Hello everyone... I'm glad to hear that boards are *finally* arriving.

I've been on a coding frenzy over the last several days to move CorePack from being just technically "functional" in my development environment to something that works as I'd originally envisioned... which is to work very easily and be seamlessly integrated with various IDEs.  The first version should be posted later tonight or tomorrow.  With CorePack, you'll be able to program the board directly from all three of the MikroElektronika compilers as well as the Arduino IDE.  Furthermore, the MikroElektronika compilers allow you to program all the cores in a couple of mouse clicks.  (It's really pretty cool :-)  )

For those who've received their boards, the last of the "test cores" I've used to test the boards is probably still loaded on the board, which is a modified version of the Gameduino Asteroids demo running on one of the 32Mhz AVR cores, and another small program triggering all of the pins sequentially on the second 32MHz core.  (Unfortunately, it's just setup to be more as a test for my purposes of verifying the board than much of anything else).  

So let me take a moment to update everyone with the status of functionality on some various things:

Xtreme-G:

The timing problems with the SSRAM chip I'd mentioned before are now corrected and everything is working across all boards.  It runs every Gameduino program I've tried with it so far... which is all of them I could find.  Interprocessor communication is implemented, but I haven't really had a chance yet to test it.  ADCs are implemented for Core 1 (ADC 1A-8A), and will be implemented for Core 2  (ADC 1B-8B) soon.  I intend to have these issues resolved in the coming week.

Xtreme-R:

Xtreme-R will be available later this week, as I'm performing the same changes to fix the SSRAM timing that I had to rework on the Xtreme-G core.  The timing is nearly identical the Xtreme-G and Xtreme-R cores, so this shouldn't take very long.

Cyber Song:

Cyber Song is working quite well, and will included in the release of Core Pack this weekend.  I've haven't implemented any functionality into Core Pack to accommodate loading of the drum samples into the SPI flash chip, or created the libraries necessary to handle this in the MikroCompilers, but I'll have a tutorial and demo programs for you all soon that will show a demo of how to get the synthesizer working.  For anyone who has a MIDI controller with assignable knobs and faders, it's really easy to load the core and program the sounds with simple MIDI controller messages.

Retro arcade games / computer emulators:

I know that a lot of you are looking forward to the retro arcade and computer cores.  These are almost done, but will not be in the first release of CorePack being released this weekend.  To accommodate these cores, I've been developing a means to "bootload" the ROM images into the SSRAM chip from CorePack, which is largely based on the way that the Xtreme cores bootload as well.  With the final versions, you'll only need to drag-and-drop the ROM images into CorePack before loading the cores, making it a breeze to get them running on Cyber Cortex AV.  This is about 90% there, and I'm hoping that I should have most of these out within the next couple of weeks.

Cyborg Autopsy:

Cyborg Autopsy is working well.  There will however be a little while before it works the way it should for Mac and Linux users.  This stems from the fact that the Cyborg Autopsy core interacts with the logic analyzer client application over a USB serial connection.  CorePack uses a driver called libusb for Mac and Linux users, rather than the libftdi driver, which is used for Windows.  Libusb does not have a virtual serial port, while libftdi does.

Without getting into all of the nitty-gritty details, there are a couple of "kludgy" ways to make it work for the moment... which involve things using AppleScript to load and unload the libftdi virtual serial port driver (kext) on the Mac, etc, etc... but there is a better long-term fix that I'm working on, but it may be about a month before it can be fully implemented. 

MikroElektronika compilers:

The Mikro compilers are working quite well... I'll be creating a short "Hello World" tutorial this weekend for each language that shows how to display text over VGA with Core 1 and flash the LEDs with Core 2.

One thing worth mentioning for Mac users... I've had trouble with windows in WINE crashing with XQuartz 2.6 and 2.7.  If you have problems, you may want to install XQuartz 2.5 instead in order to use the MikroElektronika compilers.

(You may also want to just try it with 2.6 and 2.7 if you already have one of those versions of XQuartz installed, as I'd be curious to know if the problem is with my machine, or with XQuartz in general.)

The website:

Getting the website up and going has been a bit of a challenge... with three other people handling most of it for me while I continue to work on the development of Cyber Cortex AV.  The main thing that's been holding things up is that I really wanted all aspects of the site to be fully integrated with a single login from the very beginning, and it's almost there.  The site will allow everyone to participate in the forums, blogs, and even a specially developed "Turorials" section that's been loosely modeled after "Instructables.com".  The tutorials area will allow anyone to create tutorials to share with others.  Aside from the Fabulous Silicon store, all aspects of the site will be accessible with a single login.

Documentation:

Bear with me for just a bit on this one :-) ... the documentation for everything will probably be pretty sparse for at least the next couple of weeks, as I'm getting things wrapped up with the initial cores, but tutorials, a manual, a quick-start guide, and everything else are high on the priority list.

As you'll soon find out however, CorePack and the cores have been to conceived and envisioned from the very beginning make this board a breeze to use... even for beginners.  It only takes a few short lines of code to have Cyber Cortex AV displaying text and flashing lights... even on multiple cores.

And most importantly...

Thanks again to all my Kickstarter backers!!

You all have been VERY patient and you've hung in there for a *long* time waiting for these boards to arrive.  I know you all are excited to get working with Cyber Cortex AV, and I'm very excited to see what you'll be doing with it.

Thanks everyone,

Bryan Pape

Hello everyone,

Please message me with your phone numbers as soon as possible, as the recipient phone numbers are required for international shipments.

Thanks,

-Bryan

Shipping status:

An important update as to the shipping status...

I unfortunately had to revert the DHL shipment back to the manufacturer before it arrived in Denver (it got as far as Berlin) after I discovered some resistor values that were incorrect on the first lot that I received for the Maker Faire.

While I was pretty dismayed to discover the problem, I will say this... To the manufacturer's credit, the workmanship of the boards I've received is otherwise fantastic, and all of the other components on the board are correct.

To be a little more specific as to what happened, the problem with the incorrect resistor values stemmed from the fact that I asked for a change back in August that two of the pull-ups be switched to a different value.  Rather than changing just those two resistors, they changed *all* of the resistors of that same value (7 to be exact) to the new value on the bill of materials.

They've been very apologetic about the resistor problem and the delay, and the boards are being reworked this week to be shipped out again on Friday.  I should be receiving them around Thursday of next week.  The boards will then be tested here, and sent out the following Monday.

I do thank you all for your understanding.

Core Pack:

Core Pack is now working reliably on all three platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac).  Admittedly, it took about a week to figure out which of the many versions of the libusb, libftdi, and associated "wrappers" were the correct ones for the mono framework and each respective platform to work happily together.

Linux and Mac users will find that the Core Pack user interface will look a little "Windows-ish" for version 1.0.  By the next version however, all three platforms will have a GUI that matches the platform.

MikroElektronika Compilers:

The compilers will soon be available for download...  They're just going through final testing and examples finished to suit Cyber Cortex.

Here's the startup screen for MikroBasic.  (The others are similar.)

And here's the About screen:

Ted Crawford and our visit to Kickstarter:

About half way into the funding cycle for Cyber Cortex AV, a gentleman by the name of Ted Crawford messaged me asking if he could buy me lunch in exchange for a few pointers on a project he was wanting to fund through Kickstarter.

I'm glad I accepted his invitation, as Ted has become a great friend over the last few months and a valuable asset to the Cyber Cortex project in many ways.

While I'll leave it to Ted to describe the product that he's spent the last five years developing when he launches it on Kickstarter, I will say that it's something that I think will be a really big hit for anyone who's mechanically inclined.

Now here's the thing... Ted had been "threatening" to submit his proposal to Kickstarter for... well... months.  To his credit, he's a bit of a perfectionist, but he seemed to be looking for that last bit of validation before putting his "baby" out there into the world.

Since I was going to New York for the Maker Faire, I suggested to Ted that maybe I could email Kickstarter and see if they'll just let us come by.  I'd bring a Cyber Cortex board to show them, and then maybe he could also show them a little about his project and see what they'd think.  Much to our surprise, Kickstarter said yes.  :-)

(Now before everyone starts emailing Kickstarter asking to hang out and chat with them or present their projects in person, I should say that Kickstarter is definitely *not* setup to do this on a regular basis, and we pretty much just got really really lucky.)

So Ted, myself, and my close friend Mark Sousa arrived at Kickstarter the Friday afternoon before the Maker Faire, and I must admit that it was very much in contrast to what I'd imagined.  Let me explain...

When I was 18 years old, I moved out of my folks place to a large house in the historic district of Denver with a self-proclaimed psychic, her daughter, and an Australian aborigine.  While it was probably one of the more bizarre living situations I've experienced, it was definitely one of the more eclectic and fun environments I've lived in for any extended length of time.

Kickstarter's offices reminded me of that house and the environment I lived in when I was 18... very eclectic, creatively charged, and in a historic building in New York.  The environment was totally open... not a cubical to be seen.  It was awesome.

Here's a picture of their offices:

We were greeted by Cindy, and also later introduced to Stephanie.  They showed us around the office, and then took a few minutes to sit down and chat with us for a bit.

We talked for a little bit about how Kickstarter has really essentially been redefining the rulebook as to how independent inventors and makers can turn their innovations into a viable business, and in a way that's accessible to almost anyone... which is like an oasis for a new entrepreneur in this otherwise struggling economy.  

In the course of my own Kickstarter project, I've personally become rather fascinated by the whole phenomenon, and I really believe that there are lots of people with really good ideas that unfortunately never see the light of day, only because they simply simply don't have the financial means to make them a reality.  Crowd-sourcing through Kickstarter is a solution that I would absolutely encourage others to consider if they have a product, invention, or project that they're ready to bring to fruition.

And of course... I'm thrilled to say that Ted was indeed able to propose his project in person... which was really cool to see.  I'm confident that we'll be seeing his project coming to a Kickstarter page soon. :-)

My personal thanks goes out to the folks at Kickstarter for letting us come by and hang out.  We really had a great time.

Maker Faire:

Ok... I have to say that the Maker Faire was one of the coolest experiences I've had in a long time.  This was for several reasons... but for one reason more than any other:  If the young makers I met at the Maker Faire are in any way representative of the generation to come, then we've definitely got a bright future to look forward to.

One of the younger makers (I think he was about 14 or 15 or so) stopped by the booth with his grandfather, and asked about the boards... I started out with my attempt at a lighter explanation by saying that it was like an "Arduino on steroids... blah blah blah".  He cut me off and said rather politely that I didn't need to talk down to him, and that he programs in C++ on a regular basis.  (Lol... I was pretty impressed with that alone, as I'd had a mental block about learning object oriented programming languages until my mid-20's.)

So then I asked him if he'd ever heard of FPGAs before.  He hesitated for a second, and then said, "Field Programmable Gate Arrays?"  Lol... I almost fell over... How cool is that?  I came to the conclusion that I was either talking to the future director of NASA or the reincarnation of Albert Einstein... or both. :-)

Another young maker of about the same age showed me a totally cool project that he built with an Arduino connected to a color LCD running.  It was running a game he'd created (and was rightfully quite proud of) that was a bit like Space Invaders.  He told me that he'd been following the Kickstarter project since it began, and seemed to know almost every detail about the Cyber Cortex project... In fact, I almost think he knew a few things about Cyber Cortex AV that I didn't... ;-)

I was also finally able to put a face with the names of several backers who stopped by the booth.  Having met those who stopped by only further validated the fact that there are a lot of people with a lot of exciting ideas about how to use this platform.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all do with this, and I truly can't wait to get your boards to you all.

Here's a photo of the three of us (myself, Mark Sousa, and Ted Crawford) at the Fabulous Silicon table at the Faire.

Now I need to say just a few more words about Mark and Ted...

I have to admit that I'd foolishly assumed that our trip to New York would be a nice, light, pleasant little trip to the concrete jungle, and things would be probably be pretty casual most of the time.  At least that's what I thought... which is probably why I'd make a terrible event planner.

In reality, almost every moment of the trip involved all three of us working on making sure that everything was ready for the Maker Faire (including all the preparation in the week or two before the event).  Thanks to these two guys, it all came together, and it simply would have been impossible without them.

I also gotta show off some of Ted's work... Ted Crawford designed these really cool cyborg heads that we used to display the boards at the Maker Faire:

I could probably go on and spend hours writing about everything that happened during our trip, and a lot of really good things came out of it.  Furthermore, there are a few more things that I have to tell you all about, I have to hold off for just a bit until I can share them.

A few words about Mar Williams, our awesome new website administrator... and a Cyber Cortex AV demo to be held soon at the denhac hackerspace:

A few years ago, I used to teach the A+ Computer Certification at a nighttime urban youth center in downtown Denver.  Unbeknownst to me until just recently, Mar Williams, one of my students, later went on to become an amazing web developer, and is also a very active member of Denver's own denhac hackerspace.  In addition, she's also recognized as an well respected artist (in many mediums), and even a tattoo artist.  (I only mention the latter because one of the most signature aspects of Mar's appearance is the fact that her arms are tattoo'd with circuit board sleeves. It's really pretty awesome to see.)

Something else about Mar that I just found out recently is that she won the DEFCON 18 Art Contest, so some of you might even recognize her work:

I'm happy to say that Mar will be helping me out immensely by applying her amazing skills, talent, and creativity into getting the Fabulous Silicon website together so that we all have an awesome place to hang out online and discuss all things Cyber.

Mar and the rest of the folks at the denhac hackerspace have also invited me to do a demonstration/presentation of Cyber Cortex AV on October 7th at 7PM.  I look forward to seeing you all there.

That's all the major developments for the moment... and more to come soon. 

And once again, thanks to everyone for their patience.

-Bryan

Just a quick update to let everyone know what's going on...  

Shipping status:

The boards are running a bit late from the manufacturer.  I'm told that the pick and place / SMD work has been done on both sides of the boards, and they're about a third of the way through assembling the through-hole components, so I'm hoping that they should ship out from the manufacturer this week.  (A very small cache of boards has actually already been sent via DHL to the NY Hall of Science for the demos at the Maker Faire... I'll post pictures of one of the production boards as soon as I meet up with them there.)

MikroElektronika Compilers:

Simply put, the compilers look amazing.  I anticipate having these available for download a couple days after the Maker Faire for everyone to play with.  They'll also be demo'd at the faire with CyberCortex AV for those who plan to attend.

That's all for the moment, as there's much to do before Saturday.

-Bryan