Forum Discussion

YigalB1's avatar
YigalB1
Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
1 year ago
Solved

DE10 communication with windows PC

I am looking for a way to communicate between a host PC (probably windows) and a project running on the DE10 lite. The software on the PC should send some information to the FPGA, then get a result and display it. Many times.

Few options considered:

- Implementing UART on the FPGA, and use adapter from USB to UART on the windows machine. There are many UART implementations on the net.

- connect Arduino or ESP32 in between. From the windows machine side it is a USB com port, that software can use to send/receive data, on the FPGA side, the GPIOs will be toggled by the ESP32

Is there a better/other method to do that?

Configuration
  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    1 year ago

    Hi,
    I must confess I'm using my own UART modules written from the scratch since many years, thus I didn't care for existing Quartus UART IP. Perhaps others want to add info about it.

    Regarding UART over JTAG, I know there have been some projects, I looked upon it many years ago but didn't found it useful for my purposes. Instead I'm using other JTAG debug functions during development and initial PCA test along with UART based debug interfaces. Also remote debugging through Ethernet and custom interfaces.

    Regards
    Frank

10 Replies

  • Jeet14's avatar
    Jeet14
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    1 year ago

    Hi


    On Host side(windows PC) there are many application(putty, hercules etc) which can help you to see the data and from there you can send data over UART.


    This UART you can use from the HPS side peripherals or FPGA side UART. On board you can use the C code to send/receive the data over UART.


    Regards

    Tiwari


    • YigalB1's avatar
      YigalB1
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      1 year ago

      Thank you for the answer.

      On the host side, I assume there will be a com port assigned, so the access via software is easy.

      Is that the same com port assigned to program the DE10 Lite?

      I still have questions about the DE10 Lite side:

      1- Can the UART IP that is part of Quartus be used for this purpose?

      2- Would the communication to this UART will run on the USB connection that is used to program the DE10 Lite?

      Thank you

      Yigal

      • FvM's avatar
        FvM
        Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
        1 year ago
        Hi,
        DE10 lite programmer hardware is copy of USB Blaster and has only JTAG functionality. It can be used for communication purposes e.g. through JTAG UART IP or other debug components like source & probe or in-system memory content editor. It requires Quartus JTAG stack components to be installed on the PC.

        If you have the option to connect two FPGA pins to an USB UART, I'd prefer this option.
  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    1 year ago

    Hi,
    I must confess I'm using my own UART modules written from the scratch since many years, thus I didn't care for existing Quartus UART IP. Perhaps others want to add info about it.

    Regarding UART over JTAG, I know there have been some projects, I looked upon it many years ago but didn't found it useful for my purposes. Instead I'm using other JTAG debug functions during development and initial PCA test along with UART based debug interfaces. Also remote debugging through Ethernet and custom interfaces.

    Regards
    Frank

    • YigalB1's avatar
      YigalB1
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      1 year ago
      @FvM wrote:

      Hi,
      I must confess I'm using my own UART modules written from the scratch since many years, thus I didn't care for existing Quartus UART IP. Perhaps others want to add info about it.

      Regarding UART over JTAG, I know there have been some projects, I looked upon it many years ago but didn't found it useful for my purposes. Instead I'm using other JTAG debug functions during development and initial PCA test along with UART based debug interfaces. Also remote debugging through Ethernet and custom interfaces.

      Regards
      Frank

      Thank you Frank.

      Using UART over JTAG could have been nice, since it is saving the FTDI device and wires to connect, yet there is no clear guidance so I think I will drop this idea, and go with UART on the side, as you did.

      Would you share the UART you are using?

  • Jeet14's avatar
    Jeet14
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    1 year ago

    Hi,


    Yes, the com port will be assigned at PC side from the Board UART port. please find reply to your questions.


    1. you can use the UART IP from the FPGA and its part of Quartus tool.
    2. you can use the One 2x20 GPIO Connector to get the UART interface.


    Regards

    Tiwari



  • Jeet14's avatar
    Jeet14
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    1 year ago

    Hi,


    Let me know if you have any query on this.


    Regards

    Tiwari


    • YigalB1's avatar
      YigalB1
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      1 year ago
      @Jeet14 wrote:

      Hi,

      Let me know if you have any query on this.

      Regards

      Tiwari


      Thank you, I am all set.

  • Jeet14's avatar
    Jeet14
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    1 year ago

    I’m glad that your question has been addressed, I now transition this thread to community support. If you have a new question, Please login to ‘https://supporttickets.intel.com/s/?language=en_US’, view details of the desire request, and post a feed/response within the next 15 days to allow me to continue to support you. After 15 days, this thread will be transitioned to community support. The community users will be able to help you on your follow-up questions.