Low resolution in ZPUino hyperion

[mos1100]

Hi all

 

i am new to Papilio, so this could be a case of not finding the correct files/software/procedures.

 

i downloaded the VGA demos to papilio pro(logic start megawing) with ZAP 2.3.0 and got them to work.

 

my question is why the graphic resolution is 160x120 though the VGA generator seems to output something like 640x480,

when i use "put_pixel" it generates blocks of 5x5 real pixels.

 

 

i then looked to designlab 1.0.5 (which is supposed to replace ZAP), but i cant find any papilio pro programmer,

and shure enough downloading to papilio pro dosnt work,

 

 

greatful for any enlightment

 

Mats

[Jack Gassett]

Hello Mats,

 

Are you using the Papilio Pro board? If so then look for the new VGA demo's, they go up to a much higher resolution and use the Adafruit GFX library. 

 

The old VGA demo's that are in the ZAP IDE were designed for the Papilio One 500K which has very limited memory available to it. The most that was possible with the memory was 160x120. With the Papilio Pro and Papilio DUO we have much more external memory to work with so Alvie made a brand new VGA adapter that is much improved.

 

Jack.

[mos1100]

Hi Jack

 

thanks for quick reply, i still have problems though, maybe i have to take them step by step.

 

1.

i had big problems getting the USB drivers to work, beacuse i had signalhound spectrum analyzer installed with the same(i think) FTDI drivers installed PID0403 VID6010

after some (many)hours i got rid of them and installed the drivers from loader 2.8 package

the loader as standalone works fine loading to FPGA ,to make it work to flash i have to do erase(it seems) then upload and recycle power then its fine.

 

2.

next thing was to install Design lab 1.0.5 (i kept the drivers from loader2.8 package)

first i tried to upload the Adafruit GFX demo, but uploader says :

Board mismatch!!!.

Board is:      0xa4041700 'GadgetFactory Papilio Pro LX9'

Sketch is for: 0xb4041700 'GadgetFactory Papilio Pro LX9 (ZPUino 2.0)'

 

then i thougt maybe i have to burn bootloader but that returns a lot of java errors

another thing i noticed is that designlab only has a programmer for papilio duo (maybe not a problem?)

 

next thing was to replace the drivers from the designlab package, same results.

 

3.

then i downloaded ZAP 2.3.0 which seems to work.

i burned the bootloader(OK) then i uploade several VGA demos(OK)

but i cant find the newer VGA demos in ZAP)

 

so the conclusion is that ZAP and standalone Loader seems to work fine but not designlab(where the goodies are)

 

my setup:

HP workstation , WIN7/64 ,Papilio Pro with Logicstart Megawing

 

greatful for any tip on how to proceed

 

Mats

[Jack Gassett]

Hello Mats,

 

Lets talk about the problems one at a time.

 

1) There was a problem with Papilio Loader 2.7 where SPI Flash was not properly written to but it should have been fixed in 2.8. Can you paste the output and a screenshot of the settings?

 

2) It sounds like you are not loading the associated circuit to the Papilio Pro before trying to load the sketch. Please take a look at these getting started videos:

• http://gadgetfactory.net/learn/2015/01/14/designlab-quickstart-duo-fpga/
• http://gadgetfactory.net/learn/2015/04/03/designlab-hello-world/
• http://gadgetfactory.net/learn/2015/04/03/designlab-using-the-ide-for-the-first-time/

3) ZAP is no longer being updated, the new VGA stuff does not work in ZAP.

 

Jack.

[mos1100]

Hello Jack

 

1) the 2.8 loader seems to work better, i did as you said and set it into expert mode which seems to work fine

i still have the problem with dual FTDI drivers but i scrapped the spectrum analyzer for the time being.

 

2) i missed out on the "load circuit button" which solved the problem of getting the soft processor into the chip.

its a bit confusing beacuse most of the help texts is about papilio duo and i have a papilio pro

anyway i opened the papilio quickstart and hit the load circuit which proceeded OK

then i tried uploading both ZPUino_VGA_adapter and ZPUino_GFX and both seems to upload fine

i cant get any VGA out but i have text on the serial monitor so the processor is running.

maybe the VGA output is not hooked up in the FPGA circuit

 

is there any demo that are ready to go with Papilio Pro/logic start Megawing and VGA out ?

 

3) OK i understand

 

P.S. for a newbie its a little bit confusing in designlab wihch file is the softprocessor and which is a sketch only.

       that was easyier to understand in ZAP

 

thank you for helping

 

Mats

[Jack Gassett]

Hello,

 

Here is a video walkthrough showing what you need to do to get the new VGA libraries working with a Papilio Pro and LogicStart MegaWing.

 

 

Jack.

[mos1100]

Hello Jack

 

its all starting to clear up in my head now, works fine.

 

the mistake i did was that i did not change the lines in demo file concerning logicstart megawing until the second stage when i uploaded it.

 

now i can get up to 1024x768, but it seems like thats also the limit of the unbuffered VGA output.

 

the next stage would require a VGA DAC/line driver i think, or maybe HDMI output.

 

many thanks for getting me going

 

Mats

[Jack Gassett]

Mats,

 

Yes, the limitation right now is the memory bandwidth and the RGB332 DAC of the Logicstart MegaWing. The Papilio Arcade has RGB444 which is better. Or using HDMI would allow even better color depth.

 

Jack