This version I planed a long time, but because it is super hard, tried many times all failed. I faced many problems:

1. PoE voltage is 50V~60V but VoCore2 is only 5V, how to protect VoCore2 from outside noise or unexpect high voltage(like lighting from ethernet)?
2. PoE heat is pretty much, VoCore2 Ultimate already very small, how to reduce the heat without a fan?
3. PoE use a lot of parts, include a big cap(electrolytic capacitor), such high voltage cap(100V) we do not have small part as replacement. Also such cap can not stand high temperture or its life time will be reduce a lot. How to place it into so limited space?
4. We have low speed signal like I2C; high speed signal like USB, SDXC, ethernet; analog signal for sound card headphone output, micphone input and high voltage power input, low voltage power output, how to arrange them into only coin sized space without a war?
5. Ethernet need transformer which is big; PoE need two diode bridge which is big; Sound card, USB2TTL, POE power convert chip, and their capacitor, all are space eater.

Finally I find a way to make it work 🙂 This is a really adventure. Later blog will explain how I did it.

The screen has some special commands which can be used to control its brightness and flip the screen, but because the command is not compatible for all type of screen, so test it before use it. Here is a reference for use such command.

For fbusb driver, we have a file named command in /sys folder, we can use it to send the command.

# turn off backlight
echo -e '\x00\x51\x02\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00' > `find /sys/devices/platform/ -name command`
# set backlight brightness to max
echo -e '\x00\x51\x02\x00\x00\x00\xff\x00' > `find /sys/devices/platform/ -name command`
# set backlight brightness to 128(half)
echo -e '\x00\x51\x02\x00\x00\x00\x80\x00' > `find /sys/devices/platform/ -name command`

Here is an example of libusb.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <memory.h>

#include <libusb-1.0/libusb.h>

static libusb_context *context = NULL;
static libusb_device_handle *handle = NULL;

unsigned char cmd_rotate[] = {0x00, 0x36, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00};
unsigned char cmd_backlight[] = {0x00, 0x51, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00};

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{   
    if (argc != 3) {
        printf("usage: send_cmd [cmd: m|b] [param]\n");
        printf("example: mirror by axis x,y [0,1,2,3]\n\tsend_cmd m 1\n");
        printf("example: set backlight [0~255]\n\tsend_cmd b 120\n");
        return 0;
    }
    
    libusb_init(&context);
    handle = libusb_open_device_with_vid_pid(context, 0xc872, 0x1004);
    if (handle == NULL) {
        printf("no device.\n");
        return -1;
    }

    libusb_claim_interface(handle, 0);
    libusb_set_interface_alt_setting(handle, 0, 0);
    
    switch (argv[1][0]) {
    case 'm':
        cmd_rotate[6] = atoi(argv[2]);
        libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0x40, 0xb0, 0, 0, cmd_rotate, 8, 100);
        break;
        
    case 'b':
        cmd_backlight[6] = atoi(argv[2]);
        libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0x40, 0xb0, 0, 0, cmd_backlight, 8, 100);
        break;
        
    default:
        printf("command is not supported.");
        break;
    }
        
    libusb_release_interface(handle, 0);
    libusb_close(handle);
    libusb_exit(context);
    return 0;
}

Also please check https://vocore.io/screen.html, the v2scrctl source code for libusb.

Currently our V7B board has I2C interface exported, and actually we can control it through USB port.

Note: This I2C mainly is used for upgrade firmware on the usb bus, so it might be risk to use, if you send wrong data to it, it might broken firmware.

Here is the I2C API, only three commands:

#define CMD_SCREEN_I2C          0xb5
#define CMD_SCREEN_I2C_WR       0xb6
#define CMD_SCREEN_I2C_RD       0xb7

0xb5 [i2c address 1byte] [write size 1byte] [read size 1byte] [write data …] this is used to tell i2c bus how many data we will write and how many data we will read then follows the data we will write to i2c, that data will save to a buffer.

0xb6 [i2c address 1byte] this is used to trigger write, send address to it then I2C will write data from its buffer to external device.

0xb7 this is used to read the data from device i2c, it will return the required data bytes(0xb5 read size) max one time can send/receive 58 – 5 = 53bytes, so for data better not to exceed 53 bytes.

Here is the example of writing data to I2C EEPROM, BLOCK_SIZE = 16.

        if (load_from_file(argv[2], buf, 0x2000) < 0) {
            printf("no firmware file.\n");
            return -1;
        }
        
        for (pos = 0; pos < 0x2000; pos += BLOCK_SIZE) {
            cmd[0] = EEPROM_ADDR;    // I2C address
            cmd[1] = BLOCK_SIZE + 2; // write 18 bytes for register address 2byte and data 16byte.
            cmd[2] = 0;              // read zero byte, no read for i2c write.
            cmd[3] = pos >> 8;       // write first byte, register address 
            cmd[4] = pos;            // write second byte, register address
            // put rest data to the buffer.
            memcpy(cmd + 5, buf + pos, BLOCK_SIZE);
            // send i2c command head to screen, require control the i2c bus.
            ret = libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0x40, CMD_SCREEN_I2C, 0, 0, cmd, BLOCK_SIZE + 5, 200);
            // write register address and data to i2c bus.
            ret = libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0xc0, CMD_SCREEN_I2C_WR, 0, 0, cmd, 1, 200);
            
            if (pos % 0x100 == 0) {
                printf(".");
                fflush(stdout);
            }
        }

Here is the example of reading data from I2C EEPROM

        for (pos = 0; pos < 0x2000; pos += BLOCK_SIZE) {
            cmd[0] = EEPROM_ADDR; // I2C address
            cmd[1] = 2;           // write two bytes for register address.
            cmd[2] = BLOCK_SIZE;  // read 16 bytes
            cmd[3] = pos >> 8;    // write data first byte
            cmd[4] = pos;         // write data second byte
            
            ret = libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0x40, CMD_SCREEN_I2C, 0, 0, cmd, 5, 200);
            // write register address to i2c bus.
            ret = libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0xc0, CMD_SCREEN_I2C_WR, 0, 0, cmd, 1, 200);
            // read data from i2c bus.
            ret = libusb_control_transfer(handle, 0xc0, CMD_SCREEN_I2C_RD, 0, 0, cmd, BLOCK_SIZE + 1, 200);
            
            memcpy(buf + pos, cmd + 1, BLOCK_SIZE);
            if (pos % 0x100 == 0) {
                printf(".");
                fflush(stdout);
            }
        }

With this I2C interface, we can easy control RGB LED driver chip like AW9523 and other chips. Then it will save a lot of cost make customized board, do not need arduino and USBhub chip anymore.

To be continue…

After months hard work, the 7inch(6.8in exactly) screen is ready in time. 🙂

This screen is pretty special, because the screen main design target is for real car but not like our current 4inch/5inch screen for consumer usage. So it can stand even worse environment like hot area over 65C.

Here is its shape:

New 5inch screen comes, old version will keep production for a while for compatible, but later we consider move to new version.

New screen(D500FPC9373-C) we have four improvements.

1. stronger border, this is in order to provide better protection of the screen.
2. increase backlight brightness.
3. better color for display.
4. better supply, old version screen driver chip is pretty shortage.

Also these improvements caused shape adjust. The display screen thickness increased 0.2mm, and border is wider 0.2mm. Touch screen and display area still same size.

PS: new screen currently only test with our screen_test and SimHub, rest application might not compatible, need to upgrade. For non-developer, recommend to keep using the old stable version to avoid any mystery problem.

This happens more than one time. I think we have already stand enough to use PayPal and need to find an alter one asap. It is too risk to use it for online shop.

Case is like this: some people go to our store and purchase something, suddenly they think they buy wrong items. And did not email us but open a disputes case and ask for refund. All in 5 minutes.

Once case is open, whatever we reply or we do not reply, it will be automaticlly submit and of course, buyer’s favor.

I really understand and willing to refund people for mistake buying from our store, but why the paypal charge us 8USD for dispute fee?! It is terrible.

I think move our store to aliexpress.com and use alipay is the only choice…

Some DIYers complained it is pretty hard for hand solder the small screen driver board on their designed board. So I find a way for them easier hand solder screen driver board to their board.

On the screen driver board bottom, we have some test points which is used for test at production also for SMT the board to other customized board. It is not designed for hand solder. We need some tricky for hand solder.

We can design like this, add a oval hole on the PCB, size should be enough for the thin iron

Then we can directly solder through the hole to the pads. This way we do not need use pins or other connectors, low cost and simple. 🙂

Attach the position of the pads(KiCAD), one note is they are on the bottom side.

For mass production, I still recommend directly use SMT machine solder it. :p

Recently I need a super small bootloader for an arm chip, every bit need to be very careful used. When I read the code, I find an interesting function is_digit in printf.c, this blog will show common code and old expert code difference.

This function is used to check if a char is in the range of ‘0’ ~’9′, ascii is 48~57.

The common code is like this:

bool _is_digit_a(char ch)
{
    return (ch >= '0') && (ch <= '9');
}

This way is easy to read, but normally old fashion will write in another way, like this

bool _is_digit_b(char ch)
{
    return ((unsigned char)(ch - '0') <= 9);
}

Haha, actually they are same function, but second way looks like much smaller and faster.

Let’s do a simple test by gcc and its toolchain, first for x86 system:

call gcc -c test.c -o test.x86.o, then objdump -DSx test.x86.o, we can get machine code

0000000000000000 <_is_digit_a>:
    0:    f3 0f 1e fa             endbr64 
    4:    55                      push   %rbp
    5:    48 89 e5                mov    %rsp,%rbp
    8:    89 f8                   mov    %edi,%eax
    a:    88 45 fc                mov    %al,-0x4(%rbp)
    d:    80 7d fc 2f             cmpb   $0x2f,-0x4(%rbp)
   11:    7e 0d                   jle    20 <_is_digit_a+0x20>
   13:    80 7d fc 39             cmpb   $0x39,-0x4(%rbp)
   17:    7f 07                   jg     20 <_is_digit_a+0x20>
   19:    b8 01 00 00 00          mov    $0x1,%eax
   1e:    eb 05                   jmp    25 <_is_digit_a+0x25>
   20:    b8 00 00 00 00          mov    $0x0,%eax
   25:    83 e0 01                and    $0x1,%eax
   28:    5d                      pop    %rbp
   29:    c3                      retq   
 000000000000002a <_is_digit_b>:
   2a:    f3 0f 1e fa             endbr64 
   2e:    55                      push   %rbp
   2f:    48 89 e5                mov    %rsp,%rbp
   32:    89 f8                   mov    %edi,%eax
   34:    88 45 fc                mov    %al,-0x4(%rbp)
   37:    0f b6 45 fc             movzbl -0x4(%rbp),%eax
   3b:    83 e8 30                sub    $0x30,%eax
   3e:    3c 09                   cmp    $0x9,%al
   40:    0f 96 c0                setbe  %al
   43:    5d                      pop    %rbp
   44:    c3                      retq   

so A takes around 15 commands and 42 bytes, and B takes 11 commands and 27 bytes, save approx 30%.

Then check arm, call arm-none-eabi-gcc -c test.c -o test.arm.o, then arm-none-eabi-objdump -Dsx test.arm.o

00000000 <_is_digit_a>:
    0:    e52db004    push    {fp}        ; (str fp, [sp, #-4]!)
    4:    e28db000    add fp, sp, #0
    8:    e24dd00c    sub sp, sp, #12
    c:    e1a03000    mov r3, r0
   10:    e54b3005    strb    r3, [fp, #-5]
   14:    e55b3005    ldrb    r3, [fp, #-5]
   18:    e353002f    cmp r3, #47 ; 0x2f
   1c:    9a000004    bls 34 <_is_digit_a+0x34>
   20:    e55b3005    ldrb    r3, [fp, #-5]
   24:    e3530039    cmp r3, #57 ; 0x39
   28:    8a000001    bhi 34 <_is_digit_a+0x34>
   2c:    e3a03001    mov r3, #1
   30:    ea000000    b   38 <_is_digit_a+0x38>
   34:    e3a03000    mov r3, #0
   38:    e2033001    and r3, r3, #1
   3c:    e20330ff    and r3, r3, #255    ; 0xff
   40:    e1a00003    mov r0, r3
   44:    e28bd000    add sp, fp, #0
   48:    e49db004    pop {fp}        ; (ldr fp, [sp], #4)
   4c:    e12fff1e    bx  lr
             4c: R_ARM_V4BX  ABS
 00000050 <_is_digit_b>:
   50:    e52db004    push    {fp}        ; (str fp, [sp, #-4]!)
   54:    e28db000    add fp, sp, #0
   58:    e24dd00c    sub sp, sp, #12
   5c:    e1a03000    mov r3, r0
   60:    e54b3005    strb    r3, [fp, #-5]
   64:    e55b3005    ldrb    r3, [fp, #-5]
   68:    e2433030    sub r3, r3, #48 ; 0x30
   6c:    e20330ff    and r3, r3, #255    ; 0xff
   70:    e3530009    cmp r3, #9
   74:    93a03001    movls   r3, #1
   78:    83a03000    movhi   r3, #0
   7c:    e20330ff    and r3, r3, #255    ; 0xff
   80:    e1a00003    mov r0, r3
   84:    e28bd000    add sp, fp, #0
   88:    e49db004    pop {fp}        ; (ldr fp, [sp], #4)
   8c:    e12fff1e    bx  lr
             8c: R_ARM_V4BX  ABS

A uses 20 instructions and B uses 16 instructions, saves 20%. Also no branch, more friendly to CPU workflow.

Final, try riscv, call riscv-none-embed-gcc -c test.c -o test.riscv.o, then riscv-none-embed-objdump -Dsx test.riscv.o

00000000 <_is_digit_a>:
    0:    1101                    addi    sp,sp,-32
    2:    ce22                    sw  s0,28(sp)
    4:    1000                    addi    s0,sp,32
    6:    87aa                    mv  a5,a0
    8:    fef407a3            sb  a5,-17(s0)
    c:    fef44703            lbu a4,-17(s0)
   10:    02f00793            li  a5,47
   14:    00e7fa63            bgeu    a5,a4,28 <.L2>
             14: R_RISCV_BRANCH  .L2
   18:    fef44703            lbu a4,-17(s0)
   1c:    03900793            li  a5,57
   20:    00e7e463            bltu    a5,a4,28 <.L2>
             20: R_RISCV_BRANCH  .L2
   24:    4785                    li  a5,1
   26:    a011                    j   2a <.L3>
             26: R_RISCV_RVC_JUMP    .L3
 00000028 <.L2>:
   28:    4781                    li  a5,0
 0000002a <.L3>:
   2a:    8b85                    andi    a5,a5,1
   2c:    0ff7f793            andi    a5,a5,255
   30:    853e                    mv  a0,a5
   32:    4472                    lw  s0,28(sp)
   34:    6105                    addi    sp,sp,32
   36:    8082                    ret
 00000038 <_is_digit_b>:
   38:    1101                    addi    sp,sp,-32
   3a:    ce22                    sw  s0,28(sp)
   3c:    1000                    addi    s0,sp,32
   3e:    87aa                    mv  a5,a0
   40:    fef407a3            sb  a5,-17(s0)
   44:    fef44783            lbu a5,-17(s0)
   48:    fd078793            addi    a5,a5,-48
   4c:    0ff7f793            andi    a5,a5,255
   50:    00a7b793            sltiu   a5,a5,10
   54:    0ff7f793            andi    a5,a5,255
   58:    853e                    mv  a0,a5
   5a:    4472                    lw  s0,28(sp)
   5c:    6105                    addi    sp,sp,32
   5e:    8082                    ret

A takes 54bytes and 20 instructions; B takes 38bytes and 14 instructions, save 30%. Also no branch, more friendly to CPU workflow.

test source code like this:

#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>

bool _is_digit_a(char ch)
{
    return (ch >= '0') && (ch <= '9');
}

bool _is_digit_b(char ch)
{
    return ((unsigned char)(ch - '0') <= 9);
}

void main(void)
{
    for (unsigned char i = 0; i < 255; i++) {
        printf("%d is%s digit\r\n", i, _is_digit_a((char)i) ? "" : " not");
        printf("%d is%s digit\r\n", i, _is_digit_b((char)i) ? "" : " not");
    }
}

PS: actually for modern compiler, any optimize will make both same code, only 1/3 of not optimized size. 🙂 nothing really need to improve now. Way A is the better way for it is more readable.

So final note, do not forget -O when you use gcc :p

This blog focus on microSD support.

Because I already know it is cd-polling problem, so directly go to source code, see if the polling is supported in this version.

Source code position is at openwrt-21.02.1/target/linux/ramips/files/drivers/mmc/host/mtk-mmc/sd.c

... line 2249 ...
if (of_property_read_bool(pdev->dev.of_node, "mediatek,cd-poll"))
    mmc->caps |= MMC_CAP_NEEDS_POLL;

... line 442 ...
if (host->mmc->caps & MMC_CAP_NEEDS_POLL)
    inserted = 1;

... line 1862 ...
if (host->mmc->caps & MMC_CAP_NEEDS_POLL)
    present = 1;

Looks like my patch is already combined to 21.02, so once I add this mediatek,cd-poll to VoCore2 Ultimate DTS it will just works.

We can directly modify openwrt-21.02.1/target/linux/ramips/dts/mt7628an_vocore_vocore2.dts to make VoCore2 support SD card. For simple, attach four lines to end of the dts file.

&sdhci {
	status = "okay";
	mediatek,cd-poll;
};

Now, after this patch, make sure kmod-mmc, kmod-sdhci-mt7620 is selected in kernel.

Compile OpenWrt, then upload to VoCore2, it just works.

PS: if your VoCore do not have SD card slot, enable sdhci polling mode will cause it output error log every two seconds. So this driver is not default enable in VoCore2 device tree.

OpenWrt 21.02.2 is pretty stable, the even better part is it supports WPA3. Official OpenWrt 21.02.2 release directly work with VoCore2 SBC version, but for VoCore2 Ultimate version, we have some external devices need to be supported, so this blog and following blogs I will write down the process I patch OpenWrt 21.02.

There are three main parts:

1. microSD card can not detect or read.
2. ES8388 sound card can not work.
3. DTS(device tree) need to update add 1,2 setting.

In my experience, microSD problem is mainly caused by default mmc driver who do not support cd-polling. cd-polling is used to scan the microSD card insert into the slot but not using card detect pin. Actually I have already submit this patch to 18.06 and 19.07, so I just need to copy and paste the patch to make it work on 21.02.

ES8388 sound card driver code is already in Linux system. For 19.07 I have a dirty patch. The better way is to write a simple clock control driver, and use DTS to setup it. For this version, I will try to make it.

DTS, this is pretty painful to learn because current tutorial is not very friendly for beginner. I will try to write another not that painful tutorial…