Hardware Projects » E1/T1 Hardware Interface (including icE1usb)

h1. e1-tracer

This page is about the "production" version of the setup described in [[ICE40_based_passive_tap]].

It is a bi-directional, high-impedance passive tap for E1 (PRI/S2M) tracing.  It traces both directions of a link simultaneously via two LIU (Line Interface Units) attached to an iCE40 FPGA with E1 framer + USB softcores.  

The traces are sent as isochronous USB transfers to the host PC, where they can (for example) be stored on disk.

h2. hardware 

Hardware files can be found at: http://git.osmocom.org/osmo-e1-hardware/tree/hardware/e1-tracer and are available as Open Source Hardware.

!e1_tracer.jpg!

h3. 3U component carrier assembly

{{thumbnail(e1_tracer-bgt-1.jpg)}}

{{thumbnail(e1_tracer-bgt-2.jpg)}}

{{thumbnail(e1_tracer-bgt-3.jpg)}}

{{thumbnail(e1_tracer-bgt-4.jpg)}}

h3. design files

We originally started with a prototype from an iCE40 evaluation board plus two osmo-e1-xcvr and one e1-tap as described in [[ICE40_based_passive_tap]].

Meanwhile, we have designed a fully integrated board.  Design files are part of the @osmo-e1-hardware.git@ repository.

* Schematics:

** EAGLE: source:hardware/e1-tracer/e1-tracer.sch

** PDF: source:hardware/e1-tracer/e1-tracer_sch.pdf

* Board layout

** EAGLE: source:hardware/e1-tracer/e1-tracer.brd

** PDF: source:hardware/e1-tracer/e1-tracer_brd.pdf

** Gerber: source:hardware/e1-tracer/gerber

* Bill of Materials

** gnumeric spreadsheet: source:hardware/e1-tracer/e1-tracer_eBOM.gnumeric

** CSV export: source:hardware/e1-tracer/e1-tracer_eBOM.csv

h3. gateware + firmware

The FPGA gateware and RISC-V softcore firmware are found in the @osmo-e1-hardware.git@ repository, under the @gateware@ and @firmware/ice40-riscv/e1-tracer@ directories respectively.

h3. flashing

to bring up the board after manufacturing there are 2 steps:

* flash the padded bootloader into spi flash

* flashing the runtime gateware and application via dfu

h4. flashing the bootloader

this involves pulling the _CRESET line on the spi programming header next to ground (the pin next to gnd) to keep the fpga in reset while we access the flashchip.

the board can be powered via usb for this, but the spi programming cable should not have a vcc line connected then.

the 1M0xff.bin file consists of 0xFF and is used as padding for the unused flash areas.

the tool used for flashing here is flashrom via a stm32(bluepill) based adapter ("STM32 virtual serprog for flashrom") but virtually any spi programmer can be used.

<pre>

cat e1tracer-bootloader-20200822.bin 1M0xff.bin > tmp

dd if=tmp of=flashme1M.bin bs=1024 count=1024

rm tmp

flashrom -p serprog:dev=/dev/ttyACM3:4000000 -w flashme1M.bin

</pre>

h4. flashing the runtime

to access the bootloader the first time, before any runtime is flashed you need to reset the board (power) while SW1 (button) is pressed to force bootloader(dfu) mode. the board should now enumerate on usb

flashing should be easy - it only needs the regular userspace tool dfu-util and firmware from http://ftp.osmocom.org/binaries/e1-tracer/firmware/ (for now on https://people.osmocom.org/tnt/stuff/e1-recorder/ )

<pre>

dfu-util -d 1d50:6150 -c 1 -a 0 -D riscv_usb.bin

dfu-util -d 1d50:6150 -c 1 -a 1 -D fw_app.bin -R

</pre>

h3. availability

Fully assembled products based on this hardware are going to be made available by "sysmocom":https://sysmocom.de/

h2. software

The host software is found in the @e1-recorder@ branch of @ice40playground.git@, see https://github.com/smunaut/ice40-playground/tree/e1-recorder/projects/riscv_usb/sw

There are two related programs:

* @main@ - the program used to perform recordings and store them

* @dump@ - the program to analyze recordings