ESP8266 160MHz high-speed waveform generation 10-30MHz per pin

Question

Hello,
Is it possible to use the ESP8266160MHz under Arduino to use it only to generate a fast waveform (10-30MHZ) on a single pin without WiFi support etc. i.e. make for example a simple loop to generate a waveform on a single pin?

Anonymous · Answer

You won't get that much out of any esp. You should rather be interested in MCO with stm32f1

Jacek Rutkowski · Answer

Unfortunately, I abandoned the idea of using ESP due to the slow performance of the I/O pins and the topic was temporarily put on hold.

khoam · Answer

. This is not true. In ESP32 you can max out 40MHz on a single GPIO - Link .

Slawek K. · Answer

It is probably possible to swipe a pin, but it is certainly not possible to generate a meaningful whole waveform at this frequency. More likely just a rectangle. Regards

khoam · Answer

. With 50% fill and stable. Lower frequencies than 40 MHz with fill determined by PCNT configuration.

Jacek Rutkowski · Answer

Hello, I need 30-70% and the possibility to set 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30MHz. Is there a chance to generate via ESP a 20 or 30MHz clock with exact number of pulses e.g. 8,16 or 512k? I.e. I want to get a clock for the ADC AD9280 and sample memory, which when the SRAM is full will be sent to the PC over USB or over WiFi and so on. Such a simple oscilloscope attachment I wanted to make....

Anonymous · Answer

Leaving aside the fact of the pulse counter mentioned by the predecessors.

Led PWM esp you can generate 40Mhz (for 1bit resolution, read 50% rigid), for 20 you have 2 bits etc (because you divide the clock you get by the given value according to the formula in the manual).
You don't generate a range of frequencies with this, just a few at a fixed rate, Same as SPI for example. (the higher the frequency the better the resolution) with these 8 bits (read 255value fill) you only have perhaps 333kHz.

You have figure 11 and the pattern under this diagram at https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/3269/esp32_technical_reference_manual_en_0.pdf

LChucki · Answer

I don't know why it seemed to me that the topic was closed and I corresponded with the author on PW. There I found out that

Jacek Rutkowski wrote:
Such a simple oscilloscope attachment I wanted to make...

Also, what I wrote to him

Quote:

A 30MS/s oscilloscope can be done on the STM32F303. It has 4 8MS/s converters, they can work with an offset which gives 32MHz. When you reduce the resolution to 6-bit they have faster sampling, increase to 10 or 12 slower. There are nucleo boards with these uCs priced at £51.

Another option LPC4370, 80MS/s uC a bit difficult to solder but a starter board costs about 100zl as I remember.

.
I would add that the idea of ESP + external parallel ADC or most uCs is bad. You need an interface that synchronously reads data from the ADC. It used to be that at 30MHz without a CPLD/FPGA and/or FIFO for 100£ you "wouldn't go under", now uyC for 20..30£ have the appropriate interfaces.
Let me tell you right away, this is no fun for a beginner! At 30MHz, you can't do it without e.g. Altium for about 40'000zl (if you have the knowledge and practice, ok, you can do it in Eagle, but then you're not a beginner). That's why I suggest to start with a uC which has a built-in fast ADC. All that remains is to "just" write the programme. By now everyone probably feels that without DMA you can't do it. Not only without DMA! This DMA must have RAM all to itself! Not some carousels in most STM32s. Naturally, there is e.g. the STM32F407, which has two RAM banks and there you can read data from an external ADC and push it into RAM.

Jacek Rutkowski · Answer

I was also sure I had closed the topic but I don't know how it got unlocked....
I'm not an advanced programmer/designer and if it won't work on 30MHz then I'll settle for 10MHz and a handful of TTLs or CMOS for parallel RAM.

LChucki · Answer

Use a CPLD. One for 10£ will do, such as the EPM3064. You won't have to cut paths and it is a very but very good simulator. PS Did you check the FIFO prices? Probably not . Added after 14 [minutes]: A moderator can do it, I believe @khoam's request.

Jacek Rutkowski · Answer

I am not very much on the subject.
How do you program such a CLPD? Do you draw the logic from the gates or describe it somehow?
Can you drop some available memory models with FIFO?
A double layer board design and order from a Chinese I can manage. If programming these dice isn't difficult I'd be happy to play around too.

LChucki · Answer

. You can do that and it comes out quite well. You draw a schematic from pre-made 74xx circuits and gates, flip-flops etc. Then simulate. When the simulation is ok, you upload it (BitBlaster I think it's called, price about 60PLN, or, if you have LPT, some resistors) and it must work. . No, the last FIFO I bought was 8kB costing about 100£, cheaper to give an FPGA. It's not like you're writing a program. Try it with drawing, it's so Arduino. What you want you can do quietly. If you want something more fancy then AHDL/VHDL etc (such C and using registers). VHDL it looks like a program in Pascal? There used to be an Eric's programmer, a program in that style only that the chips programmatically don't execute the program (unless you implement a CPU there). Xirinx a bit cheaper than Altera (Intel), I prefer Altera. Where to look for tutorials? I don't know, when I was learning this there was no YT . There's a book in BTC and some course in recent EdW, but I've been reading through the crappy stuff and don't know if it can be recommended, especially as a beginner I'm not - GAL and CUPL

Jacek Rutkowski · Answer

. USB Blaster I found for $2.54 with free delivery. EPM3064 in QFP44 for $1.5. Cool prices I wonder how the programming will go....

LChucki · Answer

. Don't buy anything for now. Install the IDE and work on the simulator, if it is ok then invest. The CPLD simulator is the equivalent of the uC debugger.

Jacek Rutkowski · Answer

Which IDE to install on WIN7 for the EPM3064?

gkalfail · Answer

. From what I understand you can only use software from the chip manufacturer i.e. Intel/Altera (Altera has been acquired by Intel), this would be Quartus Prime. There is a free version and a paid version. The free one is usually OK for smaller chips. You also have to be careful about the version because not all support all families. Here is an overview (lite/web is the free version, you are interested in the Max family): Greetings!

ESP8266 160MHz high-speed waveform generation 10-30MHz per pin

Post #1

Post #2

Post #3

Post #4

Post #5

Post #6

Post #7

Post #8

Post #9

Post #10

Post #11

Post #12

Post #13

Post #14

Post #15

Post #16

Post #17

Topic summary