Completed the first part of the FPGA wiring for Master Serial / SPI mode - i.e. configuring the FPGA from SPI flash. Created a video that details some of the nuances and aims to explain the wiring in the schematic a bit. Files uploaded to...
Uploaded files to my git repository with the JTAG wiring completed. Video to follow. The basics are pretty straight forward:- Broke out JTAG signals- Add pullups to ensure JTAG is always in a known state- Add terminations - Generate...
Uploaded a heap of stuff to git. Working on video now. This includes two layers of top level documents that show sheet to sheet connectivity between SPI and the FPGA and also have the breakout for the FPGA IO and other various items. Added...
Uploaded video number 4 to Youtube, showing both SPI Multiplexing with a TI Bus Switch, and also implementing Asychronous SRAM (128K x 16). Next up, power supply!
Had some fun tonight playing around with PCB routing. You can see in the PDF in git or the PCB file (you'll need altium to open it) that I'm all about "pretty". :) Still a fair bit to finalize the routing and design and such but moving...
Uploaded the power supply design to git hub today. The supply is laid out in a way to allow either driving the system from the Arduino's 5V supply or using an external power adapter. The Arduino's 3V3 supply is tiny (very little current,...
Uploaded the layout files to git today with routing completed and some final schematic tweaks. Released gerber files also to fab. Design is looking pretty good and should be pretty close without many major changes since last prototype I'd...
Released a complete collection of manufacturing outputs including Gerber, NC Drill, ODB++, Testpoint files, & Pick and Place. All of these are for building proper prototypes. Expect to have boards in 5 days. 2 Days for assembly, a day...
...But it's enough for the board house to balk at, even if they can't mfg to those tolerances. Oh well, released a slightly modified Gerber to deal with some "roundingness" in the mfg outputs and ensure things are a little cheaper overall (under...
Got boards back from Advanced Circuits today. Look good. Really like the finish on them. They did a good job and boards came back on time (a little early actually) with a bag of microwave popcorn included. :) Mmmm...popcorn....
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...
Made some updates to the design over the weekend to add LEDs, a nice dipswitch, make the silkscreen cleaner, clean up the pad arrays a bit and a lot more in the way of little cosmetic PCB tweaks. Overall some very important tweaks but in the grand...
Got enough parts to build 50 boards today. Updated stencils arrived, woo hoo! Retreating into soldering dungeon to spin up one or two to verify all's well with the world.
Got the new boards back from Advanced Circuits (they rock BTW...attention to detail like few others) and they look awesome. Went with black soldermask this time around and it makes things look so much cooler (much more Hackaday-chic). These...
Recently I'd gotten a fair bit of interest from folks wanting to buy or or trade for one of these FPGA boards...And I must admit, I'm not terribly capitalistic when it comes to stuff I build outside of the work context (I often find I just end up giving...