Send data from FPGA to computer using a USB to TTL

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, i'm a newbie using FPGAs and i'm trying to send data from FPGA to computer using a USB to TTL adapter but so far the only thing i can send is just one bit, i can see it on putty, is just trash because i need 8 bits to send understandable things, however what i want is to send 8 bits at the same time but i can't do it. Any suggestion?

[Altera_Forum]

Lack of information. Are you talking about an USB-to-TTL parallel interface like FTDI FT245 or an USB-to-serial interface like FT232? Both can be used but need different interface on the FPGA side.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, thanks for reply, i think it's the USB-to-serial because i sent data through the TX pin on the arduino header of the DEO-nano-SoC (cyclone V).

[Altera_Forum]

Serial interface sends always 8 bits (or 7 bits in special configurations) at once. Putty can't display a single bit. There might be a problem of non-matching baud rates, or non-printable ASCII codes send to the terminal program.  

 Arduino TX is FPGA pin Arduino_IO6, if I understand right. How are you driving it? You would write an UART module generating start bit, 8 data bits and stop bit with correct baud rate.

[Altera_Forum]

The TX pin of that header has UART or i need to use an UART that after connects to the TX pin?

[Altera_Forum]

I said write an UART module, means Verilog or VHDL code for it, example below. 

 library ieee; use ieee.std_logic_1164.all; use ieee.numeric_std.all; entity TxUnit is generic ( CONSTANT BAUD : INTEGER := 26 -- 921 kBaud @ 24 MHz Clk ); port ( Clk : in Std_Logic; -- Sample CLK Reset : in Std_Logic := '0'; -- Reset input Enable : in Std_Logic := '1'; -- Enable input DataI : in Std_Logic_Vector(7 downto 0); -- Send data TxStrt : in Std_Logic; -- Send command clkout : buffer Std_Logic; TxRdy : out Std_Logic; TxD : out Std_Logic); -- UART data output end entity; architecture RTL of TxUnit is signal SReg : Std_Logic_Vector(7 downto 0); -- Byte send register signal BitPos : INTEGER range 0 to 11; -- Position of the bit in the byteframe signal clkcount : INTEGER range 0 to BAUD - 1; begin -- Tx Process TxProc : process(Clk,Reset,Enable) begin if Reset = '1' then -- Reset BitPos <= 0; TxD <= '1'; elsif Enable = '1' and Rising_Edge(Clk) then if clkcount < BAUD-1 then clkcount <= clkcount + 1; clkout <= '0'; else clkout <= '1'; clkcount <= 0; end if; case BitPos is when 0 => if TxStrt = '1' then -- Start BitPos <= 1; SReg <= DataI(7 downto 0); end if; when 11 => if clkout = '1' then BitPos <= 0; end if; when others => if clkout = '1' then BitPos <= BitPos + 1; end if; end case; case BitPos is when 0 | 1 => TxD <= '1'; -- Idle position when 2 => TxD <= '0'; -- Start bit when others => TxD <= SReg(0); if clkout = '1' then SReg <= '1' & SReg(7 downto 1); -- Serialization LSB first end if; end case; end if; -- RisindEdge(clk) end process; TxRdy <= '1' WHEN BitPos = 0 ELSE '0'; end RTL;