This version is outdated by a newer approved version.
This version (08 Aug 2012 11:58) was approved by Andrei Cozma.The Previously approved version (28 May 2012 15:41) is available.
This version (08 Aug 2012 11:58) was approved by Andrei Cozma.The Previously approved version (28 May 2012 15:41) is available.This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
BeMicro FPGA Project for AD7984 with Nios driver
Supported Devices
Evaluation Boards
Overview
This lab presents the steps to setup an environment for using the EVAL-AD7984SDZ evaluation board together with the BeMicro SDK USB stick, the Nios II Embedded Development Suite (EDS) and the Micrium μC-Probe run-time monitoring tool. Below is presented a picture of the EVAL-AD7984SDZ Evaluation Board with the BeMicro SDK Platform.
For component evaluation and performance purposes, as opposed to quick prototyping, the user is directed to Analog Devices System Demonstration Platform (SDP). The SDP consists of a:
- a controller board, like the EVAL-SDP-CB1Z (SDP-B)
- an compatible Analog Devices SDP product evaluation board
- corresponding PC software
The EVAL-SDP-CB1Z controller board is part of Analog Devices SDP providing USB 2.0 high-speed connectivity to a PC computer running specific component evaluation software. Each SDP evaluation daughter board includes the necessary installation files needed for this performance testing. It's expected that the analog performance on the two platforms may differ.
Below is presented a picture of SDP-B Controller Board with the EVAL-AD7984SDZ Evaluation Board.
The EVAL-AD7984SDZ evaluation board is a member of a growing number of boards available for the SDP. It was designed to help customers evaluate performance or quickly prototype new AD7984 circuits and reduce design time. When using this evaluation board with the SDP board or BeMicro SDK board, apply +7.5V as +Vs, a voltage between -2V and -5V as -Vs and +2.5V as VDD.
The AD7984 is an 18-bit, successive approximation, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that operates from a single power supply, VDD. It contains a low power, high speed, 18-bit sampling ADC and a versatile serial interface port. On the CNV rising edge, the AD7984 samples the voltage difference between the IN+ and IN− pins. The voltages on these pins usually swing in opposite phases between 0 V and VREF. The reference voltage, REF, is applied externally and can be set independent of the supply voltage, VDD.
The SPI-compatible serial interface also features the ability, using the SDI input, to daisy-chain several ADCs on a single 3-wire bus and provides an optional busy indicator. It is compatible with 1.8 V, 2.5 V, 3 V, and 5 V logic, using the separate VIO supply.
More information
- AD7984 Product Info - pricing, samples, datasheet
Getting Started
The first objective is to ensure that you have all of the items needed and to install the software tools so that you are ready to create and run the evaluation project.
Hardware Items
Below is presented the list of required hardware items:
- Arrow Electronics BeMicro SDK FPGA-based MCU Evaluation Board
- BeMicro SDK/SDP Interposer adapter board
- EVAL-AD7984SDZ evaluation board
- Intel Pentium III or compatible Windows PC, running at 866MHz or faster, with a minimum of 512MB of system memory
Software Tools
Below is presented the list of required software tools:
- Quartus II Web Edition design software v11.0
- Nios II EDS v11.0
- uC-Probe run-time monitoring tool
The Quartus II design software and the Nios II EDS is available via the Altera Complete Design Suite DVD or by downloading from the web.
The Micrium uC/Probe Trial version is available via download from the web at http://micrium.com/download/Micrium-uC-Probe-Setup-Trial.exe. After installation add to the “Path” system variable the entry “%QUARTUS_ROOTDIR%\bin\“ on the third position in the list.
Downloads
Extract the Lab Files
Create a folder called “ADIEvalBoardLab” on your PC and extract the ad7984_evalboardlab.zip archive to this folder. Make sure that there are NO SPACES in the directory path. After extracting the archive the following folders should be present in the ADIEvalBoardLab folder: FPGA, Hdl Software, ucProbeInterface, NiosCpu.
| Folder | Description |
|---|---|
| FPGA | Contains all the files necessary to program the BeMicro FPGA board in order to run the evaluation project. By executing the script program_fpga.bat the FPGA will be programmed with the evaluation project. New NIOS II applications can be created using the files from this folder. The ip subfolder contains the AD7984 NIOS II peripheral's source code. |
| Hdl | Contains the source files for the AD7984 HDL driver: - The doc subfolder contains a brief documentation for the driver. - The src subfolder contains the HDL source files. - The tb folder contains the sources of the driver's testbench. |
| NiosCpu | Contains the Quartus evaluation project source files . The ip subfolder contains the AD7984 Nios2 peripheral source code. |
| Software | Contains the source files of the uCProbe library and the main file of the Nios2 SBT evaluation project. |
| uCProbeInterface | Contains the uCProbe interface and data_capture.bat script used to acquire data from the evaluation board and store it in a local .csv file. |
Install the USB-Blaster Device Driver
After the Quartus II and Nios II software packages are installed, you can plug the BeMicro SDK board into your USB port. Your Windows PC will find the new hardware and try to install the driver.
Since Windows cannot locate the driver for the device the automatic installation will fail and the driver has to be installed manually. In the Device Manager right click on the USB-Blaster device and select Update Driver Software.
In the next dialog box select the option Browse my computer for driver software. A new dialog will open where it is possible to point to the driver’s location. Set the location to altera\<version number>\quartus\drivers\usb-blaster and press Next.
If Windows presents you with a message that the drivers have not passed Windows Logo testing, please click “Install this driver software anyway”. Upon installation completion a message will be displayed to inform that the installation is finished.
AD7984 Evaluation Project Overview
The evaluation project contains all the source files needed to build a system that can be used to configure the AD7984 and capture data from it. The system consists of a Nios II softcore processor that is implemented in the FPGA found on the BeMicro board and a PC application. The softcore controls the communication with the Device Under Test (DUT) and the data capture process. The captured data is saved into the onchip RAM of the BeMicro board and aftwerwards it is read by the PC application and saved into a comma separated values (.csv) file that can be used for further data analysis.
The following components are implemented in the FPGA design:
| Name | Address | IRQ |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 0x00000800 | - |
| Main PLL | 0x00000080 | - |
| JTAG UART | 0x00000090 | 0 |
| uC-Probe UART | 0x000000A0 | 1 |
| EPCS FLASH CONTROLLER | 0x00001800 | 2 |
| OnChip RAM | 0x00010000 | - |
| LED GPIO | 0x00000100 | - |
| GPIO | 0x00002080 | - |
| CTRL GPIO | 0x000020A0 | - |
| SYS ID | 0x00000040 | - |
| TIMER | 0x00000060 | 3 |
| AVALON MASTER | - | - |
| AD7984 PERIPHERAL | 0x00000120 | - |
| Table 1 System components | ||
The Nios II processor contains a peripheral that implements the communication protocol with the DUT. The peripheral is divided into three logical modules: a module which implements the interface with the Avalon bus and the communication with the onchip RAM, a module which implements an Avalon master interface which is used to write data directly in the onchip RAM and a module which is the actual driver of the DUT. The driver can also be used as standalone in FPGA designs which do not contain a softcore. Following is presented a block diagram of the HDL driver and a description of the driver's interface signals.
Table 2 describes the ports of the AD7984 HDL driver.
| Port | Direction | Width | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clock and reset ports | |||
| FPGA_CLK_I | IN | 1 | Main clock input. |
| RESET_N_I | IN | 1 | Active low reset signal. |
| ADC_CLK_I | IN | 1 | Clock to be sent to the ADC during the conversion process. |
| IP control and data ports | |||
| DATA_O | OUT | 16 | Outputs the data read from the ADC. The channel ID is stored on the 4 most significant bits and the read data is stored on the 12 least significant bits. If the ADC is driven in word read mode then the channel ID will always be 0. |
| DATA_RD_READY_O | OUT | 1 | Active high signal to indicate the status of a read operation from the AD7984. The IP continuously reads the conversion results from the ADC and outputs them on the DATA_O bus. When this signal is high data can be read from the DATA_O bus. |
| AD7984 control and data ports | |||
| ADC_SDO | IN | 1 | ADC Serial Data Output. The conversion result is output on this pin. It is synchronized to SCLK |
| ADC_SDI | IN | 1 | ADC Serial Data Input. This pin is currently not used in the design. |
| ADC_SCLK_O | OUT | 1 | ADC Serial Data Clock Input. When the part is selected, the conversion result is shifted out by this clock. |
| ADC_CNVST_O | OUT | 1 | ADC Convert Input. This input has multiple functions. On its leading edge, it initiates the conversions and selects the interface mode of the part, chain, or CS mode. In CS mode, it enables the SDO pin when low. In chain mode, the data should be read when CNV is high. |
| Table 2 AD7984 driver ports description | |||
The follwing figure presents the timing diagram for the read operations from the AD7984 driver.
Table 3 describes the ports of the Avalon peripheral:
| Port | Direction | Width | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clock and reset ports | |||
| CLK_I | IN | 1 | Main clock input |
| RESET_I | IN | 1 | System reset |
| ADC_CLK_I | IN | 1 | ADC clock |
| Avalon Slave Interface | |||
| AVALON_WRITEDATA_I | IN | 32 | Slave write data bus |
| AVALON_WRITE_I | IN | 1 | Slave write data request |
| AVALON_READ_I | IN | 1 | Slave read data request |
| AVALON_ADDRESS_I | IN | 2 | Slave address bus |
| AVALON_READDATA_O | OUT | 32 | Slave read data bus |
| Avalon Master Interface | |||
| AVALON_MASTER_WAITREQUEST | IN | 1 | Master wait request signal |
| AVALON_MASTER_ADDRESS_O | OUT | 32 | Master address bus |
| AVALON_MASTER_BYTEENABLE_O | OUT | 4 | Master byte enable signals |
| AVALON_MASTER_WRITEDATA_O | OUT | 32 | Master write data bus |
| External connectors | |||
| ADC_SDO | IN | 1 | ADC Serial Data Output. The conversion result is output on this pin. It is synchronized to SCLK |
| ADC_SDI | IN | 1 | ADC Serial Data Input. This pin is currently not used in the design. |
| ADC_SCLK_O | OUT | 1 | ADC Serial Data Clock Input. When the part is selected, the conversion result is shifted out by this clock. |
| ADC_CNVST_O | OUT | 1 | ADC Convert Input. This input has multiple functions. On its leading edge, it initiates the conversions and selects the interface mode of the part, chain, or CS mode. In CS mode, it enables the SDO pin when low. In chain mode, the data should be read when CNV is high. |
| Table 3 Avalon peripheral ports description | |||
Table 4 describes the registers of the Avalon peripheral:
| Name | Offset | Width | Access | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CONTROL_REGISTER | 0 | 32 | RW | Bit 0 is used to start data acquisition Bit 1 is used to initiate software reset of the core Bit 2 is used to configure the Avalon write master core to write data to the same location Bit 3 is used to write data to the AD7984 evaluation board |
| ACQ_COUNT_REGISTER | 1 | 32 | RW | Register used to configure the number of samples to be acquired when acquisition is started |
| BASE_REGISTER | 2 | 32 | RW | Register used to configure the base address of the memory location where the acquired data is to be written |
| STATUS_REGISTER | 3 | 32 | R | Bit 0 is used to signal that the acquisition is complete Bit 1 is used to signal that the internal memory buffer has been overflown Bit 2 is used to signal that the user has performed a read of an unavailable register |
| DUT_WR_REGISTER | 2 | 32 | W | Register used to transmit ot the peripheral the data to written into the ADCs internal registers. |
| Table 4 Avalon Peripheral registers description | ||||
Quick Evaluation
The next sections of this lab present all the steps needed to create a fully functional project that can be used for evaluating the operation of the ADI platform. It is possible to skip these steps and load into the FPGA an image that contains a fully functional system that can be used together with the uC-Probe interface for the ADI platform evalution. The first step of the quick evaluation process is to program the FPGA with the image provided in the lab files. Before the image can be loaded the Quartus II Web Edition tool or the Quartus II Programmer must be installed on your computer. To load the FPGA image run the program_fpga.bat batch file located in the ADIEvalBoardLab/FPGA folder. After the image was loaded the system must be reset. Now the FPGA contains a fully functional system and it is possible to skip directly to the DEMONSTRATION PROJECT USER INTERFACE section of this lab.
NIOS II Software Design
This section presents the steps for developing a software application that will run on the BeMicroSDK system and will be used for controlling and monitoring the operation of the ADI evaluation board.
Create a new project using the NIOS II Software Build Tools for Eclipse
Launch the Nios II SBT from the Start → All Programs → Altera → Nios II EDS 11.0 → Nios II 11.0 Software Build Tools for Eclipse (SBT).
NOTE: Windows 7 users will need to right-click and select Run as administrator. Another method is to right-click and select Properties and click on the Compatibility tab and select the Run This Program As An Administrator checkbox, which will make this a permanent change.
1. Initialize Eclipse workspace
- When Eclipse first launches, a dialog box appears asking what directory it should use for its workspace. It is useful to have a separate Eclipse workspace associated with each hardware project that is created in SOPC Builder. Browse to the ADIEvalBoardLab directory and click Make New Folder to create a folder for the software project. Name the new folder “eclipse_workspace”. After selecting the workspace directory, click OK and Eclipse will launch and the workbench will appear in the Nios II perspective.
2. Create a new software project in the SBT
- Select File → New → Nios II Application and BSP from Template.
- Click the Browse button in the SOPC Information File Name dialog box.
- Select the uC.sopcinfo file located in the ADIEvalBoardLab/FPGA directory.
- Set the name of the Application project to “ADIEvalBoard”.
- Select the Blank Project template under Project template.
- Click the Finish button.
The tool will create two new software project directories. Each Nios II application has 2 project directories in the Eclipse workspace.
- The application software project itself - this where the application lives.
- The second is the Board Support Package (BSP) project associated with the main application software project. This project will build the system library drivers for the specific SOPC system. This project inherits the name from the main software project and appends “_bsp” to that.
Since you chose the blank project template, there are no source files in the application project directory at this time. The BSP contains a directory of software drivers as well as a system.h header file, system initialization source code and other software infrastructure.
Configure the Board Support Package
- Configure the board support package to specify the properties of this software system by using the BSP Editor tool. These properties include what interface should be used for stdio and stderr messages, the memory in which stack and heap should be allocated and whether an operating system or network stack should be included with this BSP.
- Right click on the ADIEvalBoard_bsp project and select Nios II → BSP Editor… from the right-click menu.
The software project provided in this lab does not make use of an operating system. All stdout, stdin and stderr messages will be directed to the jtag_uart.
- Select the Common settings view. In the Common settings view, change the following settings:
- Select the jtag_uart for stdin, stdout and stderr messages. Note that you have more than one choice.
- Select none for the sys_clk_timer and timestamp_timer.
- Select File → Save to save the board support package configuration to the settings.bsp file.
- Click the Generate button to update the BSP.
- When the generate has completed, select File → Exit to close the BSP Editor.
Configure BSP Project Build Properties
In addition to the board support package settings configured using the BSP Editor, there are other compilation settings managed by the Eclipse environment such as compiler flags and optimization level.
- Right click on the ADIEvalBoard_bsp software project and select Properties from the right-click menu.
- On the left-hand menu, select Nios II BSP Properties.
- During compilation, the code may have various levels of optimization which is a tradeoff between code size and performance. Change the Optimization level setting to Level 2
- Since our software does not make use of C++, uncheck Support C++.
- Check the Reduced device drivers option
- Check the Small C library option
- Press Apply and OK to regenerate the BSP and close the Properties window.
Add source code to the project
In Windows Explorer locate the project directory which contains a directory called Software. In Windows Explorer select all the files and directories from the Software folder and drag and drop them into the Eclipse software project ADIEvalBoard.
- Select all the files and folders and drag them over the ADIEvalBoard project in the SBT window and drop the files onto the project folder.
- A dialog box will appear to select the desired operation. Select the option Copy files and folders and press OK.
- This should cause the source files to be physically copied into the file system location of the software project directory and register these source files within the Eclipse workspace so that they appear in the Project Explorer file listing.
Configure Application Project Build Properties
Just as you configured the optimization level for the BSP project, you should set the optimization level for the application software project ADIEvalBoard as well.
- Right click on the ADIEvalBoard software project and select Properties from the right-click menu.
- On the left-hand menu, select the Nios II Application Properties tab
- Change the Optimization level setting to Level 2.
- Press Apply and OK to save the changes.
Define Application Include Directories
Application code can be conveniently organized in a directory structure. This section shows how to define these paths in the makefile.
- In the Eclipse environment double click on my_include_paths.in to open the file.
- Click the Ctrl and A keys to select all the text. Click the Ctrl and C keys to copy all the text.
- Double click on Makefile to open the file.
- If you see the message shown here about resources being out of sync, right click on the Makefile and select Refresh.
- Select the line APP_INCLUDE_DIRS :=
- Click the Ctrl and V keys to replace the selected line with the include paths.
- Click the Ctrl and S keys to save the Makefile.
Compile, Download and Run the Software Project
1. Build the Application and BSP Projects
- Right click the ADIEvalBoard_bsp software project and choose Build Project to build the board support package.
- When that build completes, right click the ADIEvalBoard application software project and choose Build Project to build the Nios II application.
These 2 steps will compile and build the associated board support package, then the actual application software project itself. The result of the compilation process will be an Executable and Linked Format (.elf) file for the application, the ADIEvalBoard.elf file.
2. Verify the Board Connection
The BeMicroSDK hardware is designed with a System ID peripheral. This peripheral is assigned a unique value based on when the hardware design was last modified in the SOPC Builder tool. SOPC Builder also places this information in the .sopcinfo hardware description file. The BSP is built based on the information in the .sopcinfo file.
- Select the ADIEvalBoard application software project.
- Select Run → Run Configurations…
- Select the Nios II Hardware configuration type.
- Press the New button to create a new configuration.
- Change the configuration name to BeMicroSDK and click Apply.
- On the Target Connection tab, press the Refresh Connections button. You may need to expand the window or scroll to the right to see this button.
- Select the jtag_uart as the Byte Stream Device for stdio.
- Check the Ignore mismatched system ID option.
- Check the Ignore mismatched system timestamp option.
3. Run the Software Project on the Target
To run the software project on the Nios II processor:
- Press the Run button in the Run Configurations window.
This will re-build the software project to create an up–to-date executable and then download the code into memory on the BeMicroSDK hardware. The debugger resets the Nios II processor, and it executes the downloaded code. Note that the code is verified in memory before it is executed.
The code size and start address might be different than the ones displayed in the above screenshot.
uC-Probe Interface
A notable challenge in embedded systems development is to overcome the lack of feedback that such systems typically provide. Many developers resort to blinking LEDs or instrumenting their code with printf() in order to determine whether or not their systems are running as expected. Micrium provides a unique tool named μC-Probe to assist these developers. With this tool, developers can effortlessly read and write the variables on a running embedded system. This section presents the steps required to install the Micrium uC-Probe software tool and to run the demonstration project for the ADI evaluation board. A description of the uC-Probe demonstration interface is provided.
Configure uC-Probe
Launch uC-Probe from the Start → All Programs → Micrium → uC-Probe.
Select uC-Probe options.
- Click on the uC-Probe icon on the top left portion of the screen.
- Click on the Options button to open the dialog box.
Set target board communication protocol as JTAG UART
- Click on the Communication tab icon on the top left portion of the dialog box
- Select the JTAG UART option.
Setup JTAG UART communication settings
- Select the JTAG-UART option from the Communication tab.
- Press the Open File button to select the JTAG Debug Information file (.jdi)
- Navigate to the ADIEvalBoardLab/FPGA folder and select the BeMicroSDK.jdi file. Press Open.
- Type the value 1 in the the Device Id window.
- Select uCProbe_uart(0) from the Instance Id pulldown menu.
- Press Apply and OK to exit the options menu. The embedded target has two UARTs. uC-Probe will be communicating with the uCProbe_uart.
Load and Run the Demonstration Project
- Click the Open option from the uC-Probe menu and select the file ADIEvalBoardLab/ucProbeInterface/AD7984_Interface.wsp.
- Before opening the interface uC-Probe will ask for a symbols file that must be associated with the interface. If the lab was done according to the steps provided in the Quick Evaluation section, select the file ADIEvalBoardLab/ucProbeInterface/ADIEvalBoard.elf to be loaded as a symbol file, otherwise select the file ADIEvalBoardLab/FPGA/software/ADIEvalBoard/ADIEvalBoard.elf to be loaded as a symbol file.
- Run the demonstration project by pressing the Play button.
- Run the ADIEvalBoard/uCProbe/data_capture.bat script. A DOS command prompt window will open. This window must be closed only when the uCProbe demonstration project will be closed.
Demonstration Project User Interface
The following figure presents the uC-Probe interface that can be used for monitoring and controlling the operation of the EVAL-AD7984SDZ evaluation board.
In order to capture data from the ADC using the uCProbe demonstration project the following steps must be performed:
- Press Acquisition button. At this point 16 Kbytes of data will be acquired from the ADC and saved into the BeMicro SDK memory. The Acquisition In Progress LED is lit to signal that the data is acquired from the ADC. When the data acquisition is complete the Acquisition Complete LED turns green.
- The data stored in the BeMicro SDK memory is transfered to the PC. The Transfer In Progress LED is lit as long as the data is transferred from the BeMicro SDK to the PC. When the data transfer is complete the Transfer Complete LED turns green.
- The data captured from the ADC is saved into a comma separated values (.csv) file named Acquisition.csv, located in the same folder as the data_capture.bat file. While the data is saved the Writing File In Progress LED is lit. When the data write process is complete the Writing in File Complete LED turns green.
- The data capture status is also displayed in the opened command window as shown in the figure below.
- A new acquisition can be started by reactivating the Acquisition button.
- After all the needed data is acquired the uCProbe program and the command window can be closed.
Note: If several consecutive data acquisitions are performed the captured data is appended to the Acquisition.csv file.
Troubleshooting
In case there is a communication problem with the board the follwing actions can be perfomed in order to try to fix the issues:
- Check that the evaluation board is powered.
- Check that the USB connection cable is properly connected to the device and to the computer and that the USB Blaster Device Driver driver is installed correctly. If the deriver is not correctly installed perform the steps described in the Getting Started → Install te USB-Blaster Device Driver section.
- In uC-Probe right-click on the System Browser window select Remove Symbols. A dialog box will open to select the symbols to remove. Press OK to remove the symbols.
- After removing the symbols a new set of symbols must be added in order for the interface to be functional. In uC-Probe right-click on the System Browser window select Add Symbols. A dialog box will open to select the symbols to be added. If the lab was done according to the steps provided in the Quick Evaluation section, select the file ADIEvalBoardLab/ucProbeInterface/ADIEvalBoard.elf to be loaded as a symbol file, otherwise select the file ADIEvalBoardLab/FPGA/software/ADIEvalBoard/ADIEvalBoard.elf to be loaded as a symbol file.
- If the communication problem persists even after performing the previous steps, restart the uC-Probe application and try to run the interface again.
More information
- Example questions:
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resources/fpga/altera/bemicro/ad7984.1344419930.txt.gz · Last modified: 08 Aug 2012 11:58 (external edit)