Setting up UART interface between DE10_Nano and PC without HPS or NIOS II

[Krishnendhu1]

I want to setup the UART interface between DE10-standard board and the PC. From various articles available online, let me first brief the available options:-

Method 1:  Using HPS_UART_RX and HPS_UART_TX pins and the onboard FT232R chip by using HPS.
Reference : https://fpgacloud.intel.com/devstore/platform/16.1.0/Standard/uart-rs-232-maximum-baud-rate-reference-design/
I don't want to go with this method since I prefer to write a Verilog UART code on FPGA to setup the interface without having to instantiate NIOS-II or HPS.

Method 2: To use an external FT232R chip, use 2 GPIO pins as UART Tx and Rx and use it in the Verilog code written in FPGA. This method looks okay to me. But want to
confirm that I will not be able to use either onboard FT232R chip or HPS_UART_RX/TX pins.

Method 3: I saw one more post which says about using HPS_UART_RX and HPS_UART_TX as loan IOs but do not say anything about if we could also use onboard FT232R chip without HPS here.
Reference: https://community.intel.com/t5/Programmable-Devices/How-to-let-FPGA-get-access-to-HPS-pins/td-p/107740
Will this method serve my requirement without having to use an external chip or GPIOs? If yes, can you please detail me the steps?

[FvM · Accepted solution]

Hi,
as stated, method 2 can't use onboard FT232 chip, method 3 can use it, but you need to configure HPS registers to setup the h2f loan_io routing. Means you need to write HPS code, compile and load it.

Regards
Frank

[khtan]

Hi Krishnendhu1,

Apologies for the delay in getting back, may I know whether this issue been resolved? Let me check with the team to reply back on this.

Thanks Frank for the initial reply.

Thanks

Regards

Kian

[Krishnendhu1]

Yes, it has been resolved

[BoonBengT_Altera]

Hi @Krishnendhu1,

Greetings, just checking in to see if there is any further doubts in regards to this matter.

Hope your doubts have been clarified.

Best Wishes

BB

[Krishnendhu1]

Yes. My doubts are clarified

[BoonBengT_Altera]

Hi @Krishnendhu1,

Great! Good to know that it is working now, with no further clarification on this thread, it will be transitioned to community support for further help on doubts in this thread. 

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.

Thank you for the questions and as always pleasure having you here.

Best Wishes

BB