3 ms·

I enjoyed playing with FPGAs and all the open-source tooling makes it so much quicker and easier. That said, I never understood the appeal of the FOMU. It's co

I enjoyed playing with FPGAs and all the open-source tooling makes it so much quicker and easier. That said, I never understood the appeal of the FOMU. It's cool that it fits in a USB port, but so little IO, there's not a lot I can think to do with it. Has anyone heard of some cool projects that others have done with this hardware?

CamperBob2 11mo ago
I suppose you could create your own crypto wallet or something, but agreed, an FPGA without I/O is not a very interesting or useful thing. You'd be better off with a conventional microcontroller, I'd think.
- duskwuff 11mo ago
  > You'd be better off with a conventional microcontroller, I'd think. Or with a more conventional FPGA development board like Icebreaker: https://1bitsquared.com/products/icebreaker https://1bitsquared.com/products/icebreaker
Aurornis 11mo ago
The primary appeal of these minimalist devices is to get people started as cheaply as possible. They exist at a price point where it’s an easy decision to pick one up on a whim and spend an evening installing the toolchain and building some little hello world tutorial.
- Graziano_M 11mo ago
  I was typing out a response saying that you can buy an ice stick for cheaper, I went to check the price and it's $150 now! https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/lattice-semiconductor-corporation/ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN/4289604 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/lattice-semicondu... I bought one for $25 back in 2018! What's going on here? That obviously makes the FOMU a more reasonable starter purchase, but I'd still probably get an icebreacker for $80 (which I also have and love).
sylefeb 11mo ago
Hi there, a while ago I had a ton of fun with the Fomu: https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1571489610647371776 https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1571489610647371776 Fantastic little device! Relating to the post, I also happened to brick one erasing the Foboot bootloader by writing the flash beyond the limit (there was a bug regarding writing to addresses beyond max at the time, but then I was pushing the limit by abusing dfu-utils :) https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1391898565061001225 https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1391898565061001225 ). I tried to use the programming pads but at the time was lacking the skills and it ended in disaster (ripped pads...). The code repo for the overall project is here: https://github.com/sylefeb/tinygpus https://github.com/sylefeb/tinygpus
- Graziano_M 11mo ago
  Wow very cool.

CamperBob2 11mo ago

I suppose you could create your own crypto wallet or something, but agreed, an FPGA without I/O is not a very interesting or useful thing. You'd be better off with a conventional microcontroller, I'd think.

duskwuff 11mo ago
> You'd be better off with a conventional microcontroller, I'd think. Or with a more conventional FPGA development board like Icebreaker: https://1bitsquared.com/products/icebreaker https://1bitsquared.com/products/icebreaker

Aurornis 11mo ago

The primary appeal of these minimalist devices is to get people started as cheaply as possible. They exist at a price point where it’s an easy decision to pick one up on a whim and spend an evening installing the toolchain and building some little hello world tutorial.

Graziano_M 11mo ago
I was typing out a response saying that you can buy an ice stick for cheaper, I went to check the price and it's $150 now! https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/lattice-semiconductor-corporation/ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN/4289604 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/lattice-semicondu... I bought one for $25 back in 2018! What's going on here? That obviously makes the FOMU a more reasonable starter purchase, but I'd still probably get an icebreacker for $80 (which I also have and love).

sylefeb 11mo ago

Hi there, a while ago I had a ton of fun with the Fomu: https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1571489610647371776 https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1571489610647371776 Fantastic little device! Relating to the post, I also happened to brick one erasing the Foboot bootloader by writing the flash beyond the limit (there was a bug regarding writing to addresses beyond max at the time, but then I was pushing the limit by abusing dfu-utils :) https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1391898565061001225 https://x.com/sylefeb/status/1391898565061001225 ). I tried to use the programming pads but at the time was lacking the skills and it ended in disaster (ripped pads...). The code repo for the overall project is here: https://github.com/sylefeb/tinygpus https://github.com/sylefeb/tinygpus

Graziano_M 11mo ago
Wow very cool.