Transferring USB port data to DE2-115 (GPIO or any other method)

[Altera_Forum]

Hi all, Thanks in advance for your time. 

We have a Picoscope (Digital flexible resolution usb oscilloscope) with USB output for connection to the PC and showing the waveform in Picoscope software. Anyway I am going to connect the picoscope output by USB to the DE2-115 board and transfer data to FPGA, Is it possible? How can I read the data? Should I use the GPIO pin and usb port together? also there are some USB to GPIO pin connector, are they suitable for these kind of process?  Thanks for your help.

[Altera_Forum]

Ambitious. Possible (I dare say) but ambitious. 

 Have a look at section 4.17 'using the usb interface' in the DE2-115 manual. Specifically the statement:  --- Quote Start ---  The most challenging part of a USB application is in the design of the software driver needed.  --- Quote End ---   So, you're hoping to recreate the driver required for the Picoscope and run it in the FPGA?  No, you shouldn't need any further GPIO. You will access everything through the ISP1362 USB controller. However, you'll have to understand whatever protocol the Picoscope uses, over USB, to carry the data. I doubt that is published...  Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

This isn't going to be possible. As a_x_h_75 said you would need details on the picoscope's data stream which they won't tell you. Even if you get that, I doubt the low performance 1362 USB chip on the DE2-115 could keep up with a picoscope. Nothing's wrong with the 1362, but it is optimized for low power and low pin count operation, not high performance. 

 If that isn't enough, it would take several months FTE to get the software written/debugged.

[Altera_Forum]

@Alex, 

I am agree with you that this is ambitious but it is possible.  @ Galfonz, I am agree that chip being used on DE2-115 kit is Full speed (not high speed ) OTG controller. So if we can not expect much more ( ~1 MB/s - Megabytes/second) performance from that. By the way, yesterday, I downloaded datasheet for that kit and now they have started using controller from Cypress instead of ISP1362.  @Rebk, What is your performance requirement? That is how much data are you expecting to receive from your picoscope? Also could you share more details about your exact requirement? I am working at System Level Solutions ( www.slscorp.com (http://www.slscorp.com) ). It is Altera's megafunction partner and we are having USB2.0 Host High speed controller. ( http://www.slscorp.com/ip-cores/communication/usb-20-host.html ) We can see if that meets your requirement.   Thanks, Bhaumik

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks Alex, Galfonz, Bhaumik.  

For more clarification I want to explain about what exactly we need from picoscope. We want to access to digital converted value by the picoscope output.  This digital converted value is needed for analyzing and modification by FPGA. I do not know what kind of data is streaming in Picoscope USB as output but I hope somehow it could be digital value which can be useful for FPGA. We have tried some ADCs for FPGA but interfacing ADC is a big problem. Nyquist frequency is another limitation, means high Speed FPGA have to be used. Therefore we thought about Picoscope as a digitizer.  Picoscope is doing fine and we have no problem with converted value when we see in Picoscope software but so far extraction that data (Connecting the picoscope output to FPGA) is a unsolved problem. All kind of instructions are welcomed.

[Altera_Forum]

Hello Rebk, 

 Which model number of Pico-scope are you using? Also what sample rate are you expecting?  Regards, Bhaumik

[Altera_Forum]

Bhaumik, 

 Thanks for reply. I am using Picoscope 5244A (5000 series) I need a sample rate more than 100 MHz. This is my device link. http://jp.rs-online.com/web/p/digital-oscilloscopes/7781826/  Regards

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

 I will have a look at its user-guide. I will back to you once I do that.   Regards, Bhaumik

[Altera_Forum]

Hello rebk, 

 I have asked Pico Support team regarding protocol being used by PicoScope USB device to communicate with USB Host. But unfortunately, as guessed by Alex and Galfonz, this protocol is not available to third party. So sorry, I am of no help here.  Thanks, Bhaumik

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks Bhaumik for your time and efforts.