Ebay Cyclone IV FPGA Board

[cxc2007]

Hello !!!

this is my very first Post, I love EEVblog in YouTube.

I have a question:

I Program PLC in my Work and I also Program PIC's at Home...

This time,  I want to start with FPGA, and I have no big Idea.

I found in EBAY this products:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EP4CE10-EP4CE10F17C8N-ALTERA-Cyclone-IV-FPGA-Development-Board-20-Modules-Kits-/251240867669?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7f1f6755

http://www.ebay.com/itm/w-Tracking-ALTERA-FPGA-NIOS-CYCLONE-IV-EP4CE15-USB-BLASTER-Power-Adapter-E082-/251071748720?hash=item3a750ada70


144 USD for the FPGA and 20 ... 20 !! modules including Sram, SD, VGA...... I find it very nice !! also includes a COLOUR Touch LDC !!

Its a very good price ( I guess ) !

Can I get some Advice?

Since there are some other Brands (Spartan 6 , Cortex M3...) I don't decide witch brand should I start with.

None of the other brands boards, gives a so complete Kit as the one with Cyclone IV....

Advices ?

Thanks you all So much, and regards from Argentina.

Christian.

[c4757p]

I have just the FPGA module from a lower-end model by the same people, and it is at least decently well made and the FPGA is, well, real. The fact that it has a bit of some sort of residue (flux, possibly) on top suggests it was salvaged from something, but hey, it works. The documentation, on the other hand, is nothing short of completely shameful, and as far as I can tell, isn't even available online, so don't lose the CD! At least I only had the one module and only had to figure out how the EEPROM device was connected...

[cxc2007]

Consider Digilent boards like the Nexsys 2. It is getting old now but at least you will find stuff online to help you get started.
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,789&Prod=NEXYS2

There is a good book, FPGA prototyping by VHDL examples, Xilinx Spartan-3 version by Pong P. Chu which specifically mentions the Digilent boards.

Thanks you !

What I see is that Cyclone IV board is very complete.. also came with the Touch LCD, wiring is already solved.... look very comfortable.. I think I will go for the modular FPGA board, and an extra USB Blaster.

[thinlayer]

At the risk of pissing off the trolls (I've taken a beating for posting in multiple places :-)

Give our board a look: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/helix-4-the-fpga-module-for-everyone/x/3703559

There are two to choose from, $190 for the big one, and $80 for the little one, the breadstick. The latter can be seen in the second picture, and has just been designed. It's only announced yesterday, and should be ready for limited deliveries next month, fully available in Sep. They both take Arduino UNO Shields as accessory boards, so you can make it into any dev board you want by just plugging in a shield.

The support material (code, examples, stuff) is at: http://www.thin-layer-embedded.com/Module+-+helix_4.

For a book I reccomend Verilog By Example By Blaine C. Readler. It's cheap, simple, good.

Good luck.

[cxc2007]

At the risk of pissing off the trolls (I've taken a beating for posting in multiple places :-)

Give our board a look: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/helix-4-the-fpga-module-for-everyone/x/3703559

There are two to choose from, $190 for the big one, and $80 for the little one, the breadstick. The latter can be seen in the second picture, and has just been designed. It's only announced yesterday, and should be ready for limited deliveries next month, fully available in Sep. They both take Arduino UNO Shields as accessory boards, so you can make it into any dev board you want by just plugging in a shield.

The support material (code, examples, stuff) is at: http://www.thin-layer-embedded.com/Module+-+helix_4.

For a book I reccomend Verilog By Example By Blaine C. Readler. It's cheap, simple, good.

Good luck.

Wow ! That board seems to be pretty nice.
I will take everything into consideration, thanks for that.
Br.