[url=Http://www.hempstick.org][url=Http://www.hempstick.org][url=Http://www.hempstick.org]Http://www.hempstick.org[/url][/url][/url]

Announcing Hempstick OpenSource USB firmware for Joystick and general purpose flight sim controller.

1. Uses Atmel's ARM 32bit MCUs, up to 120Mhz.
2. You buy the supported boards from either Atmel directly or buy the Arduino Due board from anywhere (none of my business).
3. Contains FreeRTOS, a real-time operating system and is fully multi-threaded, unlike Arduino's dumb busy polling loop wasting CPU cycles.
4. Uses voltage level change event-based interrupt handlers tasks to read buttons and switches. No button press, no CPU cycles used.
5. Up to 16 channels of 12bit ADC. Contain a digital averaging noise filter. Can use over-sampling to increase resolution to 14bit w/ software (can do 16bit, but I personally feel it's quite phony so it's artificially limited to 14bit). ADC reading uses DMA freewheeling, without software intervention, so you always get the latest ADC values at the USB report time.

7. Reads TM Cougar and Warthog sticks with hardware (only for MCUs that have SSC modules, SAM4S and SAM3X), so it doesn't waste CPU cycles to generate the right wave form for the stick's buffer.

8. 1000 samples per second, max a full speed USB can do. There is plenty of CPU to do more, but no point of doing that.

9. Configure the USB VID/PID to anything you want. My CH rudder is, for instance, configured as TM16000, as I don't have any USB VID. Works just fine. Currently, these values are compiled in. A planed feature would let you configure them at runtime, as these are written in SRAM, unlike some written in ROM.

10. You get the source code, install the IDE, change a configuration file, press a button and it burns the firmware for you. Step-by-step instructions in the form of PDF and iBook. For some boards, you will need to buy a hardware programmer, but for some other boards, Atmel includes an EDBG chip on board that allows you to debug/program the MCU w/o additional hardware debugger.

Yes, you read that right, YOU BURN THE FIRMWARE. Don't worry, I have step-by-step screen shot instructions walking you through downloading/installing the software tools to pressing the button to compile/burn the firmware. Installing the IDE is not unlike installing a game program. After the installation, all you will need to do are unzip the source code, open the two projects, change a config file and press the build button.

11. Uses Atmel Software Foundation library, so supporting newer faster/better Atmel MCUs would be quite simple. For instance, I just got my paws on a SAM4E board that has a build in Ethernet on die, and Atmel's W23 WiFi module is just announced and availability is imminent.

Planed feature includes reading MLX90363 ion SPI digital mode.

Well done, a very interesting project.

Released a rudder mod demo document for Hempstick last weekend. http://www.hempstick.org/jforum/posts/list/11.page

Currently doing the Hempstick SAM4E support project, an ARM32 chip with Ethernet on die and sort of 16bit ADC (hardware oversampled to 16bit from a 12bit ADC core). Planning to use the Ethernet for a DeviceNet protocol I will be defining to output whatever you wish to the board to control anything you want, LEDs, analog gauges, what have you in your pit.

Next week's project is a demo project to do the whole Cougar, including reading the Cougar stick via the 5 pin PS2 style connector.

I will NOT be cross posting announcements here. For Hempstick announcements, please head toward http://www.hempstick.org/jforum, or ED Forum's Input & Output board, I will cross post announcements there.