It's alive and I blame the hamster!


Chris_C

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Well after more than two weeks my "priority" mail USPO package arrived - I'll not be using USPO ever again given the chance, even oops (ups) can do it in less than half the time...

So having worked through Hamsters excellent intro to FPGA's I added a counter to some code I'd used with the simulator and having already compiled the papilio tool sent the design to the fpga...

but instead of the LED inverting its state every few seconds it remained on! - "oh nose my logics is borked" I thought, then I did my math again and realised that I was, not one, not two, but three decimal orders of magnitude out with my counter, adding eight or nine bits to my counter and bingo led flashes on or off every few seconds or so. :D

Colour me happy! I can't wait for Hamsters ebook on writing soft cores (hint hint) ;)

soon I hope to tackle making a VGA signal, which I think is going to be a LOT easier than bit banging a PAL signal with a micro controller !

Just one request to the gadget factory a few pins on my VGA wing were bent, shipping them in some conductive foam would prevent this...

Anyone care to venture some project ideas (slightly easier than VGA) I can do to lead me up to tackling the VGA wing?

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Working on some sort of PWM LED brightness driver (with brightness set by switches, or varying over time), will give you all the understanding needed to generate the sync signals.

 

If is a common theme of FPGA work that time scales pratical in simulation are not suited to the time scales that work with human interactions.

 

In the middle (e.g 1ms -> 100ms) is a big void where simulation can't reach and you can't debug visually, and it is also quite hard to capture what is going on with a logic analyzer.

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no..... That's cheating! :D while I know many people get the pap pro as an Arduino on steroids, I bought one because I wanted to learn FPGA circuit design, getting someone elses VGA circuit welded onto someone else's soft core doesn't appeal to me... don't get me wrong I may well have a play at some point but I'm finding VHDL and the nuances of FPGA's

 

And yes at some point I will be implementing my own design of soft core!

 

I know one thing for sure, however you use the pro, its a fantastic genuinely useful toy *cough* I mean tool, not done massive amounts with it just yet but its fantastic fun even for beginners like me!!!

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