| mwcampbell | Is it true that the Ben has a built-in microphone as well as a speaker? | 00:32 |
|---|---|---|
| kristianpaul | yup | 00:41 |
| mwcampbell | Is audio part of the XBurst SoC, or is it provided by a separate hardware component? | 00:43 |
| kristianpaul | I think is part of the SoC yes | 00:45 |
| mwcampbell | Has anyone measured the minimum latency of audio I/O on the Ben, particularly when audio is going in both directions at the same time? | 00:47 |
| mwcampbell | (presumably using headphones for output, to avoid feedback) | 00:47 |
| kristianpaul | hmm dunno, i remenber some discussion on the mailing list but not sure if that included audio latency | 01:08 |
| mwcampbell | Does the stock OpenWrt image on the Ben have Ethernet-over-USB and telnetd enabled by default? | 01:12 |
| kristianpaul | just first time you run it | 01:16 |
| kristianpaul | so you can set root passwd if i remenber well | 01:17 |
| mwcampbell | So on the first boot, if I've connected the Ben to a Linux PC and set up the host according to the USB Ethernet instructions, I'll be able to telnet into the Ben without having to do anything on the device's console? | 01:19 |
| mwcampbell | (except power it on of course) | 01:19 |
| kristianpaul | yes you should | 01:24 |
| kristianpaul | ha lovelly http://www.pvv.org/~oma/DeepC_Scandev_Mar2013.pdf | 01:25 |
| mwcampbell | Given that the keyboard is so small, I wonder how many words per minute one can type on it, and whether it can be done effectively by touch only. | 01:27 |
| mwcampbell | (I get my Ben in a few days) | 01:27 |
| kristianpaul | ah good (got Ben), wellcome :-)! | 01:29 |
| kristianpaul | i dint wrote too much on mine so i cant said honestly | 01:29 |
| unclouded | I prefer the Ben's keyboard to that of my N900 but it's not the same as a real keyboard of course | 01:29 |
| mwcampbell | Did the Ben's price increase sometime in the past year? I read a couple of places that it was $99, but I got mine for $149 from Sharism. | 01:51 |
| mwcampbell | Also, just curious, is Sharism the manufacturer or simply the main distributor? | 01:55 |
| kristianpaul | yes it was 99 before | 02:01 |
| kristianpaul | sharism/qi-hw actually free the device specs, electronic diagrams, software ports | 02:02 |
| kristianpaul | but the device was not design by sharism it self | 02:02 |
| mwcampbell | I just found the mailing list post from last May when the price increase was announced. Good to know they have a third product in the works. | 02:06 |
| mwcampbell | I briefly thought about buying the Milkymist One since the core is completely open, but a pocket computer interested me more than a video synthesizer. | 02:07 |
| mwcampbell | plus the Milkymist is expensive | 02:07 |
| kristianpaul | Why you buyed the Ben? | 02:08 |
| mwcampbell | I'm interested in a pocket computer that's designed to be hacked, as opposed to a locked-down, proprietary device. | 02:09 |
| mwcampbell | I'm not sure what application(s) I will write for it yet | 02:09 |
| mwcampbell | probably something involving audio | 02:09 |
| mwcampbell | I'm not a hardware hacker, though I've done low-level assembler coding in the past | 02:10 |
| mwcampbell | (a long time ago, on an Apple IIGS, and then some x86 assembler on the PC) | 02:11 |
| mwcampbell | I wonder how many NanoNotes Sharism/Qi-Hardware had to commit to making and selling in order to get the price as low as it is. Just curious about how all that works. | 02:22 |
| mwcampbell | I have a product idea that could be done with that SoC but would require a somewhat different hardware design (different keyboard, maybe no screen) | 02:23 |
| mwcampbell | The idea is a pocket computer designed for blind people, using a braille keyboard (total of 9 keys) | 02:24 |
| kristianpaul | I remenber i heard orders about of thousands per batch, no sure, altought if that amount really can keep prices low to be honest. | 02:25 |
| mwcampbell | These things already exist. They're usually called note-takers, because they were first used for taking notes, especially by blind students, though more recent ones have PDA-like functionality | 02:25 |
| mwcampbell | the existing devices in this category are mostly Windows CE based, and expensive | 02:25 |
| mwcampbell | When I get my Ben, one of the first things I'll do is find out if it can run the espeak text-to-speech program | 02:28 |
| mwcampbell | Anyone know of a way to add Bluetooth to the Ben? | 02:33 |
| kristianpaul | since the lack of usb host, just remain a serial port or UBB bit banging | 03:28 |
| kristianpaul | n8 | 03:45 |
| kristianpaul | gn8* | 03:45 |
| kyak | mwcampbell: i suggest that you start with exploration of existing capabilities | 04:05 |
| kyak | fo example it ships with flute | 04:06 |
| kyak | wgich btw is integrated with qstardict | 04:07 |
| kyak | i mean, dont waste your time inventing a wheel | 04:08 |
| kyak | oh, that would be flite | 04:53 |
| whitequark | kristianpaul: hehe, that is an excellent set of slides | 06:57 |
| whitequark | the part about "braindead programming language" is essentially correct :p | 06:57 |
| whitequark | https://github.com/stacksmith/fpgasm | 22:18 |
| lekernel | wolfspraul, https://github.com/stacksmith/fpgasm | 22:48 |
| lekernel | oops | 22:48 |
| whitequark | hm | 22:52 |
| whitequark | it seems to be a lower-level variant of verilog | 22:52 |
| whitequark | not sure what the point is | 22:53 |
| lekernel | no proprietary synthesis, mapping and p&r | 22:57 |
| lekernel | just proprietary xdl->bitstream | 22:58 |
| whitequark | lekernel: source? | 22:58 |
| whitequark | it strikes me as having extremely simple source for the project of such scale | 22:59 |
| lekernel | https://github.com/stacksmith/fpgasm/wiki/Getting-started | 23:00 |
| whitequark | I mean it's 2.5 KLOC of C++ | 23:01 |
| whitequark | I significantly doubt it does anything interesting on its own | 23:01 |
| Action: whitequark is browsing the source right now | 23:01 | |
| lekernel | it smoothes away some xdl ugliness | 23:02 |
| lekernel | not sure if c++ | 23:02 |
| lekernel | is so much better though ;) | 23:02 |
| whitequark | lekernel: the source is horrible but that's not the point | 23:03 |
| --- Wed Mar 20 2013 | 00:00 | |
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