Is the AD/DA converter Cyclone 3 starter kit compatible

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

I am looking for a high speed DAC and found this 14 bit 250 MSPS DAC.  Here is the link: http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=73&no=360&partno=2  However it says that it is Cyclone 3 development kit compatible. I have a Cyclone 3 starter kit which also uses a HSMC connector. I am concerned whether this DAC will be compatible to the Cyclone 3 starter kit. Any inputs will be highly appreciated.   Regards, Ranjan

[Altera_Forum]

Yes. All these boards are compatible.

[Altera_Forum]

Are there some AD/DA Data Conversion Card (or ICs) with more than 2 channels per each which are compatible with Cyclone? 

 Actually, I should work with Cyclone II and I need, let say 8 channels AD and 8 channels DA converters which I should externally interface with FPGA...  Also, I don't need very high sample frequencies... I should use it in power electronics applications...

[Altera_Forum]

If you don't need high frequencies then any ADC/DAC with parallel or SPI interfaces can be used with a cyclone. I'm not sure you'll find a ready made HSMC card with lots of channels so you may have to make your own board.

[Altera_Forum]

Are you sure that I can interface ADC/DAC as a external IC to the Cyclone II via parallel or SPI? 

 Please, give me some examples, a few ADCs, DACs from the market, that I can use in my application...  In Cyclone II Handbook I've found some LVDS which is high speed differential interface...  I'm a beginner, so please, advice me!   Best regards. Nikola.

[Altera_Forum]

The Cyclone FPGAs can also handle CMOS or LVTTL inputs/outputs, so can be used with almost any ADC/DAC on the market. Giving an exact reference is difficult without knowing your requirement, but you can go on a manufacturer web site and do a parametric search to find the converter you need. 

As long as its I/O is compatible with one of the I/O standards on the FPGA then you can use it. You may have to write some HDL yourself to interface with some ADC/DAC, depending on the interface type and your requirements. But this code to write isn't very complicated.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  If you don't need high frequencies then any ADC/DAC with parallel or SPI interfaces can be used with a cyclone. I'm not sure you'll find a ready made HSMC card with lots of channels so you may have to make your own board.  --- Quote End ---       Ahem.....   http://www.nialstewartdevelopments.co.uk/products.htm   My GPIB has 8* ADC inputs and 8*DAC outputs.   They're out of stock but a new set are due in a week or so.   GBIP = General Purpose Interface Board, but I realise now many assume is a GPIB protocol interface board.    Unfortunately I can't get anyone at Altera to change the description here...   http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/kit-daughter_boards.jsp     To the OP, email me at the link above and I'll let you know when they're in.   Nial

[Altera_Forum]

This is a very interesting prototyping board, it's a shame Altera didn't include it on their daughterboards list.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  This is a very interesting prototyping board, it's a shame Altera didn't include it on their daughterboards list.  --- Quote End ---     Thanks, it is there under "HSMC GPIB" , not a great description.   One of the potentially most useful bits are the two SPI interfaces which should allow interfacing to simple eval boards with all sorts of functionality (GPS, accellerometer, higher accuracy ADC etc).   It's pretty low volume so expensive for me to produce. I thought there were bound to be bits that nobody is using which I could cut out to get the price down a bit. I set up a survey and asked those who'd bought one to fill it in. Unfortunately the response was that every functional IO block had the almost the same usage/ interest.     Nial

[Altera_Forum]

And after posting that I checked the link and the description has at last been changed! 

 Let the massive flood of orders commence (or not).   Nial.

[Altera_Forum]

In the Cyclone II -> Features -> Altera's Cyclone II FPGA Interfaces & Protocols Support at the Altera's site is written that SPI and I2C standards can be implemented in Cyclone II devices to provide low-speed communication links between integrated circuits, processors and peripherals. 

 I've seen in some schematic for Cyclon II board that all I/O pins are LVDS (p/n), which is related to high-speed signaling, as I understood. There were no one pin which is used for SPI or I2C serial interface...  Can anyone advice me? I need 8 digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and 8 ADCs which should work with SPI or I2C interface... For my application, I don't need to use high-speed signals, I need sampling frequency maximal 1MHz (but a few hundreds of kHz will be enough)...  So, in which way should I connect some 8-channel DAC or ADC to the Cyclone II board? Which pins of FPGA should be connected to SPI or I2C pins of DAC/ADC?  Thank in advice!

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  In the Cyclone II -> Features -> Altera's Cyclone II FPGA Interfaces & Protocols Support at the Altera's site is written that SPI and I2C standards can be implemented in Cyclone II devices to provide low-speed communication links between integrated circuits, processors and peripherals.   --- Quote End ---    Yes, the FPGA user IO can be configured to do whatever you want with them.    --- Quote Start ---   I've seen in some schematic for Cyclon II board that all I/O pins are LVDS (p/n), which is related to high-speed signaling, as I understood. There were no one pin which is used for SPI or I2C serial interface...  --- Quote End ---  It's not like a microcontroller where you have dedicated SPI/I2C pins, you can decide to do whatever you want with them.  Which schematics are you talking about? If it's an eval board it's likely that LVDS pairs were labelled as such to identify them, but if you're not using LVDS they can be configured as single ended outputs.    --- Quote Start ---   Can anyone advice me? I need 8 digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and 8 ADCs which should work with SPI or I2C interface... For my application, I don't need to use high-speed signals, I need sampling frequency maximal 1MHz (but a few hundreds of kHz will be enough)... So, in which way should I connect some 8-channel DAC or ADC to the Cyclone II board? Which pins of FPGA should be connected to SPI or I2C pins of DAC/ADC? Thank in advice!  --- Quote End ---  I'm not trying to sell boards, and I won't have any for about a week but have a look at the link I posted earlier. My GPIB has an 8 channel SPI interfaced DAC and 8 channel SPI interfaced ADC.   There's an example FPGA design you can download, this will show you how I have driven these two devices (with the schematics that show how the nets into the HSMC connector are labelled as LVDS pairs but used single-endedly).  If you do want a board email me at the address in the link.  Nial.

[Altera_Forum]

I have just seen that your board is on the Altera's All Daughter Cards...  

 Am I write that Cyclone II Starter Development Kit can not connect to your board? As I could see, Cyclone II hasn't HSMC connector...  I've seen that Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit has HSMC connector (which provide 132 to 192 physical pins)...  I have a few questions...   What should I get additionally with your GPIB board (cables...)? As I am a beginner and I do not have experience with VHDL, do you have some additional software for configuring GPIB or GPIB2_FPGA.zip is enough? I plane to make most of algorithm in Quartus II Software - Schematic Design and to program directly to the FPGA...  In which way Cyclone communicate with PC? Is there a need to use some JTAG emulator as for Texas Instruments microcontrollers or something else?  Is there possibility to get your board with higer resolution of DAC, let say 12-/14-/16-bit (resolution of DACs is much more important than ADCs; ADCs should used to observe some analog signals for protecting function, and DAC should be use for controlling algorithm... Input data for DACs should come from FPGA, from the algorithm)...  I have one more question... For my algorithm I need to use some impulses from some flip-flop (that impulses are used for power transistors driving). That impulses are unipolar signals (0 or 3.3V). Can I connect this signal to your GPIB board (GPIO Input or somewhere...) to use as a digital signal which I need for my algorithm, which should go to FPGA?  Since there are not daughter cards which suit Altera Cyclone boards for my application (with a lot of DAC channels), I hope that your board will do great job...  Thanks a lot for help!  Nikola.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  What should I get additionally with your GPIB board (cables...)?   --- Quote End ---     All the headers are standard 0.1" pitch, you'll have to download the schematics, decide which IO you want to use and buy whatever connectors you need.     --- Quote Start ---   As I am a beginner and I do not have experience with VHDL, do you have some additional software for configuring GPIB or GPIB2_FPGA.zip is enough?    --- Quote End ---     GPIB_FPGA.zip contains a Quartus project which when compiled can be used to configure the Cyclone III starter kit.   This is a simple example of how the different functional blocks can be interfaced.     --- Quote Start ---    In which way Cyclone communicate with PC? Is there a need to use some JTAG emulator as for Texas Instruments microcontrollers or something else?   --- Quote End ---     The example design uses one of the RS232 interfaces on the GPIB.   There's an example Excel spreadsheet/application for download on the projects page which shows how this interface can be driven. This is fairly self explanatory/ reasonably commented.   You could also use the USB slave board which plugs onto the GPIB if you need faster comms.     --- Quote Start ---   Is there possibility to get your board with higer resolution of DAC, let say 12-/14-/16-bit (resolution of DACs is much more important than ADCs;    --- Quote End ---     No, although I have used this as a basis for developing a few custom board for clients. If you wanted a custom board developed (and are prepared to pay) that could be done.   One solution would be to design your own simple DAC interface board and drive it using the GPIB SPI interfaces.     --- Quote Start ---    I have one more question... For my algorithm I need to use some impulses from some flip-flop (that impulses are used for power transistors driving). That impulses are unipolar signals (0 or 3.3V). Can I connect this signal to your GPIB board (GPIO Input or somewhere...) to use as a digital signal which I need for my algorithm, which should go to FPGA?   --- Quote End ---     Yes, the GPIO interfaces (all the interfaces) are 3.3V compatable.   Check out the example design to see how the GPIO inputs are read.   I hope this helps a bit.   Nial

[Altera_Forum]

As I understood, SPI interface of DACs (AD5318) operates at clock rates up to 30MHz. 

 How much time is needed that DAC convert all 8 channels? As I understood, 8 channels x 16 cycles x (1/30 MHz) = 4.3 us... 16 cycles for each channel conversion or even more... Am I write?  As I work with signals 20-40 kHz (which is 25-50 us), I need to convert digital to analog signals in much shorter time (4.3 us is too much time)...  If all that is write, is there possibility to use some 8 channel DAC which converts all digital to analog signals simultaneously with SPI interface (which would last much less than 4.3 us) or to use 8 DACs which would be driven synchronously?  Thanks a lot!  Nikola

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  If you don't need high frequencies then any ADC/DAC with parallel or SPI interfaces can be used with a cyclone. I'm not sure you'll find a ready made HSMC card with lots of channels so you may have to make your own board.  --- Quote End ---     Hi Daixiwen, I must connect 10 A/D and 10 D/A channels (not high frquencies) to FPGA development kit... Can you please tell me, may I use parallel or SPI interfaces with each of the A/D and D/A channel through HSMC connector in order that conversion be parallel (not sequential)?   Is there another way to connect A/D and D/A channels to FPGA development kit except HSMC connection? I haven't buy a development kit yet, but I think about Cyclone II or Cyclone III...   I am a newbie at FPGA, so please help me...   Your help is appreciated!

[Altera_Forum]

Most of the development kits today have a HSMC connector, so it's the best option I think. 

If you need all of those conversions to be simultaneous, then you'd better use SPI interfaces I think, as they use less pins. You'll probably have to write your own SPI master to be sure you control all of them simultaneously though.