New theme up and DMD driver writing.

Parker — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 05:14:24 +0000

Fixed an old bug in some RESET VECTOR DMD display code for multiple lines and got the above demo working. I will have to port the prop code to python however to make my twitter wall thingy.

16×96 DMD Code for Reset Vector

Parker — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:01:31 +0000

While developing the larger 36×128 DMD I ran out of registers and logic elements in the FPGA I was using. I could have switched to a larger FPGA but that would put the final product out of the price range I was aiming for. FPGAs have loads of dedicated ram so I decided to move the display memory from registers to a chunk of block ram. To test to see if the RAM code works I wrote a program for the 16×96 display in RESET_VECTOR. It took a bit of tweaking as I have never used block ram before but I was able to get it working.


module LED_Matrix_16x96
(
clk,row,col,SDRAM_CS,SRAM_CS,LAT,INPUT,SCLK
);

input  wire    clk;
input  wire    LAT;
input  wire    INPUT;
input  wire    SCLK;

output  reg [0:15]  row;
output  reg [95:0]  col;
output  reg [0:0]   SDRAM_CS;
output  reg [0:0]   SRAM_CS;

reg [24:0]  clk_slow;
reg [4:0]  row_cnt;
reg [1535:0]  col_buffer;

reg  [3:0]  read_addr;
reg  [3:0]  write_addr;
reg  [95:0]  disp_mem_data;
reg      disp_mem_wren;
wire  [95:0]  disp_mem_q;

reg [3:0]  sel;

initial
begin
row <= 16'b0000000000000001;
    col <= 16'b0000000000000000;
    SDRAM_CS <= 1'b0;
    SRAM_CS <= 1'b0;
    clk_slow <= 16'b0000000000000000;
    row_cnt <= 5'b00000;
    write_addr <= 4'b0000;
    read_addr <= 4'b0000;
    disp_mem_wren <= 0;
    sel <= 4'b0000;
  end

always @(posedge clk) 
begin
  clk_slow <= clk_slow + 1'b1;

  if(!LAT & row_cnt == 5'b01111)
  begin
  case(sel)
    4'b0000:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[1535:1440];
      sel <= 4'b0001;
    end
    4'b0001:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[1439:1344];
      sel <= 4'b0010;
    end    
    4'b0010:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[1343:1248];
      sel <= 4'b0011;
    end    
    4'b0011:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[1247:1152];
      sel <= 4'b0100;
    end    
    4'b0100:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[1151:1056];
      sel <= 4'b0101;
    end    
    4'b0101:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[1055:960];
      sel <= 4'b0110;
    end
    4'b0110:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[959:864];
      sel <= 4'b0111;
    end
    4'b0111:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[863:768];
      sel <= 4'b1000;
    end
    4'b1000:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[767:672];
      sel <= 4'b1001;
    end
    4'b1001:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[671:576];
      sel <= 4'b1010;
    end    
    4'b1010:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[575:480];
      sel <= 4'b1011;
    end
    4'b1011:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[479:384];
      sel <= 4'b1100;
    end
    4'b1100:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[383:288];
      sel <= 4'b1101;
    end
    4'b1101:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[287:192];
      sel <= 4'b1110;
    end
    4'b1110:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[191:96];
      sel <= 4'b1111;
    end
    4'b1111:
    begin
      write_addr <= sel;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b1;
      disp_mem_data <= col_buffer[95:0];
      sel <= 4'b0000;
    end
    default: 
    begin
      sel <= 4'b0000;
      write_addr <= 4'b0000;
      disp_mem_wren <= 1'b0;
    end
  endcase
  end
  else
  begin
    disp_mem_wren <= 1'b0;
    sel <= 4'b0000;
  end
end

always @(posedge clk_slow[10]) 
begin
  if(row_cnt > 5'b01111)
begin
row_cnt <= 5'b00000;
  end
  col <= disp_mem_q;  
  row_cnt <= row_cnt + 1'b1;
  row <= {row[15],row[0:14]};
  read_addr <= read_addr + 1'b1;

end

always @(posedge SCLK)
begin
  if(LAT)
  begin
    col_buffer <= {col_buffer[1534:0],INPUT};
  end
end

display_ram disp_mem_inst (
        .rdaddress (read_addr),
        .wraddress (write_addr),
        .clock  (clk),
        .data   (disp_mem_data),
        .wren   (disp_mem_wren),
        .q      (disp_mem_q)
);

endmodule

LDMD 16×16 Propeller Comm Test

Parker — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:59:04 +0000

Just finished the DMD (Dot Matrix Display) test for RESET_VECTOR. Since the Propeller is to slow to do the matrixing I am going to use a FPGA to do it. The propeller will send the data over a serial connection into a frame buffer on the FPGA. When all the data is on the FPGA the FPGA will update its matrixing buffer.

I have the Propeller to FPGA communication protocol written and tested as well. The Propeller loads the Data off the SD card and sends it serially to the FPGA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGHIM8qgff8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrf3yXOP-KM

Propeller Code
FPGA Code
Block Diagram of the Dot Matrix.

RESET_VECTOR – The Longhorn Engineer

New theme up and DMD driver writing.

16×96 DMD Code for Reset Vector

LDMD 16×16 Propeller Comm Test