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AD7780 Pmod Xilinx FPGA Reference Design

Introduction

The AD7780 is a complete low power front-end solution for bridge sensor products, including weigh scales, strain gages, and pressure sensors. It contains a precision, low power, 24-bit sigma-delta (Σ-Δ) ADC; an on-chip, low noise programmable gain amplifier (PGA); and an on-chip oscillator.

HW Platform(s):

System: Microblaze, AXI, UART

Quick Start Guide

The bit file provided in the project *.zip file combines the FPGA bit file and the SDK elf files. It may be used for a quick check on the system. All you need is the hardware and a PC running a UART terminal and the programmer (IMPACT).

Required Hardware

Required Software

  • Xilinx ISE 14.2 (Programmer (IMPACT) is sufficient for the demo and is available on Webpack).
  • A UART terminal (Tera Term/Hyperterminal), Baud rate 115200 for the Avnet LX-9 Microboard or 9600 for the Digilent Nexys™3 Board.

Running Demo (SDK) Program

If you are not familiar with LX9 and/or Xilix tools, please visit
http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/AES-S6MB-LX9.htm for details.
If you are not familiar with Nexys™3 and/or Xilix tools, please visit
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,897&Prod=NEXYS3 for details.

Extract the project from the archive file (AD7780_<board_name>.zip) to the location you desire.

Avnet LX9 MicroBoard Setup

To begin, connect the PmodAD3 to J5 connector of LX9 board (see image below). Connect the USB cables from the PC to the board.

PmodAD3 and LX-9

Digilent Nexys™3 Spartan-6 FPGA Board

To begin, connect the PmodAD3 to JA connector of Nexys™3 board (see image below). Connect the USB cables from the PC to the board.

PmodAD3 and Nexys™3

FPGA Configuration

Start IMPACT, and double click “Boundary Scan”. Right click and select Initialize Chain. The program should recognize the Spartan 6 device (see screenshot below). Start a UART terminal and then program the device using the bit file provided in the project *.zip archive, located in the “sw” folder (../ad7780/sw/AD7780.bit).

Programming FPGA in IMPACT

If programming was successful, the Main Menu will appear in your UART terminal, as seen in the pictures below. There are 6 options available for you. Use [1] to [6] in order to choose the desired one.

Main Menu

Display Vin allows printing the input voltage over the UART with the appropriate output rate (10 Hz or 16.7 Hz, depending on Filter settings).

Display Vin

If the device is Powered Down the user will be prompted to Power Up the device prior to trying to display the input voltage.

Display Vin error messege

Change Filter Option allows selecting between 10 Hz and 16.7 Hz Output Rate.

Change Filter Options

Change Gain Option allows selecting between a gain of 128 or a gain of 1.

Change Gain Option

Power Down / Power Up allows powering down the device or powering it back up.

Power Up/Down device

Modify Voltage Reference allows changing the voltage reference that is used to calculate the value displayed over UART. The default value is 3300 mV. If using another reference voltage, please modify it here before printing values, in order to obtain correct results. If any value besides 1 to 9 is entered, an error message will be displayed. If a value higher than 5000 is entered, an error message will be displayed. If entering less than 4 characters, please press [Enter] in order to validate your input. If 4 characters are entered, the result is automatically validated.

Modify Voltage Reference

Input errors are displayed in the following picture.

Modify Voltage Reference errors

Display current settings allows printing the current settings for the device. Any pressed key will take you back to the menu.

Display current settings

Using the reference design

Functional Description

The reference design is a custom communication interface, allowing control for the FILTER, GAIN, PDRST pins, reading data from the AD7780 and generating an interrupt when data has been received.

  • UART must be set to 115200 Baud Rate for the Avnet LX-9 Microboard or 9600 Baud Rate for the Digilent Nexys™3 Board.
  • Reference voltage is 3300 mV default. If using another reference voltage, please check that the jumpers are properly set on the PmodAD3, and modify the reference voltage in the software application using UART (select option [5]).

Downloads

More information

resources/fpga/xilinx/pmod/ad7780.1353492780.txt.gz · Last modified: 21 Nov 2012 11:13 by Alexandru.Tofan