Retrocade Megawing ADC

[t90add 0]

I recently purchased this bundle from gadget factory. http://store.gadgetfactory.net/retrocade-megawing-bundle/

 

I am new to FPGAs but I have coded with Arduinos before. I understand that FPGAs are alot more useful since then can do operations in parallel as opposed to sequences (arduinos; which is why i purchased it). How can I use the ADC of the megawing? Ideally I have two analog inputs, which sample at the same frequency (250hz). I would then like to output this on a graph (maybe serial port on the computer? or a TFT screen?)

 

 

Can some one show me to the right direction? 

 

Thanks. 

 

 

 

[Jack Gassett 0]

Hello t90add,

 

I just added a SPI ADC library to the ZAP IDE and am now working on a couple example sketches to work with the RetroCade MegaWing and the Analog Wing. Give me a couple days and I should have a release for you that will be as easy to use as the Arduino is.

 

Jack.

[t90add 0]

Hi Jack, thanks for that! How would I use VHDL to read from the analog input of the Megawing?

 

 

i.e. in arduino it is as simple as analogRead(pin); is there something like this in VHDL? 

 

 

 

Thanks

[hamster 46]

Nope - for VHDL you need the logic to drive the ADC and capture the output. As luck would have it, I have just the component you need at http://hamsterworks.co.nz/mediawiki/index.php/Analog_Wing

[alex 21]

In other words VHDL or Verilog are not programming languages like C or Python. They are hardware description languages. You use them to describe hardware constructs like gates, shift registers, memories, flip flops, counters, state machines, lookups tables, etc that implement the circuit necessary. In your case you want a serial shifter I guess that reads the DAC value into a FPGA internal register.

Another way to explain this is, think of designing an electronic circuit on a breadboard using basic building blocks like gates and shift registers. Once you have designed that circuit you can describe it easily in VHDL to implement in in a FPGA.

[offroad 14]

Hi,

 

you can find an example project here if you intend to code RTL (VHDL/Verilog).

http://forum.gadgetfactory.net/index.php?/topic/1889-ouch-retrocade-adc-tester/