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VROGE2's avatar
VROGE2
Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
6 years ago
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DE10-Nano 1 Mega Baud Serial Transmission using UART

I have the DE10-Nano Board and I would like to be able to transfer data at 1Mbaud. According to the FT232R data sheet it can transfer data at 1Mbaud using RS232 protocol but when I go into the Platform Designer to the UART Intel FPGA IP it appears that I am limited to 115200 baud. Is there a way to increase the baud rate of this module or is there another way to get around using this module entirely by sending my serial data directly to the TX pin?

thanks in advance.

  • FawazJ_Altera's avatar
    FawazJ_Altera
    6 years ago

    Hello sir,

    The UART IP cannot work alone, it should be connected to a processor or a custom logic that take care of the initialization and processing of the IP. I have attached a design example for you to show how to connect UART with Nios II processor. Furthermore, it has a piece of C code to initialize and run a communication stream between two UARTs on the same board.

    Thank you,

11 Replies

  • VROGE2's avatar
    VROGE2
    Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
    6 years ago

    Thank you for the response, Sorry for the late reply I was away from this project last week due to thanksgiving. The UART IP is the RS232 UART altera_up_avalon_rs232.

    Since I originally posted this question I have looked at using LoanIO as a way to get around using this IP but I have yet to get the approach to work as I have been running into a 35030 error.

  • VROGE2's avatar
    VROGE2
    Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
    5 years ago

    So I came to the realization that the UART IP is meant to have a separate USB-UART chip be plugged into the GPIO port on the board. I apologize for my ignorance on the subject but this is my first time trying to use a UART with an FPGA and I have had no formal training with this hardware.My assumption was that this IP is meant to send data to the UART that is connected to the HPS on the DE10-nano board.

    I have been able to adapt the sample sample project you provided to use for my application.

    With that being said what is the proper UART hardware to use with this IP so the drivers and other protocol are correct? Would any daughter board using an FT232R UART work?

    Van

    • VROGE2's avatar
      VROGE2
      Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
      6 years ago

      I have recently been bale to get my code to compile with no error messages. However, the UART still does not work. I think that the issues is that I do not have a NIOS processor running yet. Are there some resources showing me how to do this?

  • FawazJ_Altera's avatar
    FawazJ_Altera
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    6 years ago

    Hello sir,

    The UART IP cannot work alone, it should be connected to a processor or a custom logic that take care of the initialization and processing of the IP. I have attached a design example for you to show how to connect UART with Nios II processor. Furthermore, it has a piece of C code to initialize and run a communication stream between two UARTs on the same board.

    Thank you,

  • VROGE2's avatar
    VROGE2
    Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
    6 years ago

    Thanks! I will take a look at your code and let you know what happens with my project. Sorry for my late reply, I have been away from this project until today.

  • FawazJ_Altera's avatar
    FawazJ_Altera
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    5 years ago

    Hello,

    This IP is used for connection with peripherals, like sensors. If you want to have it as external hardware UART connection, the FT232R hard chip should be helping you if you connect it with the two pins GPIO (TX & RX).

    • VROGE2's avatar
      VROGE2
      Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
      5 years ago

      But will that work on the DE10-nano SoC where the peripheral in question (UART) is located on the HPS rather than the FPGA? I understand how it would work on a board where the UART is located on the FPGA because the RX and TX pins can be mapped to the UART but when the UART is on the HPS I cannot directly map to those pins.

      Van

      • FawazJ_Altera's avatar
        FawazJ_Altera
        Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
        5 years ago

        Hello,

        This is valid for FPGA side only. If you want to use the UART of HPS, this requires a modification on board level to map the pins, i.e. it can be used only when you want to build your custom board.

        Thank you