD finds IP devices by it, WebView shows the interface from it — we got the simplest smartphone application for your project that looks like the present and even makes you happy. Pulling the Black Swift legs from PHP or, on the contrary, reading the external ACP and showing the temperature of the water in the kettle is a task that we can easily solve.
In general, you probably need to stop yourself with this "by the way", otherwise you can continue for a long time. A tiny board with Wi-Fi and simple connection and use is a powerful thing.
PS
1) Russian-language site of the project , in the process of filling.
2) On Kickstarter - January 20th.
3) A trial batch with the final design of the board - by January 10. Now there are samples, but there are few of them and they are not final in terms of functionality and layout of connectors.
4) The nominal value is planned $ 25, for Russia we consider the nominal value of $ 20.
Perhaps we should finally answer this question - at the same time noting with this answer the appearance of a corporate blog with us (thanks, Habr!), As well as the launch of a separate website dedicated only to this project.
')
In short: although initially the project began as “and not whether we make a nanocomputer like the Chinese, but cheaper for ourselves?”, The motivation quickly shifted - we realized that we can make it, if not cheaper, then better and more convenient, and not only for myself.
In general, if you look at existing micro and nanocomputers (I nominally define “nano” as everything comparable to a matchbox, and if it is comparable to a cigarette pack, then it’s already “micro”, probably; it’s necessary somehow to introduce a gradation of dimensions BlackSwift stopped comparing with RPi?), Then they are quite clearly divided into two categories:
- For fans, the brightest example is RPi in its classic version, and Arduino, although this is not our weight category anymore. Very simple to connect, do not need to solder anything for the first start.
- For professionals - VoCore, Carambola, Intel Edison and many others. Very small, easily embedded in your own development, but with a relatively high entry threshold: Of these three, you can run VoCore without a soldering iron, and even this launch will be limited to connecting the power supply, USB already needs a daughter board.
So, we realized that we can and want to combine two things: to make a nanocomputer with a low input threshold and at the same time not only suitable, but also convenient for professionals (after all, we ourselves want to use it in our developments).
What do you need for lovers? The simplicity of the basic connection (ideally, the power supply and some peripherals should be connected without a soldering iron at all - so that you can immediately start experimenting), ease of setup, simplicity of writing and debugging your software.
What do you need for professionals? The minimum dimensions, a lot of I / O, many different interfaces, ease of sealing in their design. The simplicity of writing and debugging software also does not hurt: after all, a person can be a professional from electronics, and with OpenWRT, only have experience in setting up a home router.
Actually, Black Swift was born from combining these requirements (I’ll just say that it’s work-in-progress - we’re messing with the software and the ready-made prototypes of the board do not have, for example, a stabilizer of 2.75 V - it will appear in the final version) :
- Two standard micro-USB on the board, through one is powered, the other through the USB-OTG adapter, you can connect any USB peripherals, for example, a webcam. That is, to start a normal charge from the smartphone is enough.
- Wi-Fi on the board, including a printed antenna.
- Power stabilizer on the board. The board lives from 3.4 to 6 V, that is, it can work from one lithium can (although if USB is needed, then, of course, 5 V ± 5%).
- The built-in stabilizer has a large power reserve: it delivers up to 1 A, the board itself consumes no more than 300 mA. Accordingly, you can use the remainder in your design: feed the BSB 5 V, remove 3.3 V to 700 mA from it.
- Additional stabilizer 2.75 V 300 mA. The trick is that the recommended maximum voltage for GPIO in AR9331 is 2.75 V (although they also work at 3.3 V), so BSB provides an easy and convenient way to follow this recommendation.
- I / O in the form of conventional platforms under the comb, albeit with a small pitch (PLLD 1.27 mm). For lovers, this is an opportunity to be soldered with wires directly to the board, if you want to pick up some simple peripherals, for the pros - convenient installation in their projects (much more convenient than with contacts on the edge of the board, like Carambola, not to mention the fact that make the module removable or put it vertically on the corner comb).
- Power and USB are duplicated on combs, of course.
- Pre-installed OpenWRT, immediately configured to work as an access point. That is, after the first power-up, we simply connect to the board via Wi-Fi.
- A virtual machine for a PC in which everything is already set up for writing and debugging software under OpenWRT - we know that not everyone wants to install the OpenWRT toolchain for themselves with pens.
- A set of libraries to work with the main peripherals - starting with GPIO.
- User space-utility for working with the main periphery. Not everyone likes programming in C, and the ability to pull a leg from user space means that you can write some of your frontend in bash scripts, PHP (along with a web-muzzle) or something else will be more convenient for a particular person to write, the choice becomes rather big .
- All this with open source and usage examples.
(connection of the periphery - yes at least just with wires)
At the same time, the board has enough computational power and memory for practically everything that a soul may wish from a computer of this size. For example - on the same Atheros AR9331 chip they make cheap routers, the most famous example is TP-Link TL-MR3020 and its derivatives. There 4 MB (in words: four megabytes) of flash, while OpenWRT fits into it with the web interface, and still about half a megabyte of space remains. On Black Swift there are 16 MB of flash and 64 MB of RAM - that is, to exhaust its resources, with OpenWRT you need to do something very serious (and in this case you can connect a regular USB flash drive to USB - OpenWRT can use them to expand the root file systems). From the periphery - 26 GPIO, USB-host, UART, I 2 S, I 2 C, SPI, Ethernet ...
Moreover, if the MR3020 is equipped with DDR-memory, on systems on Ralink RT5350 (the same VoCore) - and does SDR, then we have - honest DDR2, with a corresponding increase in performance.
(I blink LED!)
How do we see the application?
Firstly, the trendy topic is now “smart home” and dummies with Wi-Fi. If you want to play around with this direction, then you can easily do Black Swift with automation and output almost any device to the Internet, from the outlet (to make a Wi-Fi outlet on Black Swift is how to flash LEDs on Arduin, everyone has to go!) to at least a washing machine. Dimensions allow you to embed Black Swift in almost anything, the abundance of GPIO - connect buttons and indicators either in parallel with the device's giblets, or simply instead of them. In the simplest case, when you need a few GPIO (teapot!), The strapping can be done even with a mounted installation, if you need a little more difficult or a little more beautiful - draw and make at least LUT, even though the Chinese have a “motherboard” under Black Swift.
You can make an old, but your favorite printer wireless, you can turn the speakers into a Wi-Fi radio, you can into an mp3 player that will play music from the file dump on your home NAS, and be controlled from any smartphone (by the way, the speakers are very convenient Zayuzat one GPIO under the power-off their amplifier, depending on whether the music is playing). In all cases, all this will be easy, neat and hidden inside the device itself.
Raspberry Pi in this capacity, as you understand, is somehow not very good - it simply doesn’t fit inside most devices. So stop comparing us with it.
If you wish, you can make the entire controller of the “smart home” on Black Swift by hanging the transceivers you need on it. It will be easy, inexpensive and very compact.
Secondly, although it is a narrow niche, radio-controlled models. Dimensions, for flying - weight (the board weighs 3 grams), the presence of USB under the webcam, if the camera is not needed - the ability to power from one can of Li ... In general, those who want to have fun here is where to turn.
Thirdly, of course, their own development. A few people can design a computing module of such performance, especially (you can, of course, also AR9331 manually solder, but this is very much for aesthetes), but to make a motherboard for a ready-made module is already a more than feasible task, more so for a comb , and not soldering directly to the surface of the "motherboard". The module can even not be soldered, but put on the connector - in it solder the comb PLLD (double row 1.27 mm), and in the board - the PBD socket.
For professionals, it will be just an easy-to-use ready-made board (which, moreover, can be officially bought in Russia, with all invoices and without FEA), for beginners it’s not just an easy-to-use embedded computer, but also a kind of ladder for more complex development. The fact is that with Black Swift you can develop your work gradually: start with standard USB peripherals, then connect to the GPIO via an adapter or simply wiring wires, then make your board with LUT, then with the help of the Chinese or Resonit ... The advantage of BSB is that the central part will remain the same at all these stages.
By the way, if we talk about motherboards, there will be an adapter to the comb 2.54 mm, and we also think about the devboard, which will immediately have the maximum of all peripherals (impractical for practical use, but convenient for debugging), a small board with several power switches and logical inputs , and a board with AVR, on which ADC can be made for several channels and PWM.
By the way, about the AVR. Since there is a UART on the Black Swift, it is possible to use Arduino as a periphery (with the matching of levels, of course: Black Swift has a power supply of 3.3 V, and the Arduin has 5 V). On Arduino, you can do the above-mentioned ADC and PWM, you can do something hard real-time, and on Black Swift you can do basic logic, Wi-Fi, a web interface.
By the way, about the web interface. The ability to easily raise an HTTP server with PHP on the board (and even HTTPS if you want) is not only an interface in the browser, but also a simple smartphone application. On Android, you take the WebView component, which will show your interface, add a pinch of Network Service Discovery to it, start the web server and the avahi daemon (it is available for OpenWRT) on the board. Avahi broadcasts “callsigns” to the network, NSD finds IP devices by it, WebView shows the interface from it — we got the simplest smartphone application for your project that looks like the present and even makes you happy. Pulling the Black Swift legs from PHP or, on the contrary, reading the external ACP and showing the temperature of the water in the kettle is a task that we can easily solve.
In general, you probably need to stop yourself with this "by the way", otherwise you can continue for a long time. A tiny board with Wi-Fi and simple connection and use is a powerful thing.
PS
1) Russian-language site of the project , in the process of filling.
2) On Kickstarter - January 20th.
3) A trial batch with the final design of the board - by January 10. Now there are samples, but there are few of them and they are not final in terms of functionality and layout of connectors.
4) The nominal value is planned $ 25, for Russia we consider the nominal value of $ 20.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246673/
All Articles