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What's Stopping You Building Your Next Project with an FPGA? (Please, Don't Blame the Cost!)

rscasny

The community does a ton of projects with MCUs. If they do the job for you, that's great. But the element14 community is about learning, experimenting and roadtesting. In this spirit, I am proposing that you should try building your next project with an FPGA (SoC), if it suits the application, of course. What's stopping you? Oh, some members have voiced the cost issue. Granted, some FPGAs do cost a lot. But chip manufacturers are rolling out economical chipsets that most makers, pro-makers or experienced hobbyists can afford. (If you can't, then apply to a RoadTest and if you win you can get a dev board for FREE.) I think FPGA / SoCs will move into a more important place for electronic designers, especially for IoT applications. Perhaps it's time to experiement with one. What's stopping you?

 

Here's a link to a current roadtest:Digilent ARTY S7 Dev Board (Xilinx Spartan 7)   Apply today!

 

Randall Scasny

RoadTest Program Manager

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  • Thats Simple

     

    I have no idea where to start lol. And I have never used one before so a very steep learning curve.

     

    I know, if i carved out a few days I would be able to figure it out

  • in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Start with a project that needs a just-too-much amount of logic (some counters, gates, decoders - around the level you would need to build a seven-segment-clock or a frequency counter). In the best case something that you have already build and understand. This makes debugging easier because you understand the circuit and can concentrate on learning the tools and the FPGA stuff.

    Buy a not-too-expensive FPGA board (e.g. Numato.com has Elbert and Mimas which come with seven-segment-displays on board). Then Install the software, grab a VHDL or Verilog tutorial and try to implement your circuit in the FPGA (Numato also has example projects for their boards).

    If you want to, you can even skip the VHDL / Verilog part and use s schematic (at least with the Xilinx tools, as I did with my first frequency counter experiment).

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  • in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Start with a project that needs a just-too-much amount of logic (some counters, gates, decoders - around the level you would need to build a seven-segment-clock or a frequency counter). In the best case something that you have already build and understand. This makes debugging easier because you understand the circuit and can concentrate on learning the tools and the FPGA stuff.

    Buy a not-too-expensive FPGA board (e.g. Numato.com has Elbert and Mimas which come with seven-segment-displays on board). Then Install the software, grab a VHDL or Verilog tutorial and try to implement your circuit in the FPGA (Numato also has example projects for their boards).

    If you want to, you can even skip the VHDL / Verilog part and use s schematic (at least with the Xilinx tools, as I did with my first frequency counter experiment).

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