Xu Beilin: Why did I join the OpenHarmony ecosystem? Why do you want to do the "Kai Sail KP" development kit?

Under the global open source trend, China is gradually becoming the main user and core contributor of global open source software. Today, let's meet Xu Beilin, a senior project manager of iSoftStone, a developer who led the team to successfully develop a "Qihang KP" intelligent development kit after having been in contact with OpenHarmony for less than a year.
As the head of iSoftStone's hardware team, Xu Beilin is responsible for the team's overall technical planning, project care, delivery of results, and coordination and communication between departments and members. In his work, Xu Beilin actively promotes the OpenHarmony solution, and at the same time promotes the open source of the OpenHarmony development board, especially the hardware open source and hardware design guidelines, so as to achieve "soft and hard".
Next, let's chat with Xu Beilin about his original intention of joining the OpenHarmony ecosystem, his views on OpenHarmony, the difficulties and gains he encountered in open source projects, and his experience in the open source process.

Q1 First of all, I am very happy that Mr. Xu can accept our interview. Please give us a brief introduction of yourself and your team.

Hello everyone, my name is Xu Beilin, I am the project manager of the hardware development team of iSoftStone Innovation Center. The team is mainly responsible for building the business hardware base, which consists of hardware docking, hardware technical support, hardware design, and firmware development. It supports customers to successfully connect with Huawei's ecosystem externally, and establishes a software and hardware ecosystem internally. I officially contacted the OpenHarmony open source project in early 2021, hoping to make some contributions to the open source ecosystem.

Q2 What prompted you and your team to join the OpenHarmony ecosystem and participate in open source co-construction? What do you think is the most attractive point of the OpenHarmony project?

Today, the application of open source in various industries is gradually deepening, and open source software has also become an important component of information systems in various industries. I've always felt that the more you interact and share with the world, the more possibilities there are. From the perspective of developers, we are not only users and consumers of ready-made open source projects, but also creators and contributors. OpenHarmony is the next-generation operating system for the Internet of Everything. It uses an advanced distributed architecture, which is very friendly to developers and has high development efficiency.

Joining the OpenHarmony ecosystem, from its own perspective, can improve its own capabilities; from an enterprise perspective, it can strengthen the company's strength; furthermore, it can help the country's development. On the road to open source, only through consultation, co-construction and sharing can we achieve a win-win situation and benefit every organization and individual who loves and is enthusiastic about open source.

Q3 I have learned that you and your team have developed an OpenHarmony "Kai Sail KP" development kit project, can you give us a brief introduction?

At the very beginning of this project, it was planned to develop a certified module of iSoftStone itself, so that manufacturers can choose more modules and open up the hardware situation of iSoftStone. With the core module, we developed the OpenHarmony development board simultaneously. The development board mentioned here is the "Qihang KP" development kit, which is equipped with the OpenHarmony open source operating system. Because of its flexible modular expansion capabilities and networking capabilities, it can be applied to a variety of application scenarios, such as automotive, energy and other industrial and consumer fields. In addition, the "Qihang KP" smart development kit has also been put on the Huawei Developer Alliance ecological market. iSoftStone WiFi Harmony Connect module, as the core of iSoftStone's "Qihang KP" development board, provides the main control capability, and has successfully helped the "Qihang KP" development board to participate in the Hi-Tech Fair and the 2 The second operating system industry summit has received extensive attention. In addition, the products and related materials will also be included in iSoftStone's OpenHarmony teacher training. I am very proud to be one of the lead members of the project.

Q4 During the whole development process, what was the biggest difficulty and the biggest gain for you and your team?

The biggest achievement is that together with the team, we overcame many difficulties and successfully completed the project of "Kai Sail KP" development kit. This development board uses the self-developed 3861 module as the core driver, and open-sources all the codes and schematic diagrams of the 12 modules of the development board, including the core board, to contribute to the promotion of OpenHarmony.

Looking back on the entire development process now, I feel a lot in my heart. With an average age in our twenties, we are all doing open source projects for the first time. At the beginning, everyone was very excited. Many of us were making development kits for the first time, and at the same time, we were able to achieve zero breakthroughs for the company. But reality slapped us hard first. In the process of research and development, we gradually found that our own experience was insufficient, and we were a little clueless. However, the whole team insisted on active thinking and active learning. Even when we were eating, the team members were thinking and discussing the project. Although this process is challenging and difficult, I think it is very valuable, the whole team has learned a lot, and the sense of achievement is great!

Speaking of difficulties, in terms of radio frequency technology, there is no external technical support and no accumulation of related technologies, which does bring certain difficulties to our research and development. But in the face of these difficulties, we moved forward while exploring and summed up our own set of methodology. First, we need to complete the circuit layout outside the 3861WiFi module antenna, and then import the actual data into the HFSS software for 2.4G RF simulation, which includes: circuit board size, material, and stack data; then repeatedly adjust the matching circuit parameters and parameters according to the simulation results. Antenna size, in order to adjust to the most suitable parameters, this process is really repeated many times.

What impresses me the most is that although everyone in the group is a young man who is not very particular about dressing up all day, I didn’t expect that they would be so careful and patient in their work. Question, thanks to everyone's unremitting efforts, we finally got S11 parameters that are qualified within the specified bandwidth. However, when designing the antenna according to the simulation results, we did not have this technical experience. We repeated the joint adjustment for nearly 2 months, tried many times, and failed many times. The team members organized meetings together and pored over technical documents , work overtime together to discuss a more complete solution, use a network analyzer to conduct actual testing after proofing, and then adjust the matching circuit and antenna line length again according to the results. The hard work pays off. We successfully overcome the difficulties of RF technology, which also improves the confidence of the team members. At the same time, it is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him a fish. In order to help the subsequent development of the small partners more smoothly, the hardware development team also outputs the technical documentation of the hardware + firmware of the entire development board as a tutorial output, hoping to help others .

You and your team must have paid a lot for Q5 to develop such an excellent product. Can you ask Mr. Xu to share with us the whole process of developing this product, any memorable experience?

Our project is an OpenHarmony open source project. For us, it is an opportunity and a challenge to formally join the OpenHarmony family. In this process, every member has paid a lot of hard work. I remember one time, it happened to be Friday. When I was about to get off work, I encountered a technical problem. It seemed that there was a tacit understanding. No one said to leave. meeting room. When everyone was arguing, a colleague's phone rang. His girlfriend from out of town just came to look for him for the weekend. We told him to go back first, but after a short chat with his girlfriend, he put down the phone and resolutely decided. continue to discuss the issue with us. After nearly 2 hours of arguing, and subsequent constant tweaking of code and experiments, we finally solved the problem at 12:00. After solving the problem, I suddenly heard someone's stomach growl. It turned out that everyone was so busy that they forgot to eat dinner.

Now speaking, there are too many such situations. In order to solve the problem, we can work overtime, argue, and express our opinions, but we are a group of very good friends in private. It is my honor to be able to be with such a group of lovely and dedicated partners, and it has also made me deeply realize the importance of the team. A programmer's sense of responsibility is not only responsible for his own code, but also advances and retreats with the team. own team's responsibility.

Q6 During the process of developing the project, you must have a deep feeling for OpenHarmony. What aspects of OpenHarmony would you most like to complain about? Or what aspects of OpenHarmony are expected to be improved and provide more support in the future?

The OpenHarmony system is very large, but it is relatively basic at present. We should focus on the advantages of OpenHarmony, such as distributed interaction methods, such as applications on the Internet of Things. Of course, I also hope that OpenHarmony can organize more exchanges, provide developers with more platforms, release more teaching content, and build the OpenHarmony ecosystem together.

Q7 OpenHarmony is still in the development and exploration stage. Many co-construction units and ecological partners still do not know how to play open source projects, or do not know how to start development. Can you ask Mr. Xu to share with you an experience that you think is the most important or worth sharing?

The best way is to follow our open source materials and start learning from building an environment. Our open source development board, a full set of materials have been developed, and a lively video explanation. Of course, the key point is that the learner should complete the code writing of the routine by himself, and draw inferences from one case to another, while completing the learning routine, carry out self-research and expansion of his own project. Let's build and share together, and improve this open source business together.

Q8 At the end of the interview, is there anything Mr. Xu would like to share in particular?

Some things do not insist on seeing hope, but seeing hope only because they persist. Looking up at the starry sky, it is better to bow down and enter the game. Welcome everyone to join the OpenHarmony ecological family.