Testing Vcc (1.20V) on an early production sample board



Hi All,

I'd just like to give you an update on the myStorm Project - a lot has happened in the last 3 weeks, since my previous post.

About Us



I am one quarter of the "myStorm" development team - a hardware/pcb layout/manufacturing engineer, along with Alan Wood on hardware/firmware, Mark Sabido on firmware/linux software and Toby Yu in Shenzhen, handling our pcb assembly production and distribution.

We are all mates - and have worked together on various projects over the years - but myStorm is our first joint foray into open source design and lean Shenzhen manufacturing.

Alan and I have known each other through the Open Source Hardware Users Group (OSHUG) for 5 years and in mid May we were inspired to have a go at a new FPGA platform.

Mark and I have worked together for almost 4 years, Mark specialising in embedded ARM firmware and me on ARM hardware.

Toby an I met in 2006 in Shenzhen when I was over there doing a Pilot Production run of Smart Answerphone machines. We have been best friends for 10 years - with Toby recently visiting the UK for the first time. Toby specialises in producing open hardware with customers in the UK, US and EU.

Lean & Mean



In the last 15 weeks - since May 19th, we have designed, prototyped, manufactured and delivered a new open source FPGA and ARM platform, which can be programmed using a Raspberry Pi or other Linux platform using an entirely open source tool chain.

Lean & Mean - From Concept to Shenzhen production in 100 days



The good news is that on Saturday we built up the first batch of 48 boards in Shenzhen - and these will be back in the UK at the end of this week.

First #myStorm sample from production in Shenzhen



There will be an announcement concerning our website and mailing/discussion list which hopefully goes live at the end of this week.

Opening up FPGAs



The board is designed as a low cost platform combining a fairly powerful ARM processor with a low cost FPGA, and allowing them to be programmed with a fully open source tool chain - Clifford Wolf's Project ICE Storm.

The myStorm uses the "4K" ICE40HX4K. However this is actually an 8K die that has been knobbled by Lattice's proprietary programming software.

But when proogrammed with Clifford's open source ICEStorm tools - this miraculously becomes a very attractive 8K device!

A batch of 48 panelised #myStorm boards fresh from SMT assembly and reflow



The First 48



Some of the Pilot Production batch of myStorm pcbs will feature at the forthcoming workshop to be held at the Open Source Hardware Users Group OSHCamp - over the weekend of 3/4 September in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, UK.

A few boards will be available to purchase following that workshop - and this will be announced when our website goes live.

Our intention is to get these 48 early boards into the hands of developers who can immediately make use of them, assist with building up firmware and resources, prior to a full production run of 1000+ boards in late October/November.

Project myStorm has so far been privately funded (mostly by me) and is specifically not a Kickstarter campaign. It's mission is to deliver well designed, open hardware and firmware platforms at the lowest possible cost to the widest possible community.

The team has from the outset opted for a very lean and mean approach to product development - and we have got this far (50 professionally built boards delivered) on less than $2000 total budget, relying on friends and associates in the open community to help make this project happen.

A Community Development



As the project grows, we will encourage the community to submit either firmware, hardware or FPGA verilog designs to the Project Repo.

Hardware can be in the form of pmod designs - and using Toby's rapid manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen we will convert submitted pmods to professionally made pcb designs for sale to the myStorm Community.

Each month submitted designs would be assessed for merit by way of a Design Competition and the winning entries selected for manufacture.



The contributing designer will take a royalty from each sucessfully submitted, manufactured and sold design - and perhaps we will host a league table of top dog designer/contributers.

Thus a library of compatible hardware and firmware/verilog designs will become quickly established and made widely available.

This is a new venture in open source design propagation, aimed at hobbyists, enthusiasts and high school or college students. It allows contribution at a number of levels, both hardware, firmware and FPGA verilog designs.

Pmods are simple and cheap to design and build - easily knocked up in a weekend with EagleCAD or KiCAD - but with an well tried and tested easy route to well equipped manufacturing resources in Shenzhen, offering fast turn around and low cost. In addition to pmods, the myStorm offers an Arduino Shield like interface - with access to 5V tolerant GPIO and analogue inputs to the STM32 ARM processor.

Follow Us



I hope to keep the FPGArelated Forum updated with our progress - but you can follow us on Twitter either with #myStorm or @monsonite @folknology or @TobyYu3

For the moment we have been contributing the project highlights to Alan's Blog: https://folknologylabs.wordpress.com/

regards

Ken

London

@monsonite