Hans

Thank you for the explanation! With these instructions, I was able to run my logic analyzer and the Papilio Pro board at the same time, which really improves my productivity.

It seems that the current papilio-prog source has code to select a particular device by description (-d), but that does not work for me on Windows (the FT_OpenEx call never succeeds when I specify a device description sting). On Linux it does work, so it seems to be an issue of the FTDI library that is distributed with the code for Windows, but I'm not a Windows programming expert. Any further pointers would be appreciated.

Hi, I am trying to use the Papilio loader and an Intronix Logicport logic analyzer using Windows 7 at the same time. Trouble is that both the Papilio Pro and the logic analyzer use the FTDI serial chip, and the loader program mistakenly tries to talk to the logic analyzer instead of the FPGA board (and fails). The logic analyzer software does not have the same trouble, it detects its device and works. Is there any known workaround to make the Papilio loader talk to a specific USB device instead of using the vendor and device ID? Thanks, Hans

Thanks for the confirmation. I was trying to find out how the PS2 interfacing would be implemented and could not make sense of that. Your updated instructions work much better, and I'm going to move that to my joystick wiring now.

Thanks, Alex - I'll look into changing the top level to suit myself.

Hi, I have successfully built the Pengo hardware bitstream, installed the game in my Papilio Pro with the Arcade MegaWing and wired up a joystick and button according to the MegaWing user manual. The game demo runs fine, including sound, but no input is detected - Neither from the four buttons on the MegaWing nor from the Joystick (although the latter could be just due to the fact that I can't insert coins or start the game). Is there anything special I need to do to get the credit and start game inputs to work? Any hints would be appreciated. Thanks! Hans

I uploaded the RetroCade sketch to the papilio pro board with my Mac laptop, and that took the same time as on the Mac mini (60 seconds). For good measure, I tried the same on a Windows 8 PC using the same papilio pro board, and there the upload took something like 16 seconds. What time would I have to expect? -Hans

Jack, I helped myself with an edited version of the .prj file in the ZPUino-HDL/zpu/hdl/zpuino/boards/papilio-pro/S6LX9 directory, but I'm not sure if that'd be the right one. If you could commit and push yours, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! Hans

Jack, thanks for the extra info. There is still a missing file, though: aspirin 661_% makemkdir -p xst/projnav.tmp/xst -intstyle ise -ifn papilio_pro.xst -ofn papilio_pro.syrERROR:Xst:438 - Can not open file : papilio_pro.prj I will try using the IDE for uploading the changed files, but I hope to be able to work without it in the future. Is there any description on how papllio-prog must be used on the command line (i.e. how to load bitstreams and compiled sketches)? Thanks, Hans

This is not quite specific to the RetroCade Synth and if there is a better place to ask, please let me know. Is it possible to just set tozpuino_number_io_select_bits to, say, 5, in order to have more Wishbone I/O slots, or does such a change require other reconfiguration? In the RetroCade Synth hardware, most of the slots are already occupied and I would like to experiment with adding a few more SIDs or YMs. Thanks, Hans

As a starter, I have changed the hardware so that the YM and SID are routed to separate audio outputs in addition to be fed to the mixer. As soon as I've figured out how to combine the changed bitstream and the sketch binary, I'll make that version available. Jack, do you have plans for the mixer already or can I look at it? I have never implemented a Wishbone peripheral before and this seems like a simple enough device for learning.

I'm sorry to have to require so much hand holding, but I think I'm almost there: Pending confirmation about the directory confusion (above), I can rebuild the hardware using ISE and I can also build the sketch using the Arduino IDE. The Bitstream ends up in a .bit file, and as far as I understood, the bitstream includes a boot loader that can load ZPU code from Flash. How exactly do I need to combine the .bit file and the (supposedly) .bin file that the Arduino IDE generates, and how do I program these into the board using papilio-prog? -Hans

Jack, thanks for the help! I'll happily avoid ISE, and the make based flow seems to work fine. I could not rebuild the bitstream in the directory zpu/hdl/zpuino/boards/papilio-pro/S6LX9/variants/retrocade though: aspirin 631_% pwd/home/hans/papilio/ZPUino-HDL/zpu/hdl/zpuino/boards/papilio-pro/S6LX9/variants/retrocadeaspirin 632_% makemkdir -p xst/projnav.tmp/xst -intstyle ise -ifn papilio_pro.xst -ofn papilio_pro.syrERROR:Xst:427 - Entry File papilio_pro.xst not found make: *** [papilio_pro.ngc] Error 1 In the directory zpu/hdl/zpuino/boards/papilio-pro/S6LX9, the build succeeds, and the two papilio_pro_top.vhd in these directories are identical, but I wonder if I'm on the right track there. Can you confirm? Thanks!Hans

Hi Jack, sorry to bother, but is the hardware description for the current RetroCade Synth bitstream available on github? I'd like to try out a few things, but the master branch of git://github.com/GadgetFactory/ZPUino-HDL.git does not seem to contain the right ISE project. Or does it? Any pointer would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Hans

Jack, I tried powering the board both through a high-quality powered USB hub and through a direct USB port on the machine. With both, the noise was clearly audible. When I used an external power supply, there was no issue. In a performance situation, there'd be no issue with using a separate power supply, but for development, the approach won't work. I'll try powering from an extra laptop tomorrow, just for another data point. I kind of suspect a ground connection issue, but I'm not much of an electronics buff. -Hans