ZEPHYR RTOS ROX!

If you never heard about Free-and-Open-Source ZEPHYR RTOS [1] (Apache 2.0 licensed) then it will make your day as the best platform out there for your new embedded electronics design :-) It works on anything.. even on Open-Source-Hardware RISC-V CPU [2] :-)

[1] https://zephyrproject.org/
[2] https://riscv.org/

Make PDF small with GS

With this trick you can make your PDF smaller even 10x with no noticable picture quality loss :-)

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH  -dQUIET -dDownsampleColorImages=true -dColorImageResolution=200 -dColorImageDownsampleType=/Bicubic -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf

Xilinx USB JTAG Platform Cable Vivado Linux

If you work with Xilnx Vivado Design Suite [1] for FPGA development using USB JTAG interface such as Xilinx USB Platform Cable [2] or its cheaper clone from WaveShare [3], everything seems to be connected properly, but it cannot find the Target for programming, you probably need to perform drivers setup manually [4]. Error message looks like this:

ERROR: [Labtoolstcl 44-494] There is no active target available for server at localhost.
Targets(s) ", jsn3" may be locked by another hw_server.

Error message may indicate that another instance of hw_server is running in the background but that is not the case. Check your drivers first [4]. Some hints:

  • Run as root and be careful as this will modify your OS.
  • Install script location is Vivado/2020.2/data/xicom/cable_drivers/lin64/install_script/install_drivers.
  • Platform Cable USB interface is pcusb.
  • Make sure UDEV rules are installed in /etc/udev/rules.d/ (i.e. 52-xilinx-pcusb.rules file).
  • After drivers are set up remember to restart UDEV with service udev restart command and re-attach your USB JTAG cable.

[1] https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/vivado.html
[2] https://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/hw-usb-ii-g.html
[3] https://www.waveshare.com/platform-cable-usb.htm
[4] https://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/54381.html

DSO QUAD MINI SCOPE ACCU REPLACEMENT

If you are happy user of DSO QUAD pocket oscilloscope from Seeed Studio [1] then probably after all those years you need to replace the accumulator. Because stock model PL384070 3.7V 1000mAh is not available anymore you can safely use CL404070 3.7V 1300mAh that is only 0.2mm thicker but it also fits the scope very well and you gain 30% capacity. You only have to solder the plug from the old accumulator. Enjoy :-)







[1] https://www.seeedstudio.com/DSO-Quad-Aluminium-Alloy-Black-p-1034.html