Prototype PCB Boards!

Last week I received the first 5 Kompressor Secure Concentrator hardware prototype boards. The boards were built and assembled by NextPCB (a Chinese manufacturer). The quality looks great and I really like the matte black solder mask. The build time took a little bit longer than I expected. But I guess that’s on me for ordering in the middle of Chinese New Year.

I have been feverishly working on writing firmware. Here is a list of things that work and don’t work so far:

Working:

  • (firmware) Secure boot using EC25519 app signing.
  • (firmware) bootloader xmodem app download.
  • (firmware) SPI proxy protocol communicating with pkt-forwarder
  • (hardware) 3.3v and 1.2v power domains
  • (hardware) microcontroller status LED
  • (hardware) SX1303 hardware reset

Not tested (yet)

  • (hardware) GPS radio EDIT now tested and working
  • (hardware) LoRa Radios EDIT now tested and working
  • (hardware) USB EDIT now tested and working

Maybe a problem:

  • When going though the board initialization phase, the SX1250 radio is failing to to go into STANDBY_XOSC mode. Not really sure what that means. I have probed the the XTA input and see a nice 32MHz signal. More investigation needed. I could use the community help here. Does anyone know what STANDBY_XOSC mode is? EDIT – Now tested and working!

Anyways, so far these boards are serving their purpose as prototypes to allow me to write firmware so I’m happy. These boards are big milestone in the hip 22 DIY concentrator project!

2 Comments

    • Yes, the source for hardware and firmware will be open-sourced once this projects gets closer to completion. Right now, we are in prototype phases and subject to substantial changes.

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