rank beginner here, need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and ...

need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and the led's
blinking.

I was kinda hoping when I opened the box to my new XUPV2P:

http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/XUPV2P.htm

there would be some basic, hello world programs templates to play
with, and a demo program so that
I could have the board send and receive messages on the DB9
connector.  I can't seem to locate anything of the sort.   Does
anybody have a good tutorial for my first program?

TIA,

Jon

On Nov 14, 1:40 pm, jleslie48 <j...@jonathanleslie.com> wrote:
> need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and the led's
> blinking.
>
> I was kinda hoping when I opened the box to my new XUPV2P:
>
> http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/XUPV2P.htm
>
> there would be some basic, hello world programs templates to play
> with, and a demo program so that
> I could have the board send and receive messages on the DB9
> connector.  I can't seem to locate anything of the sort.   Does
> anybody have a good tutorial for my first program?
>
> TIA,
>
> Jon

Jon,

On the page you list, there is a link "XUPV2P Documentation" - it's on
the right hand side under "Documentation".

Click on that link.

On Nov 14, 5:44=A0pm, LittleAlex <alex.lo...@email.com> wrote:
> On Nov 14, 1:40 pm, jleslie48 <j...@jonathanleslie.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and the led's
> > blinking.
>
> > I was kinda hoping when I opened the box to my new XUPV2P:
>
> >http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/XUPV2P.htm
>
> > there would be some basic, hello world programs templates to play
> > with, and a demo program so that
> > I could have the board send and receive messages on the DB9
> > connector. =A0I can't seem to locate anything of the sort. =A0 Does
> > anybody have a good tutorial for my first program?
>
> > TIA,
>
> > Jon
>
> Jon,
>
> On the page you list, there is a link "XUPV2P Documentation" - it's on
> the right hand side under "Documentation".
>
> Click on that link.

I have, I started going through the documentation, but I still can't
find a hello world program.

On 2008-11-14, jleslie48 <jon@jonathanleslie.com> wrote:
> need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and the led's
> blinking.
>
> I was kinda hoping when I opened the box to my new XUPV2P:
>
> http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/XUPV2P.htm
>
> there would be some basic, hello world programs templates to play
> with, and a demo program so that
> I could have the board send and receive messages on the DB9
> connector.  I can't seem to locate anything of the sort.   Does
> anybody have a good tutorial for my first program?


From your post I'm uncertain whether you have prior experience with
FPGAs or not. Since you are talking about a hello world program and
RS232 I suspect that you are interested in using the PPC405 processors
in the FPGA. If so, I would strongly recommend the EDK to you.

However, if you are not interested in the EDK but still want to use the
processors it is possible to do so. I have an example design for this
at my homepage at http://www.da.isy.liu.se/~ehliar/stuff/ which worked
the last time I tried it (a year or so ago). (Search for PPC405 on the
page.) The UCF file in this design is made for the XUPV2P board.

However, if you are not interested in using the PPC405 but still want
to use the RS232 port I would recommend the RS232-tutorial over at
www.fpga4fun.com.

Good luck!

/Andreas

On Nov 17, 3:45 am, Andreas Ehliar <ehliar-nos...@isy.liu.se> wrote:
> On 2008-11-14, jleslie48 <j...@jonathanleslie.com> wrote:
>
> > need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and the led's
> > blinking.
>
> > I was kinda hoping when I opened the box to my new XUPV2P:
>
> >http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/XUPV2P.htm
>
> > there would be some basic, hello world programs templates to play
> > with, and a demo program so that
> > I could have the board send and receive messages on the DB9
> > connector.  I can't seem to locate anything of the sort.   Does
> > anybody have a good tutorial for my first program?
>
> From your post I'm uncertain whether you have prior experience with
> FPGAs or not. Since you are talking about a hello world program and
> RS232 I suspect that you are interested in using the PPC405 processors
> in the FPGA. If so, I would strongly recommend the EDK to you.
>
> However, if you are not interested in the EDK but still want to use the
> processors it is possible to do so. I have an example design for this
> at my homepage athttp://www.da.isy.liu.se/~ehliar/stuff/which worked
> the last time I tried it (a year or so ago). (Search for PPC405 on the
> page.) The UCF file in this design is made for the XUPV2P board.
>
> However, if you are not interested in using the PPC405 but still want
> to use the RS232 port I would recommend the RS232-tutorial over atwww.fpga4fun.com.
>
> Good luck!
>
> /Andreas

Andreas,

Thanks for your links.  I do have the EDK and plan to use it, I have
no idea what a PPC405
processor is, :(, but I'll research it and your links before I ask for
more help.

I have very little experience with fpga's.   I was tasked with
building a device two years ago and being a C programmer, ended up
using a $2000 combo board which had a xilinx chip and a TI6713 DSP on
it. I had a
guy that did the FPGA stuff on the xilinx chip, and I did the
programming on the TI chip with code composer.

Well my fpga guy is gone, and I'm now tasked with moving all my stuff
over to a Xilinx Virtex II or V, C code as well as all the device
controllers.  Hopefully I can figure this thing out.

Sincerely,

Jon

On Nov 17, 3:45 am, Andreas Ehliar <ehliar-nos...@isy.liu.se> wrote:
> On 2008-11-14, jleslie48 <j...@jonathanleslie.com> wrote:
>
> > need to know where to start to get RS232 comm's working, and the led's
> > blinking.
>
> > I was kinda hoping when I opened the box to my new XUPV2P:
>
> >http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/XUPV2P.htm
>
> > there would be some basic, hello world programs templates to play
> > with, and a demo program so that
> > I could have the board send and receive messages on the DB9
> > connector.  I can't seem to locate anything of the sort.   Does
> > anybody have a good tutorial for my first program?
>
> From your post I'm uncertain whether you have prior experience with
> FPGAs or not. Since you are talking about a hello world program and
> RS232 I suspect that you are interested in using the PPC405 processors
> in the FPGA. If so, I would strongly recommend the EDK to you.
>
> However, if you are not interested in the EDK but still want to use the
> processors it is possible to do so. I have an example design for this
> at my homepage athttp://www.da.isy.liu.se/~ehliar/stuff/which worked
> the last time I tried it (a year or so ago). (Search for PPC405 on the
> page.) The UCF file in this design is made for the XUPV2P board.
>
> However, if you are not interested in using the PPC405 but still want
> to use the RS232 port I would recommend the RS232-tutorial over atwww.fpga4fun.com.
>
> Good luck!
>
> /Andreas

Ok, I've reviewed the two links.  They do a nice job of explaining the
theory, and even give some nice snippets of code;  I'm really looking
for a from start to finish example of an fpga program that can be
loaded and run.
the fpga4fun.com rs232 page had a zip file with two .v files and a .c
program.  I assume I'm supposed to unpack those 3 files, and then use
them somehow...

A good "hello world" programming example, starts with unpacking the
zip file, and then step by step opens the building programs, shows you
the buttons/switches to call, shows you what files are generated,
walks you through powering up, downloading the exe image, and then
running the program and verifying that it is functioning correctly.

Are there any "soup to nuts" test programs for the xilinx evaluation
kit out there???

jleslie48 wrote:
(snip)

> Ok, I've reviewed the two links.  They do a nice job of explaining the
> theory, and even give some nice snippets of code;  I'm really looking
> for a from start to finish example of an fpga program that can be
> loaded and run.

It is better not to think of working with FPGA's as "loading and
running a program" but as digital logic design.  You should have some
idea how to wire up gates and flip-flops to build working devices.

> the fpga4fun.com rs232 page had a zip file with two .v files and a .c
> program.  I assume I'm supposed to unpack those 3 files, and then use
> them somehow...

Most likely they have comments, but maybe that isn't enough.

> A good "hello world" programming example, starts with unpacking the
> zip file, and then step by step opens the building programs, shows you
> the buttons/switches to call, shows you what files are generated,
> walks you through powering up, downloading the exe image, and then
> running the program and verifying that it is functioning correctly.

One of the favorite projects from some years ago was a digital clock.
(Before you could buy one for a few dollars made in China.  The
LED displays cost a few dollars each.)

> Are there any "soup to nuts" test programs for the xilinx evaluation
> kit out there???

If your board has a seven-segment LED display, design and load
a digital clock.


-- glen

On 2009-01-21, jleslie48 <jon@jonathanleslie.com> wrote:
> and ironically the sample chapter supplied on that webpage is exactly
> the chapter that I am interested in:
>
> http://academic.csuohio.edu/chu_p/rtl/fpga_vhdl_book/fpga_vhdl_sample_chapter.pdf

I took a brief look at this and happened to notice that the author forgot
to synchronize the rx input signal. So if you follow this example, add
one flip-flop to avoid race conditions and another flip-flop to reduce
the probability of metastability issues to near zero. I have emailed the
author about this so hopefully he'll fix this. (Well, that or I just
missed the synchronization which would be very embarrasing for me :))

If you are not aware of why you need to synchronize an input signal you
could read a longer post I wrote at the following URL:
http://groups.google.se/group/comp.arch.fpga/browse_thread/thread/6b6e98a506ee4b07?hl=sv&ie=UTF-8#1f3c160b2264c029

Or you could of course look it up in some textbook on digital design.

/Andreas

You will find beginner tutorials for the XUPV2P board on the FPGA Developer
website:

http://www.fpgadeveloper.com

Specifically for getting RS232 communications working, try the "Base
System Builder" tutorial.

On Jan 21, 10:53 am, "jeffrey.johnson" <j...@fpgadeveloper.com> wrote:
> You will find beginner tutorials for the XUPV2P board on the FPGA Developer
> website:
>
> http://www.fpgadeveloper.com
>
> Specifically for getting RS232 communications working, try the "Base
> System Builder" tutorial.

I will be taking a look shortly.

Right now I'm going ahead with the RS232 example from the great book:

FPGA PROTOTYPING
BY VHDL EXAMPLES
Xilinx SpartanTM-3V ersion
Pong P. Chu
Cleveland State University

the authors website has even a download of the examples:

http://academic.csuohio.edu/chu_p/rtl/fpga_vhdl.html

and ironically the sample chapter supplied on that webpage is exactly
the chapter that I am interested in:

http://academic.csuohio.edu/chu_p/rtl/fpga_vhdl_book/fpga_vhdl_sample_chapter.pdf