Close

Works first time! :)

A project log for Arduino-Compatible FPGA Shield

Spartan 6 FPGA Shield includes SPI Configuration Flash, Breakout Headers, SRAM, programmable from Arduino or SPI Programmer

technolomaniactechnolomaniac 06/24/2014 at 17:304 Comments

Boards have been built and worked the first time.  Woohoo!  Only thing I've noticed so far is that I neglected to tent the vias (cover them in soldermask) under the super small BGA SRAM.  This has a nasty effect of making it very hard to hand solder these (yes, I hand soldered the BGAs :).  The vias create their own surface tension and can pull the BGA off of it's lands.  Still, managed with patience & a cheap reused stencil I scored from Ian at Dangerous Prototypes at Makerfaire (he was going to leave it behind on his way back to Shenzhen...I recycled it...thanks Ian!), to get the boards to work.  

Anyone interested in testing one, having a whirl with one, what-not, let me know.  I will put up some videos that show me using it and talk u thru the nuts and bolts of the Xilinx development software.  :)

Discussions

Norse wrote 06/27/2014 at 15:02 point
I'd love to try one out. When you get the BOM posted and the final Eagle files I plan to build one myself. I do have one question however. What was your reason with using Advanced Circuits instead of someone like OSH park?

  Are you sure? yes | no

mkr506 wrote 06/25/2014 at 12:48 point
Hello! congratulations the boards looking great, i would love to try one if possible, we are moving house over the weekend ... so maybe i can have some fun designing a project for the new house :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Christoph wrote 06/25/2014 at 07:37 point
I'm definitely interested in testing one with the Teensy 3.1!

  Are you sure? yes | no

pajolegault wrote 06/24/2014 at 23:30 point
I know how powerful FPGAS can be but I still have plenty of transition work in ramping up to higher performance MCU's so I am kind of waiting for the type of tool you are building with this project. Something like this could make working with FPGA's too easy, and hard not to learn.

  Are you sure? yes | no