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 a...
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

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

      The two FPGA pins are not an issue, I start to understand that implementing an internal UART is the solution - I opened a separate ticket for that - I am not sure how to to use the Quartus UART IP.

      I sill miss something - if there is a UART over JTAG, wouldn't it be possible to use it?