Run uLisp on a USB dongle

#1

This USB dongle from Adafruit contains an nRF52840 ARM Cortex M4F processor running at 64MHz, with 1 Mbyte of flash and 256 Kbytes of RAM. It should run ARM uLisp nicely, with similar performance to the Adafruit ItsyBitsy nRF52840:

USB-dongle
USB-dongle.jpg779x588 46.6 KB

Order it from Adafruit here: nRF52840 USB Key with TinyUF2 Bootloader

or from Tindie here: nRF52840 USB BT5.2 Dongle Raytac MDBT50Q-RX

The Tindie version doesn’t have a TinyUF2 Bootloader installed, but you should be able to program the board with a suitable programmer via the SWDIO and SWCLK pins that are accessible inside the case.

#2

Seems a good direction but you need more external pins. Like the small FPGA stick it is nice to use USB as a programming channel. And then when you’re done you move the stick to a USB power bank and use it. But no pins, just Bluetooth - not sure how useful …

#3

@johnsondavies, thank you for mentioning this possibility.

I still have not done any project using uLisp, but this could tackle a problem I could not yet solve:

I have been in need of a sort of FIDO U2F key, to enable access to a Common Lisp application, and trought that, to the server side API. Also, I would need to store small bits of information, so the user can carry the key, to access API but also part of its working configuration while travelling.

I need such key to be more flexible than just a just a Yubico U2F key, especially the aspect of being able to dialogue with the users’ host machine.

Also, I would like to keep my code base as much as possible close to Common Lisp. Thus uLisp would be perfect.

Would you reckon this product, managed throught uLisp, would give me a chance to solve this use case?

Thanks,

Han

#4

PS: One small problem I see is that that device probably has always-on bluetooth. That would not be acceptable in the environment where it needs to be used (no bluetooth allowed).

#5

@han I think the Adafruit Neo Trinkey would be more suitable; see:

Using uLisp on the Adafruit Neo Trinkey

It doesn’t have Bluetooth, and it also supports saving the Lisp image to flash memory using save-image.

#6

Thanks, the Neo Trinkey seems ideal.

Would anybody know if pre-made cases can be bought anywhere?

I do not have a 3D printer to make them, like indicated here: Neo Trinkey Case