Lattice iCEstick EVB Generating Three-Phase Sinewaves with Sigma-Delta DACs Using iCEcube2 and VHDL

RE: Lattice iCEstick EVB Generating Three-Phase Sinewaves with Sigma-Delta DACs Using iCEcube2 and VHDL

DAB — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:38:28 GMT

Nice post.

The Ice stick looks like a simple way to experiment with FPGA technology.

RE: Lattice iCEstick EVB Generating Three-Phase Sinewaves with Sigma-Delta DACs Using iCEcube2 and VHDL

jc2048 — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:27:11 GMT

I always love floorplanner pictures, somehow I always get a better idea of the utilisation of the part than with statistics. Here, the placer has sensibly clustered everything near the pmod I/O connections, which, of course, had to be fixed to match the pcb layout. This diagram nicely shows the generosity of table provision (red blocks) vs logic block clusters (lilac) in this device, which is why I squandered three tables when a single one would have done to hold sine data. I could have worked with one table, but then I'd have needed three address counters, a multiplexing arrangement, and latching to get the data out, whereas this way I have a single shared address and it's simply the table content itself that gives the phasing between the three outputs.

RE: Lattice iCEstick EVB Generating Three-Phase Sinewaves with Sigma-Delta DACs Using iCEcube2 and VHDL

dang74 — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 03:18:09 GMT

It's nice to read an FPGA post. Did you mix things up when describing the 12MHz and 36MHz traces? To me, the top trace is the 36MHz and the bottom trace the 12MHz.

RE: Lattice iCEstick EVB Generating Three-Phase Sinewaves with Sigma-Delta DACs Using iCEcube2 and VHDL

shabaz — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 22:46:34 GMT

Hi Jon,

Very useful blog post. I was tempted to try your code, but I just noticed my iCEcube2 license has expired, so I've e-mailed a request for another (very irritating that this needs to be done! but I'd prefer that than the current open source alternative, because that has limitations too).

The price of the board made me consider making a custom board at some point, but the Olimex one looks more worthwhile since they have done the work : ) and they have the KiCad source files (good for the UK, since the Olimex minimum order is 80 euro for the UK, plus 20 euro shipping and then any duty when it arrives (plus the £12 or so handling charge when it arrives!). Ordering PCBs based on the Olimex KiCad files would be a nice way forward.

There's also the FPGAs that [mention:a5312e9762dd4699ba5d3876da34ffe5:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] mentioned a while back [mention:f2718a8d4210476db69759631376eb09:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07] , they might be ideal for DIY boards too, since it's a TQFP package and the software is available at no charge and supports VHDL: https://www.efinixinc.com/products-efinity.html