Little Guys Ep 12: Computing With Eurorack

Going forward, Little Guys will look very different. Not exactly like this (I shot it this way because I don't have the right furniture yet) but a lot more like this than the ones I made before.

Chapters:
00:00 Reintroducing Little Guys
01:52 Introducing CompactPCI
07:30 Chassis innards
09:35 Meeting the PC
16:15 Wacky cabling
18:55 Peripherals
24:16 Assembly
28:04 Powering up
31:29 Software tour
36:42 GAMING
40:29 Is it useful?
46:14 Outro

[CathodeRayDude]

Couple errata:

- The cable DOES closely resemble DMS-59, but those cables all had a single pin missing. This doesn't, so it's actually a 60-pin connector, making it more similar to the 60-pin v.35 cables used in T1 routers (etc.) Thanks to @toodarkpark for pointing that out, I should have known that!

- Yes, it's a Cirrus Logic SVGA chip, not a Chips & Technologies. Look, everything that can't do 3D blends together. :p

[AdamGreenwell]

“Godspeed. Use a voltmeter.”

Words to live by.

[abbeyk]

its so obvious by your expressions and tone of voice that the changes in the studio and warehouse have made making videos fun again for you, and i'm so happy to see it. i think i speak for everyone that a happy CRD is a happy fanbase.

[jimgargani]

Mr. C.R. Dude... I could watch you discussing water boiling for 2 hours and I wouldn't leave my chair. You are the best!

[CyborganicDreamscape]

14:24 "you know what? let's gaff tape it" t-shirt design right there

[lightguy]

I actually work at a company that makes cPCI cards and you got it all right for the most part. Just some quick thoughts. That red slot is usually what we refer to as the SYSCON slot, because the bus master has to go there. Usually this is some kind of SBC, but you could in theory put anything there provided it can perform bus arbitration and act as a system controller. The picture you showed of the 6u chassis is interesting because it has two SYSCON slots, which are bridged by some sort of PCI switch on the backplane. Sort of like a PLX chip it allows for multiple system controllers on the same bus, although to access the children of the other syscon, you have to go through the switch, and then through the other syscon. It is common for those additional pins you mentioned to simply be a passthrough straight to the back side of the backplane, so you can insert what is called an RTM or rear transition module. You are correct that a manufacturer would define this pinout themselves, but provided the backplane is a "passthrough" backplane, and your RTM matches with your SBC, the system should "just work". But like you said you do have to be careful, it's not always immediately obvious that a backplane is passthrough or if it is routing something else point to point on those pins, for example it is common to have Ethernet routed on those pins, and they go directly to another slot in the chassis.

[Underwatches]

loving the new presentation. you're totally right, doing videos in this way in your new room makes things way more engaging!

[Crusader]

Yes, Yes! The owner of the museum has noticed your interest, unlocked the cabinet, and is showing you all the weird stuff! This is top quality content!

[hotkeymuc]

Saw it — my mind instantly went "Eurorack! Eurorack! Does it fit Eurorack?" 😸

[JessicaFEREM]

the people taking down IA, whether it be book publishers, or the hackers, are the lowest of the low.

[yemetrica]

i absolutely love the running joke with the image used for any time there is two of something

[Redzero]

This may sound silly and unusual but THANK YOU FOR SHOWING CASTLE OF THE WINDS! I have been wracking my brain trying to remember this game for like 20 years

[fiveangle]

I was working for a well-funded startup at the time and experienced this in-flight satellite Internet link first-hand on an SFO-IAD (San Francisco to Dulles) flight and while "abysmal" was the only appropriate term to describe the experience, it didn't matter in the slightest because even at at least 50% packet loss, I WAS ON THE FREAKIN' INTERNET IN AN AIRPLANE !!! This was near miraculous at the time for any of us working in the valley and putting the $35 buy in cost on the company dime. This, combined with our always-on Ricochet wireless modems taped to the back of our laptop screens gave us mobile warriors the feeling we were living in the future as we rode into companies throughout Silicon Valley like digital Lone Rangers, riding off into the sunset leaving happy customers in our wake asking, "who was that masked man?". Thanks for sharing and tickling these nerd memories :)

[zebo-the-fat]

Bonus points for pronouncing Moog correctly!

[MobCat_]

"But again, wrong gender"
Story of my life...

[screwbyte]

This hits close to home for me as I work for a company that makes PXI equipment, which is just CompactPCI for electronic test & measurement (PCI Extensions for Instrumentation). You can get all sorts of modular test gear in the CompactPCI form factor under the PXI banner including DMMs, oscilloscopes, function generators, programmable power supplies, relay multiplexers, etc, a lot of which would probably work in your chassis. There is even PXIe (PCI Express) on some chassis which I believe is test industry specific. It's fun to game on $16k of test equipment, and thanks to this video I'll have to start cramming modular synthesisers in too.

[staticfanatic]

the one drawback to these videos being in the studio now is the cat won't invade anymore.

[summerleeye]

the way you walked up remined me of the Korean dude walking up to a refrigerator in his store and him saying " i love refrigerators "

[AnonymousFreakYT]

22:40 😳🤯🤦

*_I HAVE BEEN USING 68-PIN SCSI FOR 30 YEARS, AND I NEVER NOTICED THAT THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONNECTORS ARE PHYSICALLY IDENTICAL!_*

[limerency]

I just want to say, phenomenal work. No idea how much this second space cost you but imo as a single fan it was worth it because this was great. I actually loved the workbench videos but the vibes here mixed with the better viewing angles make it even more fun to watch!