Beginner FPGA dev board

[SpidersWeb]

Last night I ordered one of those $37 kits myself. Although afterwards I realized I kind of want one with some DRAM on board - so probably end up buying something else next year

No problems with Aliexpress payment here, but I've been using them for years so my details were all saved in etc etc

[MagicSmoker]

Did you happen to apply for an AliPay account? I seem to recall requiring documentation for that, but it shouldn't be needed. A straight credit card transaction should work just fine. I'm sure if you were ordering from Nigeria things would be different, but the USA should be just as easy as the UK for VISA or Mastercard. AMEX is another thing entirely if thats what you used. 

Nope, didn't apply for AliPay, didn't use an Amex. Poking around the site some more I did come across something about also verifying my business email, so I am trying that.

Oh, Brazil is one of my favourite movies  You wouldn't be a Mr Tuttle, sorry Buttle by chance? 

  More like Sam Lowry... But yeah, Brazil is one of my favorite movies of all time (along with Caddyshack and Airplane! - which probably says too much about me).

[MagicSmoker]

I decided to spring the extra $50 and get a DE0-Nano. It seems to be popular and looks like a good intro to working with FPGAs. I didn't get the one with the on-chip hard processor both because it seems you really overpay for that capability relative to a separate but equivalently powerful MCU, and I imagine it will just make the learning curve that much steeper, and at this stage in my career I am more into getting results rather than noodling around.

[Avien]

I decided to spring the extra $50 and get a DE0-Nano. It seems to be popular and looks like a good intro to working with FPGAs. I didn't get the one with the on-chip hard processor both because it seems you really overpay for that capability relative to a separate but equivalently powerful MCU, and I imagine it will just make the learning curve that much steeper, and at this stage in my career I am more into getting results rather than noodling around.

I have DE0-NANO and I have used it in my Master Thesis. Best thing about using Altera for start? Signal-TAP.
You can always implement NIOS II soft-cpu if you need and want to program something in C, but do not expect much from it (it only gets a job done). I have used F version with Scatter-Gatter DMA and it was road through hell. Also lovely Eclipse...
Now I would get SoC version with Ethernet (also "small" version). First it has much more logic inside, different LE, dual-core ARM and programmer for less than 100$? I know someone who buys those and put it inside products
Wish it only had more GPIO...

[ale500]

I also got one of those not that cheap Cyclone IV boards out of ebay, it came with the same USB Blaster clone as Macbeth mentioned, but the board is different:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Altera-Cyclone-IV-FPGA-Learning-Board-EP4CE6E22C8N-mit-USB-Blaster-Programmer-/111832274825?hash=item1a09b91789:g:wPcAAOSwgyxWVGtq

Sadly, all pins are being used. The ones on the connector are the pins used for VGA  (16 bit color VGA!) plus the 2 PS/2 pins.

[Macbeth]

Sadly, all pins are being used. The ones on the connector and the VGA pins (16 bit VGA! Plus PS/2).

You've got J3 for GPIO?

Nicer board for the extra money. Some SDRAM, better VGA, proper FLASH, and an A/D for starters.

[ale500]

Yeah... but as I said (I corrected my post above, it seems I sopped mid sentence and continued with something else), J3 are the VGA/PS2 pins... I'd rather have the pushbuttons and 7-Segment display there... well

[justanothercanuck]

came across this playlist on youtube a couple weeks back...  sounds pretty good for a beginner (it starts from digital logic and goes from there)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7kkolCtIBKLukrBsEDwKRTE64JvaJDhM

[tggzzz]

came across this playlist on youtube a couple weeks back...  sounds pretty good for a beginner (it starts from digital logic and goes from there)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7kkolCtIBKLukrBsEDwKRTE64JvaJDhM

Does it discuss how to create timing constraints? If it was written then I could find out within 2 minutes, but since it is video I would have to spend a few hours looking for something that might not exist.

That's a bad use of my remaining life.

[Macbeth]

Does it discuss how to create timing constraints? If it was written then I could find out within 2 minutes, but since it is video I would have to spend a few hours looking for something that might not exist.

That's a bad use of my remaining life.

Yeah. A bit like going through all of Daves EEVblog vids. Only so many to watch before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

I just wish there was an internet search engine out there to help look for specific stuff?

[miguelvp]

Haven't watched the playlist but I did look at the actual playlist.

I think it's a good start and when someone tries them and have failures they hopefully look for extra information about timing constrains, but at least those videos could get someone started (I'm guessing because I didn't watch any of them yet)

[tggzzz]

I just wish there was an internet search engine out there to help look for specific stuff?

Good idea. I wish you hadn't mentioned it publicly, because now I can't patent it

[tggzzz]

I think it's a good start and when someone tries them and have failures they hopefully look for extra information about timing constrains, but at least those videos could get someone started (I'm guessing because I didn't watch any of them yet)

Many other things could also get them started. And if they are skimmable and searchable (e.g. text), then we could know they would be a good starting point.

There are good uses for video blogs, but too often they are done by someone that can't be bothered to spend the time to make life easy for their audience.

[miguelvp]

I think it's a good start and when someone tries them and have failures they hopefully look for extra information about timing constrains, but at least those videos could get someone started (I'm guessing because I didn't watch any of them yet)

Many other things could also get them started. And if they are skimmable and searchable (e.g. text), then we could know they would be a good starting point.

There are good uses for video blogs, but too often they are done by someone that can't be bothered to spend the time to make life easy for their audience.

Agreed, I'm partial to text myself:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/no-bitbanging-necessary-or-how-to-drive-a-vga-monitor-on-a-psoc-5lp-programmabl/

Then again it's up to the one imparting knowledge to figure out all the fall-outs, there are no shortcuts for those even if you went to the most credited school in the planet.

Guidelines are good, but we all have to figure the rest on our own.