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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

Using Max V Dev Kit board for custom tool - question

At work I need a custom interface for logic analyzing a proprietary 4-wire serial I/O bus, basically to convert the serial bytes to parallel and output them to a logic analyzer for trace and debug. I decided the fastest way is to use a Max V Dev Kit board since it has so many user pins and is cheap enough. I can just use female jumpers to my target and plug the LA pod wires right onto the board user I/O headers.

So should I use the reference Board Test System project that comes with the board BTS app package as boiler-plate, and add my circuit to that? I guess the best way is to open the ref BTS design in Quartus and use "copy project". The idea being to keep the project settings that apply to the board, and also not use pins that already are used by the Dev board, like the speaker header, pushbuttons, and LEDs.

Anyone else re-use their board (or any dev board) for a custom circuit and have any tips or gotchas? Thanks, oh, and glad to be here, first post an' all. Hi, y'all.

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    10 years ago

    hie jawjatek,

    welcome to the forum! =P i'm new too!

    Not sure how experienced you are with Altera board, so i guess you could always start with the Ref Designs here:

    https://www.altera.com/products/reference-designs/all-reference-designs.html

    Else, like you said, if you have a pretty good base design, building on top of that is a good idea. But "copy project" is pretty messy at times, based on my experience.

    This might not make sense to you but what i usually do is:

    1. create a new project

    2. save out the IPs/bdfs from the base design and attach them to my new project

    3. just recreate the design manually but referencing the existing project + adding the IPs/bdfs from the base project

    i guess i prefer doing (almost) from scratch to setup e'thing =)

    good luck!
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    10 years ago

    Generally I would prefer to refer to the existing BTS design and create own design from there to avoid any contention. For pinout, I would refer to the existing pinout and apply according to my design. For IPs, generally I will copy the .v or .vhd file and then reinstantiate them into my new design.