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Working VGA-demos for P1V? — Parallax Forums

Working VGA-demos for P1V?

overclockedoverclocked Posts: 80
edited 2014-08-30 14:53 in Propeller 1
Has anyone tried running VGA-demos on the P1V (FPGA)?

This is my tries this far..

The Propeller verilog code synthesize in the XIlinx-toolchain (Thanks Magnus and others). It reports no timing problems but fills the 1600E to 96% so it is quite filled.

I'm using an USB-UART solution that works with the PropellerTool: http://www.electrokit.com/usbseriell-omvandlare-ft232rl.45997

N
ext step is to run some software examples. My first tries was to run the standard examples that excercises the LED.
These are a very good way to get to learn the tools and initial test of the SPIN language. They seem to work and do what they are suppose to.

My next steps were to try and get either serial-port or VGA to work. Neither of these seem to work 100% as expected.

When it comes to serial I always seem to get only the first letter and nothing more.. anyone seen this behaviour?
Some (but not many) VGA-examples works. The feeling is that lower-res examples work and all high-res doesn't. Can this be because of jitter on the clocks or is it the XIlinx-conversion gone bad?
Has anyone tried running 800*600 or 1024*768 VGA examples using Nano or DE2-115? Please report the result.

The setting/setup I've used for the build/sources are:

50Mhz clock input, and PLL-clock: 160Mhz which translates to the COG-clk running at 80Mhz I think. Thus running as a standard P1.

The code used is source Magnus released in another thread (8 Cogs, 64KB HubMem, unencrypted ROM with only Boot+Interpreter iknit into RAM)
I've changed the UCF-file pin-config to suit my Microblaze Starter Kit with a 1600E FPGA device.

Comments

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,367
    edited 2014-08-26 03:13
    800x600 with DE2-115 works ok using unmodified Propeller driver. Tested from 80 to 140 MHz. I tried also modify the code to run @ 1024x768. It worked with 130 MHz p1v (2x vga clock).

    DE2-115 VGA DAC needs clock. I used Propeller clock for this purpose.

    The project is here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/156954-A-DE2-115-Propeller-demo-board-project-now-programmable-with-the-Propplug
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2014-08-26 03:14
    I have used the standard FullDuplexSerial at 115,200 with PST on the pc without problems.

    However, I almost always put a 1 sec (at least) delay before starting FDX and another 1 sec delay before starting to transmit.
    This is because after downloading you have to switch to the terminal program and this gives you some time to do this. ALso, remember that these lines can change (by windows swapping the port). I suggest you try this first before you start looking elsewhere for problems.
  • overclockedoverclocked Posts: 80
    edited 2014-08-30 14:53
    OK thanks for the info. I think I've found the problem. The spartan 3e doesn't seem to handle the 80 MHz Cog. When lowering the speed to 60 MHz and matching the demo code to this both VGA and serial work quite good. I'm going to try out some more examples with sd card and keyboard.
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