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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Frame reader initialization

Hello, I know there is already a lot on the forum about the Frame reader from the VIP suite, but I still don't get it running. I used the memtest software example to test the DDR Ram module of...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
15 years ago

Hey Peet,

I spent the whole afternoon trying stuff out. First of all I'll start with another dumbass question ;) , I was able to set up the "NIOS Software build tools for Eclipse" software instead of the NIOS IDE, it is indeed much handier to import projects and the projects themself are much better organised (to my feeling). The only problem is that I don't have a "Run as NIOS II hardware" option available, I only have a "Run as local C/C++ application" option. Probably still something wrong with the basic settings somewhere. Any hints (I run the SP2 version of the NIOS software)? But I was able with the flash programmer to test your design (but then I can't use the console to view printf messages, so now running or debugging possible from the NIOS software), and indeed it flickers, so I used the VCO instead and also I got no picture.

Now I looked again at the other example (for the CIIIc120 board) and discovered they activated the "use control port" option on the VCO as well and they initialized the VCO after the frame buffer. So I activated it, connected it to the data master of the CPU and wrote some basic settings into the control registers. I still got no picture, but when I can run/debug from within NIOS, then I can check the status registers of the VCO using simple printf messages (but for now I can't see any printf messages of the software because I cannot run it from NIOS), because then we can see if the VCO is outputting data or not.

Another thing that's done in the example is they set the FIFO underflow bit again (they say it's not necessairy but they set it anyway...). I tried it here, but no direct succes without debug option.

BTW, for the neek daughter card manual use this link:

http://www.terasic.com/downloads/cd-rom/mtdb/

There you can download all the documentation for the daughter card and it includes a pdf where you can find all the info about the MAX chip, LCD data for the VCO and VGA data,... might be handy.

I have a feeling succes is not far away.... :cool:

Thanks and take care,

Best,

Hans