Ordering EVO PCBs at chinese manufactures questions and help

[phoerber]

On 3/10/2023 at 4:14 PM, phoerber said:

@lucky1 - I just received my first run of Evo 128x32 boards using the Geehy APM32 processor. I was able to find and install the driver along with the DFU programmer from Geehy's site. I keep getting an error saying "the Vid or Pid of the DFU File is incorrect". The device driver loaded correctly and programmer shows connected in DFU mode. Never had any issue like this with the STM chips. I tried the x64 version of the pin2dmd.exe tool and it says:

 

Match vendor ID from file: 0483
Match product ID from file: df11
No DFU capable USB device available

 

 

At a bit of a loss here...

 

Any help, greatly appreciated!

 

P

 

Well, here's how I solved this. I started over and did a fresh install of the DFU driver from Geehy's site. I then used Zadig to install libsub-win32 driver, which took a bit of time so patience here. I personally used the x64 version of the latest pin2dmd.exe tool under DFU update and it worked perfectly. So far, I detect no quality difference between the Geehy ARM32 processors and the STM, YMMV.

 

Happy to help out anyone having issues, PM me.

 

Pete

[dzorbas]

On 3/13/2023 at 12:33 PM, phoerber said:

 

Some similar 14 stage binary counters that should work:

 

TC4020BP, CD4020BE, JM38510/05653BEA, CD4060BE, CD4060BF, CD40102B, CD40103B, CD4017B, CD4017B-MIL, CD4040B

 

Not that I'm not confident with @phoerber here but @lucky1 can you confirm the parts above can be used as a replacement? I don't want to spend $2k and find out I have a pile of non-functioning boards.

 

Thanks!

 

Dino Z.

[lucky1]

On 3/13/2023 at 5:33 PM, phoerber said:

 

Some similar 14 stage binary counters that should work:

 

TC4020BP, CD4020BE, JM38510/05653BEA, CD4060BE, CD4060BF, CD40102B, CD40103B, CD4017B, CD4017B-MIL, CD4040B

 

Simple thing to do. Just search for the datasheets and compare to the datasheet of the HEF4020.

 

[phoerber]

On 3/15/2023 at 3:41 AM, lucky1 said:

 

Simple thing to do. Just search for the datasheets and compare to the datasheet of the HEF4020.

 

Yep, sorry should have been more clear - these are a starting point and the datasheets will render the final answer. I'd love to know what you land on for a HEF4020 replacement, personally. 

[lucky1]

https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/Nexperia/HEF4020BT653?qs=me8TqzrmIYUnlOSiKFaauA%3D%3D

 

297 on stock

 

[reinkc]

On 3/13/2023 at 12:57 PM, phoerber said:

 

Well, here's how I solved this. I started over and did a fresh install of the DFU driver from Geehy's site. I then used Zadig to install libsub-win32 driver, which took a bit of time so patience here. I personally used the x64 version of the latest pin2dmd.exe tool under DFU update and it worked perfectly. So far, I detect no quality difference between the Geehy ARM32 processors and the STM, YMMV.

 

Happy to help out anyone having issues, PM me.

 

Pete

 

I am running into an issue here. I installed Geehy's driver, and did the libsub-win32 driver, but I'm still getting an error loading the DFU file. The pin2dmd tool says no DFU device available. The Geehy programmer detects the DFU device, but say the VID or PID of the DFU file is incorrect.  Any ideas?

[Ashram56]

It looks like STM32F427VIT6 is available at LCSC at an "almost" reasonable price (20 dollars - OK it was way cheaper a few years ago, but compared to the 90 dollars I've seen over the last few months, it's certainly better)

 

So I was looking to get a quote from JLCPCB, unfortunately, of course, other components are out of stock, especially the these parts :

 

TS2940CP33

SRP1265A-470M

 

There is no direct replacement available in inventory at JLCPCB/LCSC.

 

On the LDO:

 

Can you please provide some guidance on which parameters are crucial for this part selection:  I assume output voltage, min amp output of 1A, but what about the other characteristics (dropout voltage, protection feature) ?

Also on the package, it's not clear to me why LCSC would have a distinction between TO-252 and TO-252 (DPAK), since to me they are the same (there is a difference to my knowledge with D2PAK, but based on the datasheet the original LDO seems DPAK anyway).

 

On the inductor: not much options from what I can see, unless the design can accomodate slightly different dimensions (13.65*12.6 seem available for ex), or slightly different value ?

 

I'll get a quote from PCBWay as well though, but for other projects JLCPCB has been cheaper usually.

 

Thanks for your help !

[MCtrickyD]

6 hours ago, Ashram56 said:

It looks like STM32F427VIT6 is available at LCSC at an "almost" reasonable price (20 dollars - OK it was way cheaper a few years ago, but compared to the 90 dollars I've seen over the last few months, it's certainly better)

 

So I was looking to get a quote from JLCPCB, unfortunately, of course, other components are out of stock, especially the these parts :

 

TS2940CP33

SRP1265A-470M

 

There is no direct replacement available in inventory at JLCPCB/LCSC.

 

On the LDO:

 

Can you please provide some guidance on which parameters are crucial for this part selection:  I assume output voltage, min amp output of 1A, but what about the other characteristics (dropout voltage, protection feature) ?

Also on the package, it's not clear to me why LCSC would have a distinction between TO-252 and TO-252 (DPAK), since to me they are the same (there is a difference to my knowledge with D2PAK, but based on the datasheet the original LDO seems DPAK anyway).

 

On the inductor: not much options from what I can see, unless the design can accomodate slightly different dimensions (13.65*12.6 seem available for ex), or slightly different value ?

 

I'll get a quote from PCBWay as well though, but for other projects JLCPCB has been cheaper usually.

 

Thanks for your help !

 

I am sorry this is not a helpful response but just another question. Why would you go with the STM32F427VIT6 over the APM32F407VGT6? From a specs perspective, the STM does offer 2MB  vs 1MB flash however the Pin2DMD software seems to comfortably fit within 1MB so the real difference is 180MHz (STM) vs. 168MHz (APM) and 256K x 8 vs 196K x 8 on RAM.

 

I have only ever made one order for boards and all I could get at the time was the STM32F407VGT6 ($5.93 LCSC) which is basically the same specs as the APM32F407VGT6 ($4.31 LCSC) so I have never used the more performant STM32F427VIT6 ($19.63 LCSC). Does the higher bin SKU make a difference?

 

What is the overall feedback people have on the APM32F407VGT6? Any reason not to go with the Geehy?

Edited May 2, 2023 by MCtrickyD

[Ashram56]

16 hours ago, MCtrickyD said:

 

I am sorry this is not a helpful response but just another question. Why would you go with the STM32F427VIT6 over the APM32F407VGT6? From a specs perspective, the STM does offer 2MB  vs 1MB flash however the Pin2DMD software seems to comfortably fit within 1MB so the real difference is 180MHz (STM) vs. 168MHz (APM) and 256K x 8 vs 196K x 8 on RAM.

 

I have only ever made one order for boards and all I could get at the time was the STM32F407VGT6 ($5.93 LCSC) which is basically the same specs as the APM32F407VGT6 ($4.31 LCSC) so I have never used the more performant STM32F427VIT6 ($19.63 LCSC). Does the higher bin SKU make a difference?

 

What is the overall feedback people have on the APM32F407VGT6? Any reason not to go with the Geehy?

 

I'll be honest: I had never heard of the Geehy before... I just noticed that there was some mention of it recently (in the HD DMD thread specifically), and here,

 

I'll take a look and dig up some info. It's interesting for sure if it's confirmed to be fully compatible. That said, if @lucky1 develop additional colorization capabilities in PIN2DMD which require additionnal memory, I would prefer to have the flexibility

 

@lucky1 any insight on this ?

 

Regards

[reinkc]

I figured it out, I installed the USB driver wrong. It's working fine now, seems to be no difference from the STM. The reason I got these CPUs is because when I ordered them there was still a shortage. I'm just now getting around to putting them together.

[lucky1]

1 hour ago, Ashram56 said:

 any insight on this ?

 

I requiered additional RAM for the EVO HD and that is why I chose the H7 which has 1MB of RAM.

For EVO128x32 and 128x16 1MB flash should be enough. The clockrate is set to 168Mhz for all F4 CPUs and I use only 192kb RAM. It is not planned to cross those borders to make sure all PIN2DMD hardware is supported.

[lucky1]

22 hours ago, Ashram56 said:

Can you please provide some guidance on which parameters are crucial for this part selection

 

The parts used are derived from some reference designs I found on the internet.

So I´m sorry I can´t give any recommendations here. Another user changed the layout and

used LM1117MP 3.3V instead.

[Ashram56]

16 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

 

I requiered additional RAM for the EVO HD and that is why I chose the H7 which has 1MB of RAM.

For EVO128x32 and 128x16 1MB flash should be enough. The clockrate is set to 168Mhz for all F4 CPUs and I use only 192kb RAM. It is not planned to cross those borders to make sure all PIN2DMD hardware is supported.

 

Many thanks, that's good to know and provide a nice cost effective alternative for regular sized PIN2DMD

 

4 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

 

The parts used are derived from some reference designs I found on the internet.

So I´m sorry I can´t give any recommendations here. Another user changed the layout and

used LM1117MP 3.3V instead.

 

OK, I'll take a look

 

[Ashram56]

Good morning everyone,

 

As noted by two other on this thread, I can confirm that Geehy APM32 works fine

 

Tips and tricks:

- Use Zadig and install directly libusb as the USB driver for APM32 ISP mode

- Use PIN2DMD flashing tool to upload the DFU file. Geehy DFU tool will not work as it will not detect the APM32 when using libusb as the driver, and when using the official Geehy DFU driver, it will not recognize the DFU file because of incorrect Vendor ID. It might be fixed if there was a DFU file compiled specifically with APM32 as a target, but since PIN2DMD DFU update does work, probably not worth the effort

 

Cheers

[reinkc]

5 hours ago, Ashram56 said:

Good morning everyone,

 

As noted by two other on this thread, I can confirm that Geehy APM32 works fine

 

Tips and tricks:

- Use Zadig and install directly libusb as the USB driver for APM32 ISP mode

- Use PIN2DMD flashing tool to upload the DFU file. Geehy DFU tool will not work as it will not detect the APM32 when using libusb as the driver, and when using the official Geehy DFU driver, it will not recognize the DFU file because of incorrect Vendor ID. It might be fixed if there was a DFU file compiled specifically with APM32 as a target, but since PIN2DMD DFU update does work, probably not worth the effort

 

Cheers

 

Just a note, STLink works great to on these chips. The USB STLink module is only like $15