Engin Cilasun
@sparsevoxel.bsky.social
Blizzard, Activision, Avalanche, Starbreeze, Simbin
(World of Warcraft / (Survival Title) / CoD Vanguard / JustCause3 & 4 / Rage / Syndicate / Race Pro)
github.com/ecilasun/tinysys
@[email protected]
u/Not_Computer
(World of Warcraft / (Survival Title) / CoD Vanguard / JustCause3 & 4 / Rage / Syndicate / Race Pro)
github.com/ecilasun/tinysys
@[email protected]
u/Not_Computer
Little bit of sandpiper time today.
I want to port a few more samples to the device and wrap up that copper unit.
I want to port a few more samples to the device and wrap up that copper unit.
September 16, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Little bit of sandpiper time today.
I want to port a few more samples to the device and wrap up that copper unit.
I want to port a few more samples to the device and wrap up that copper unit.
The complete enclosure. Slicer mess-up in some parts, I’ll fix later.
Feels just right in this form factor, slightly larger than a 60% keyboard :)
Feels just right in this form factor, slightly larger than a 60% keyboard :)
September 9, 2025 at 4:21 PM
The complete enclosure. Slicer mess-up in some parts, I’ll fix later.
Feels just right in this form factor, slightly larger than a 60% keyboard :)
Feels just right in this form factor, slightly larger than a 60% keyboard :)
Enclosure bottom plate fits. Now to start printing that top half…
September 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Enclosure bottom plate fits. Now to start printing that top half…
And ofc the enclosure is orange, too.
September 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
And ofc the enclosure is orange, too.
“How else would they know it’s made in Orange County?”
September 8, 2025 at 3:01 PM
“How else would they know it’s made in Orange County?”
So far I have the 5 units working in unison.
VCP(video coprocessor), VPU(video processing unit), APU(audio processing unit) and PAL(color palette unit) and the CPU(dual ARM cores) sit on the same AXI bus.
The APU, VCP and VPU core logic are clocked at bus speed (166.6MHz)
VCP(video coprocessor), VPU(video processing unit), APU(audio processing unit) and PAL(color palette unit) and the CPU(dual ARM cores) sit on the same AXI bus.
The APU, VCP and VPU core logic are clocked at bus speed (166.6MHz)
September 1, 2025 at 10:41 PM
So far I have the 5 units working in unison.
VCP(video coprocessor), VPU(video processing unit), APU(audio processing unit) and PAL(color palette unit) and the CPU(dual ARM cores) sit on the same AXI bus.
The APU, VCP and VPU core logic are clocked at bus speed (166.6MHz)
VCP(video coprocessor), VPU(video processing unit), APU(audio processing unit) and PAL(color palette unit) and the CPU(dual ARM cores) sit on the same AXI bus.
The APU, VCP and VPU core logic are clocked at bus speed (166.6MHz)
Sandpiper is moving forward. Relocated the palette device to axi bus and I'm going to add a copper on the bus so it'll be easier to access everything from both the CPU and the VPU.
Going console-y
Going console-y
August 30, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Sandpiper is moving forward. Relocated the palette device to axi bus and I'm going to add a copper on the bus so it'll be easier to access everything from both the CPU and the VPU.
Going console-y
Going console-y
Got u-boot to load my splash screen before anything else happens, could have also just memset to zero apparently.
Nice to not have to touch Linux kernel / drivers for a change, for once.
Nice to not have to touch Linux kernel / drivers for a change, for once.
August 10, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Got u-boot to load my splash screen before anything else happens, could have also just memset to zero apparently.
Nice to not have to touch Linux kernel / drivers for a change, for once.
Nice to not have to touch Linux kernel / drivers for a change, for once.
I think this suffices for an initial test.
Getting this fabricated costs 180USD now thanks to price increases, so that makes this a 36USD keyboard + 3 port hub combo.
Not that bad really, but it could have been way cheaper.
Getting this fabricated costs 180USD now thanks to price increases, so that makes this a 36USD keyboard + 3 port hub combo.
Not that bad really, but it could have been way cheaper.
August 10, 2025 at 1:34 AM
I think this suffices for an initial test.
Getting this fabricated costs 180USD now thanks to price increases, so that makes this a 36USD keyboard + 3 port hub combo.
Not that bad really, but it could have been way cheaper.
Getting this fabricated costs 180USD now thanks to price increases, so that makes this a 36USD keyboard + 3 port hub combo.
Not that bad really, but it could have been way cheaper.
Something like so, still moving things around
August 9, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Something like so, still moving things around
Looking at adding a 4-port USB hub today, with one hardwired to the keyboard. The hub connects to the FPGA board's USB port.
August 9, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Looking at adding a 4-port USB hub today, with one hardwired to the keyboard. The hub connects to the FPGA board's USB port.
Well that's the easy part. The real question is, how do they get out?
August 7, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Well that's the easy part. The real question is, how do they get out?
How do 9 elephants get into a car?
August 7, 2025 at 3:20 AM
How do 9 elephants get into a car?
A transparent mockup (since I ran out of tough resin)
Brittle, but should hold to test putting one machine together.
Brittle, but should hold to test putting one machine together.
August 5, 2025 at 11:41 PM
A transparent mockup (since I ran out of tough resin)
Brittle, but should hold to test putting one machine together.
Brittle, but should hold to test putting one machine together.
Things are coming along nicely. Also managed to fix my old 3D printer and printing a few mockups to see how they hold up.
August 5, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Things are coming along nicely. Also managed to fix my old 3D printer and printing a few mockups to see how they hold up.
Made the enclosure much smaller today.
It still requires a large format printer (to not cause cuts), but on the bright side it doesn't require screws to hold together except for the 4x 1mm screws at the bottom for the FPGA board.
It still requires a large format printer (to not cause cuts), but on the bright side it doesn't require screws to hold together except for the 4x 1mm screws at the bottom for the FPGA board.
August 3, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Made the enclosure much smaller today.
It still requires a large format printer (to not cause cuts), but on the bright side it doesn't require screws to hold together except for the 4x 1mm screws at the bottom for the FPGA board.
It still requires a large format printer (to not cause cuts), but on the bright side it doesn't require screws to hold together except for the 4x 1mm screws at the bottom for the FPGA board.
Coding some samples on the sandpiper itself. Just got a 4:3 monitor to fit its display output.
Once I recover from this cold I’ll do more, now I have to get back to rest.
Once I recover from this cold I’ll do more, now I have to get back to rest.
July 29, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Coding some samples on the sandpiper itself. Just got a 4:3 monitor to fit its display output.
Once I recover from this cold I’ll do more, now I have to get back to rest.
Once I recover from this cold I’ll do more, now I have to get back to rest.
Sandpiper is up and running with everything I wanted from software side.
One problem is that audio ticks way too fast, I have to allocate some time to fix it.
One problem is that audio ticks way too fast, I have to allocate some time to fix it.
July 21, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Sandpiper is up and running with everything I wanted from software side.
One problem is that audio ticks way too fast, I have to allocate some time to fix it.
One problem is that audio ticks way too fast, I have to allocate some time to fix it.
The video/audio control register mappings can be obtained with two ioctl calls. The driver maps them to virtual memory at startup.
July 20, 2025 at 4:32 PM
The video/audio control register mappings can be obtained with two ioctl calls. The driver maps them to virtual memory at startup.
Working on the platform driver for the machine today. Seems like it does load and start it using the device tree and maps the device memory properly.
July 20, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Working on the platform driver for the machine today. Seems like it does load and start it using the device tree and maps the device memory properly.
No more screws, a more realistic FPGA board representation, hope the holes will align.
Back to writing a driver for the system.
Back to writing a driver for the system.
July 4, 2025 at 1:33 AM
No more screws, a more realistic FPGA board representation, hope the holes will align.
Back to writing a driver for the system.
Back to writing a driver for the system.
Still a bit more to do, added custom snap-fit on the left and right side, reducing screw count to 4 (on bottom part)
So blocky :D
So blocky :D
June 28, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Still a bit more to do, added custom snap-fit on the left and right side, reducing screw count to 4 (on bottom part)
So blocky :D
So blocky :D
I think this is closer to final. It doesn't fit onto my 3D printer and splitting it would not be great, so I have to figure out an economical way to build this.
June 28, 2025 at 5:52 PM
I think this is closer to final. It doesn't fit onto my 3D printer and splitting it would not be great, so I have to figure out an economical way to build this.
I haven't done much except custom video scan-out + audio output hardware, plus a custom USB keyboard yet, but I'll add more hardware devices going forward.
Here's Quake running on the device at 72FPS thanks to those fast ARM cpus.
Here's Quake running on the device at 72FPS thanks to those fast ARM cpus.
June 21, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I haven't done much except custom video scan-out + audio output hardware, plus a custom USB keyboard yet, but I'll add more hardware devices going forward.
Here's Quake running on the device at 72FPS thanks to those fast ARM cpus.
Here's Quake running on the device at 72FPS thanks to those fast ARM cpus.