The "Learn" Tab of this website is dead. Is there an alternative?


sleat

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Hi,

Just getting the time to resume a 32 bit de-serializer circuit I want to make as a peripheral for the ZPUino to read a specialized instrument, and I've dead-ended trying to learn the stuff I need to build a complete project using DesignLab. I do remember making heavy use of articles under "Learn". Is there an alternative way to get to the tutorial content for building circuits, say from VHDL or schematic edits, and making them into parts that can be hung onto the wishbone bus?

I'm also saddened to see that many of the formerly useful urls included in the DesignLab templates are also dead. Any alternative there? What happened to all that content?

At least the YT videos are still up, but I'm having to watch each one to see whether it's helpful. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

sleat

 

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Thanks bnusbick and Jack!

Yes, I ultimately found the new "learn" website, but the problem is that a number of the old URLs in the templates and examples need to be gone through and modified, as you say. The modification should be very formulaic, provided one knows where the goods are.

It's really only a problem of context. I remember that the system even a short time ago was very good, you'd open a template, or a page on the site, and useful info would pretty much jump out at you.

So, basically the flow of Open Template/Example/Default sketch=>Study Code/comments=>click to learn more=>Back to sketch and make progress...is broken, but not very badly.

A search/refactoring tool with string handling would sort most of this out quick, when it sees the url form gadgetfactory.net/learn/<something> it could simply convert to learn.gadgetfactory.net/<something> and it should be fine.

These may exist in many places in your web and IDE/Template content, for example "Learn" just above in the forum tabs is the wrong url.

There are content links under "blog" that are also broken, so missing some pictures.

Possibly related, in the IDE, when I click New DesignLab Library - Wishbone Schematic, it throws a java null pointer exception, so I've included the call stack below.

Both other menu options, standalone and wishbone vhdl, work just fine!

If this is only a local problem, can I safely re-install the IDE without breaking my existing xilinx ISE setup?

The xilinx side seems to be working well so I don't want to mess with it.

Now for the good news! I've come up with a library-free example which completely demonstrates hooking drawn schematics (in this case a 32 bit counter with select-able clock) up to Wishbone with just inline sketch-code. By polling the counter clock set to various speeds and displaying the value, one can determine the absolute limits of the ZPUino SOC in handling realtime synchronous stuff. (My synch-serial instrument spits 32 bit fixed-point at 1khz which I need to do math on in real-time)  Ideally, I could figure out how to have the ZPUino do it on interrupts so as not to block, but I don't see an easy way to do that without an interrupt on wishbone input capability. Now if only I could clock the internal ZPUino timers with a GPIO pin...that'd fix it, since they can interrupt!

As soon as I can figure out how to create a new schematic wishbone library template without the menu, I can make a library version too. Can anyone identify the background magic steps that this menu option does, <Papilio=>New DesignLab Library - Wishbone Scematic> so I can do it manually?

I note that File=>Examples=>Template_DesignLab_Library_Wishbone_Schematic=>edit library exists, but doesn't really work as the menu options under Papilio do. It's also not the same as the standalone or VHDL examples next to it, since it has "edit library" as a button on the right. Do these examples have any purpose?

I don't get a blank sketch with the instructions and a .cpp and .h template to work with. It's simply an example sketch with nothing "behind" it. For the one under "Examples" ending in "Wishbone_VHDL"

Thanks again,

I guess the most burning question is "Can I fix the java exception and make a wishbone schematic library without doing it manually (and possibly missing critical steps)?".

 

New DesignLab Library - Wishbone Schematic_java exception.txt

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On 9/17/2018 at 12:00 PM, Jack Gassett said:

The content should still be there, we just need to fix broken links. Please let us know what you see wrong and we will work on getting things in order. 

http://learn.gadgetfactory.net should work for the learn content.

Jack, found a few more broken links under learn.gadgetfactory.net

Yes, there are tutorials there, but the image content is generally missing.

Seems the links are broken in the densest, most useful tutorials. :D

Making libraries, publishing tutorials, etc.

Others seem to have images just fine, but they're the rudimentary ones.

Here's an example. Every image url in this page http://learn.gadgetfactory.net/2015/04/03/designlab-libraries-library-quickstart/  goes nowhere;

http://learn.gadgetfactory.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/snapshot12a.png

Also the link at the bottom;

http://forum.gadgetfactory.net/index.php?/page/articles.html/_/designlab/libraries/

Here's the tutorial one, also missing images;

http://learn.gadgetfactory.net/2015/04/16/how-to-make-a-learn-tutorial/

Starting from the first library tutorial, standalone schematic, which has missing images, the links to the other library tutorials, SOC Wishbone Schematic and SOC Wishbone VHDL, are also dead. I sure hope those are around somewhere :D

http://learn.gadgetfactory.net/2015/04/03/designlab-libraries-make-a-wishbone-library/

http://learn.gadgetfactory.net/2015/04/03/designlab-libraries-library-from-internet-code/

Cheers,

Joe

 

 

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