If you had a Altera Cyclone IV Dev Kit, what would you build?

I would build a wireless video transmitter.

Firat

Hi Firat, sounds good. But i think the more information you give, the better chance of winning. It lets people make a more informed judgement.

What wireless standard youi planning to use...802.11n? What video res and frame rate? What would make your project stand out? Why would you chose the Cyclone IV as opposed to a disctrete solution?

Sorry for giving you more work, I am genuinely interested?

Hi Alistair,

I have been always interested in wireless technology. There are already wireless products that broadcast video signals for use in home environment like TVs and DCRs and for use in security cameras where carrying networks signals are a bit pain. Mine is a bit like "Learn -how to- by doing it yourself". So, my idea for wireless video transmitter is not a project waiting for necessary components. If i decide to make a one and group members vote my application and select me as a winner of one of the boards, i will need too much time to give my idea a life and achieve the expected result. Maybe i will be never successful to achieve it, maybe the result will not be as much as expected. Thus, i would like to warn the members who vote my application should know that my application is something like a concept rather than a realistic one ready to build.

Yes, i would go 802.11n. The standart claims 600 MBits transmission ratio. It is very promosing. For video resolution, i would like to achieve HD format with 1080p50. As standard stands for 1080 horizontal lines and 50 frames per second, it will produce huge amount of data and 600 MBits will make sure transferring those data with no loss.

So why coose Cyclone IV GX instead of a descrete method ? As i stated above, mine is just an idea. It came to my mind and i wrote it. There is no any search i have made for availability of any different method. So, my answer is "not axactly i know".  But that would be a good way to learn the capabilities of the device. In fact, honestly, i have not an exact answer.

Firat,

Hi Alistair,

I like the idea that Firat came up with, and he is expressing the problem that we often have when wanting to participate. We can not garantee that it will come up with some thing  use full. But I think it would be nice to support him because of the energi and idealism that his letter expresses. It vwould be great to see what he can make whit that board. So I say support him. Please let us all learn from what he can get out of that board.

Yours sincerely

Carsten Doerwald

Hi,

I think also what could be valuable is for other to propose projects that could be done with this kind of hw and to see if someone already has experience on such a project.

Or for people to propose previous projects done with MCU's that were limited by the latencies etc.

I really think this is a roadtest that people have to think together to find the most efficiet showing of how this product can be used more effectively than other FPGAs or MCUs and for that a project comparison would be the best.

For random ideas I had thought about before was a brushless motor controller that can do really high rpm as that usually requires very accurate timing and fast response time.

Elias

As a side-note regarding the idea of Firat (not trying to put it down or anything, just trying to offer more insight), the n-protocol does not attain anywhere near 600Mbit speeds unfortunately, usual dongle to router connection no matter what is the distance in real-life will be under 200Mbit handshake-speeds. Higher speeds might be attained in laboratory conditions. Although, if you could make a video transmitter that could do 600Mbit that would be quite nice

edit: George, I would like to hear more details about your idea. What kind of projector do you have in mind? Are you talking about a conventional wall projector type or?

Hi Firat,

That sounds absolutely fine! I just wanted a little more information rather than a whole project plan. I like it myself. And If the members vote for you, I'm sure we can set up a place where you can keep us updated and get some help through the project.

Hi Carsten,

I will be nuetral. I do like Firat's idea, I just felt it should be padded out a little. I also think if we are going to vote for a candidate, we should be able to ask questions, not just me, all members.

I'm not sure how many choices we have in polls, if I get involved at all it would just be to cut down the number of entries to fit the poll...or we could maybe even do a knock out phase with the polls

Howdy,

Having reviewed Altrea's documents for the DK-Starter-4CGX15N, I'm not sure this falls under the category of a development kit or system.  Altrea calls it a starter kit and it may be hard to stretch it into a semi-functioning project.  That aside, Altrea does make some very good educational kit (as well as dev kits) and this may be another one.  It would be interesting to review it on that basis alone.

FYI:  Maybe I'm just confused, but this kit does not include any wireless interface.  The transceiver interface is through either an Ethernet port or a pair of low voltage differential (LVD) ports.

Cyclone IV GX Transceiver Starter Board

Regards,

Gordon Margulieux

Salem, OR USA

Hi Gordon,

Looks like you are 100% correct, you'd need a bridge/module/modem for wireless. I'm not going to make any promises, but lets just see how things go and if there's anything we can do after the winner has been chosen by the group

To be honest, i think everyone is taking the competition a bit seriously. It is only intended as a bit of fun

Hi friends,

Elias,

When we face to numbers, those are just numbers, not reality of the life. I mean 600 MBit is not the troughput, just the available bandwidth. So it is impossible to reach the 600 MBit transfer rate.

Gordon,

Yes, you are totally right about this device has not a wireless peripheral. I noticed this, but i thought using fast IO ports to transfer data trough a wireless bridge. As you already noticed, I need two wireless bridges and sure two Cyclone IVs to achieve this project. And you are also correct that this kit is just a starter kit and needs changements it to be adopted to my project. There are lots of things to think about before starting such a project.

Alistair,

You are doing well. My first answer to your offer was just the idea itself. Sure it needed to be padded some information in detail. But, after reading other members's comments, i am thinking about rejecting my project. Because i am really too much busy and i don't know how much time i can be able to spare for this project. I don't want to be a member who receives the kit and does nothing. Off course, as far as i know myself, i will try to do my best but this may be not enough to give a life to this project. So, say lack of ability or lack of time, i don't want to be seen a person who abuses roadtest system. Thus, i feel a bit confused and do not know what to do.

Firat