Author Topic: 8$ iCE40 developer board..  (Read 47162 times)

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Offline ebclr

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #50 on: October 07, 2017, 03:32:56 pm »
I'm in this boat just ordered  the board
 

Offline martinayotte

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #51 on: October 07, 2017, 03:59:03 pm »
Seems like you forgot to include the Project source ....

Would you mind to reupload   :popcorn:
Simply overwrite/rename the original RGB_LED_BLINK.v with this one ...
 
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Offline aventuriTopic starter

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iCEcube2 updated version out 10.10.2017
« Reply #52 on: October 13, 2017, 12:03:45 pm »
just a bump up to note that the iCEcube2 IDE has been updated few days ago to 2017.08 release..

don't know what's different for the FPGA part used in upduino, still not supported by iCEstorm, i.e. iCE40UP5K. anyway i have to note that the Windows version is a lot more featureful then the linux one, as it supports the Aldec-HDL simulation environment. (and simulation is everything in HDL world!)
 

Offline asmi

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #53 on: October 18, 2017, 08:48:19 pm »
I've managed to buy few 5LP4K parts in QFN package when they were still available. Even built a simple breakout board for them:

Nice thing about them is that due to low consumed power an extremely tiny dual LDO part TLV7111225 (U2 on photo) fulfills all power requirements for the FPGA.
Was monitoring Mouser/DK for a while in case 5K parts show up, but no dice :( Since that I moved onto Artix-7.
One thing I remember from making that breakout is wrecking my head trying to come up with a way to allow all 3 config options available on the board ::)

Offline peepo

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #54 on: October 19, 2017, 09:33:07 pm »
Has anyone created a wiki for this 8$ lattice board?

I'm finding the thread hard work to trawl through

tx

board has been ordered, not yet arrived...
 

Offline ebclr

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #55 on: October 19, 2017, 10:45:59 pm »
Mine too, no board, no contact, no board I guess something is wrong..................
 

Offline asmi

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #56 on: October 20, 2017, 01:08:51 pm »
I've ordered one a couple of days ago. No communications from the seller so far.

Offline Kalvin

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #57 on: October 20, 2017, 01:16:30 pm »
I got mine in an envelope after some days from the Paypal payment. No smalltalk, just delivery. :)
 

Offline asmi

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #58 on: October 20, 2017, 02:17:32 pm »
Just received an email from PP that the board has been shipped out by USPS. That's gonna take a while to arrive as USPS shipments have a tendency to get stuck at the border for a while :(
But hey - I didn't expect anything else from $8 purchase.

Offline martinayotte

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #59 on: October 20, 2017, 05:39:05 pm »
I got mines within a week after the order (I'm in Canada too).
It was shipped in a standard letter envelope...
 

Offline daybyter

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #60 on: October 20, 2017, 10:12:07 pm »
Is there is a chance to program this board via an Arduino? (Would be the cheapest solution, I guess.) Just write the data from PC via USB to and Arduino and then via SPI to the fpga board?
 

Offline martinayotte

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #61 on: October 21, 2017, 03:16:14 pm »
Technically, it is doable. But you will have to write some software and sketch to achieve that.
 

Offline asmi

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #62 on: October 21, 2017, 08:11:08 pm »
Is there is a chance to program this board via an Arduino? (Would be the cheapest solution, I guess.) Just write the data from PC via USB to and Arduino and then via SPI to the fpga board?
Buy the MPSSE cable - you can use it to program this FPGA, but even in general it's a very useful thing for prototyping as it can talk to I2C, SPI, UART devices straight from computer. Just keep in mind that there are two versions for different voltages - 3.3 V and 5 V.

Offline asmi

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #63 on: October 28, 2017, 01:30:22 am »
I got mines within a week after the order (I'm in Canada too).
It was shipped in a standard letter envelope...
You was right. Received my board today (or maybe yesterday - I didn't check my mail that day), one week since it was sent.
It is SO tiny - about the size of my thumb!
« Last Edit: October 28, 2017, 01:32:58 am by asmi »
 

Offline ebclr

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #64 on: November 02, 2017, 03:49:09 am »
Mine received today, It's well made only the silk screen is so so
 

Offline peepo

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #65 on: November 07, 2017, 01:30:26 pm »
« Last Edit: November 07, 2017, 01:32:27 pm by peepo »
 
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Offline bpye

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #66 on: November 07, 2017, 04:25:01 pm »
 

Offline mark03

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #67 on: November 08, 2017, 06:26:22 am »
Yep... and Digikey is taking orders now too ("standard lead time 8 weeks").  Looks like somebody saw the light.
 

Offline ale500

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #68 on: November 08, 2017, 11:36:24 am »
I got one last week, it works a treat !. Both SPI Flash programming and CRAM work well. I added the missing PLL cap too. I hope the internal oscillator can drive the PLL reliably to be able to drive a VGA monitor.

One thing I didn't look up properly is that the block ram in simple dual port: one read and one write port. Reading the docs is an advantage :), I should have done it earlier !.

To program it I bought a FT2232H board from aliexpress, it works with diamond programming very well. I had to re-program the EEPROM attached to the FT2232H to make it compatible.

I just wonder how low power are these things in reality...
 

Offline ale500

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #69 on: November 08, 2017, 03:09:19 pm »
Using the internal oscillator to drive the PLL and get 25 MHz for 640x480 works, but well it has a noticeable amount of jitter :). Saying that the pixels dance is pretty near to what they do  :-DD. It remembers me of the old TK-85, the picture was also not that stable :).
 

Offline mac.6

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #70 on: November 09, 2017, 10:24:30 pm »
Tested mine today. CRAM download is fine, but flash chip doesn't, not even able to scan the device when swapping MISO/MOSI for flash use...
To bad as buying a new flash chip will cost more than the board  |O


Edit: ok I found out that when using FT232H cable/diamond programmer, you should wire it like for CRAM programing to do the scan, then swap MISO/MOSI before flashing, never seen that for fpga programming...
« Last Edit: November 09, 2017, 10:44:56 pm by mac.6 »
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #71 on: November 09, 2017, 11:57:15 pm »
Tested mine today. CRAM download is fine, but flash chip doesn't, not even able to scan the device when swapping MISO/MOSI for flash use...
To bad as buying a new flash chip will cost more than the board  |O


Edit: ok I found out that when using FT232H cable/diamond programmer, you should wire it like for CRAM programing to do the scan, then swap MISO/MOSI before flashing, never seen that for fpga programming...

Yeah, I advise reading the data sheets twice, and then twice again, to properly get your head around what SPI lines are driven, inputs and floating in each configuration scenario.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline mac.6

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #72 on: November 10, 2017, 08:31:43 am »
I am used to xilinx and other boards which do not require live switching wires for alternating FPGA/flash programing, which is puzzling in this case.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #73 on: November 10, 2017, 12:45:02 pm »
I am used to xilinx and other boards which do not require live switching wires for alternating FPGA/flash programing, which is puzzling in this case.

I think that it's down to a tension between the FPGA acting as a master for an external EEPROM, as a slave for an external master to program it as SRAM and as a slave for an external master to program the internal EEPROM. They can't all be consistent without changing the direction of some pins at start-up and for whatever reason that was decided against, perhaps because it would call for more external mode setting pins.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline mac.6

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Re: 8$ iCE40 developer board..
« Reply #74 on: November 10, 2017, 02:01:50 pm »
But it's working fine on other lattice board like hx8k or icestick, so what's different with this board?
 


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