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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Connecting to the COM port

Hello, good day to everyone!

I own a BeMicro arrow kit and i've follow the embedded lab tutorial without problems (www.arrow.com/bemicro).

Everything works fine on my system but i want to do something different.

I am currently using the input/output stream as a JTAG_UART, when i tell the NIOS II - Eclipse IDE to run on my hardware i can input data and see the output on the NIOS II Console with no problems.

But i would like to see the output on the HyperTerminal instead, how can i do this? I have a RS 232 UART inside my SOPC design but i can't configure it properly since i can't see anything on my HyperTerminal.

I am just starting with FPGAS/ALTERA, thanks for the help!

7 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    It could be that your BSP/system library is configured to use the JTAG UART still. Make sure that the RS-232 UART is selected for standard in/out in the BSP/system library settings so that your messages get send to the correct UART.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    That's exactly what i did but it returned me an error when i selected run as NIOS II hardware, eclipse told me that the port was already in use by another program or something like that.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    I have a RS 232 UART inside my SOPC design but i can't configure it properly since i can't see anything on my HyperTerminal.

    --- Quote End ---

    Did you connect the RS232 UART to the respective FTDI Rx/Tx pins C8/D8? Did you select the virtual COM-Port assigned to the BeMicro RS232 channel in Hyperterminal? Did you set the same baud rate in Hyperterminal and your UART IP? Did you verify, e.g. with SignalTap II, that the UART is sending out correct frames to the TxD pin D8?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Did you connect the RS232 UART to the respective FTDI Rx/Tx pins C8/D8?

    i don't know, how can i know that? my kit is like a pendrive (www.arrow.com/bemicro)

    Did you select the virtual COM-Port assigned to the BeMicro RS232 channel in Hyperterminal?

    yes i guess, i did see it on my hardware devices and connected to it with the hyperterminal

    Did you set the same baud rate in Hyperterminal and your UART IP?

    yes

    Did you verify, e.g. with SignalTap II, that the UART is sending out correct frames to the TxD pin D8?

    how can i do that?

    I am newbie, just followed the tutorial :S
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    That's exactly what i did but it returned me an error when i selected run as NIOS II hardware, eclipse told me that the port was already in use by another program or something like that.

    --- Quote End ---

    Ah that might be because Eclipse and Hyperterminal are both trying to use the port. What you could do is use nios2-download from the command line to download your code and then use hyperterminal for the standard in/out. When you download via Eclipse it automatically opens the console which is most likely conflicting with Hyperterminal.

    By the way I used to use a program called brayterminal (sp?), it was lightyears ahead of hyperterminal so you might like it better. I don't know if it's around still though.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Or even the serial interface option on putty.

    hyperterminal isn't really 'hyper' at all.