DIY DSP, anybody?

[fdeck]

Is anybody here tinkering with DSP? I guess some introductory comments are in order. I would like to tackle an audio DSP project, mainly because I like to "learn by doing," and an audio project would motivate me to learn a new technology while having some fun. I am already at the expert level in both electronics and microcontrollers, so DSP should not be insurmountable.

What I am thinking of is to build a sort of "universal audio circuit" with ADC, processor, and DAC, and then play with writing code.

Anybody who is doing this, care to suggest a chip platform? One in a hand-solderable package (no BGA's) with free or cheap development tools would seem ideal.

Many thanks,

fdeck

[dswiston]

I used some audio related DSP setups at school and loved doing it. We used a development kit though based around a TMS320C54x and I believe a cypress ADC DAC, etc. . .

I've looked into this before but got scare away by the costs involved because DIY DSP doesn't seem to go together. Recently I have been leaning towards working with a FPGA as a DSP instead of a dedicated DSP (there are even cores you can put into the FPGA for a "pre-made" DSP). Xilinx has a Spartan 3e starter kit for $150 and it has a LOT of goodies on it to begin with. True you may have more than you want on the board, building from the ground up could shrink the board etc. . . but I think its well worth it for someone else to fab a pcb instead of an individual.



Keep me posted! I'll be sure to check this thread often.

[dswiston]

BTW, you can get the xilinse ISE for free as well (legally too, come on you pirates).

Although the simulator included with ISE is lame compared to some of the more serious ones like ModelSim.

[dswiston]

Alas, not much viewage / activity. I'd expect this. Every thread I've observed that discusses DSP related things does not get much activity.

At least keep me posted if you decide something/do something!

[fdeck]

Thanks for the kind remarks. I am in information-gathering phase right now, so you might not hear from me from a while, but I will report when I actually start to do something real.

[paulb]

There was quite a lengthy thread here on this topic, do a search and you might find it.

[rfbrw]

Originally posted by dswiston
Alas, not much viewage / activity. I'd expect this. Every thread I've observed that discusses DSP related things does not get much activity.

You have to consider the price of entry.

[DSP_Geek]

Originally posted by fdeck
Is anybody here tinkering with DSP? I guess some introductory comments are in order. I would like to tackle an audio DSP project, mainly because I like to "learn by doing," and an audio project would motivate me to learn a new technology while having some fun. I am already at the expert level in both electronics and microcontrollers, so DSP should not be insurmountable.

What I am thinking of is to build a sort of "universal audio circuit" with ADC, processor, and DAC, and then play with writing code.

Anybody who is doing this, care to suggest a chip platform? One in a hand-solderable package (no BGA's) with free or cheap development tools would seem ideal.

Tinkering? Well, that seems to be what I'm doing with this damn bug I have to fix by Saturday so my Corporate Masters can get product out the door.

Anyway, you can find evaluation kits from the Big 3 DSP manufacturers (Freescale [formerly Motorola], TI, and Analog Devices), which have ADCs, DACs, and DSPs on the same board and including simple Windows-based development tools. That should get you started. You might want to try a floating point chip so you don't get involved with pain-in-the-*** scaling issues. The eval kits range between $150 and $300 for quite competent setups, which is quite reasonable for what you get.


Cheers,
Francois.