Students: Nir Engelberg Ezequiel Hadid Supervisor: Mony Orbach In association with: January 3, Winter 2005

Project Goals: Developing a Communication adapter to connect between a USB PC Port and an Experiment board.

RS232 is disappearing from the PC’s. We can find a USB Port in all computers today. USB supports a bigger flow of data. In addition, the existing communication adapter includes a microcontroller, which contents are unknown. Why USB instead of RS232?

Requirements : A standard adapter for all the boards in the laboratory. Support currently used applications. Hi grade of reliability.

How the system works today? 1)PC Program is loaded and the Experiment Board is turned on. 2)The student enters the board number and board type used. 3)In the PC a number is randomly chosen. 4)The PC sends to the board the board number, the board type and the randomly chosen number. 5)The communication adapter verifies the correctness of the received data. 6)The randomly chosen number is used by the Ex. Board to set the value of the different components. 7)The PC loads the expected results based on this number.

Block Diagram PC Experiment Board USB USB adapter + FPGA Interface card 22 9 Communication board

Interface Card To The FPGA To The Experiment Board Board Number BUZZER Counter Control Power Stabilizer 1Board Type 1 1 Diode ~12 v XX GND

The Counter Control 1.When the counter control gets a pulse from the FPGA, it connects Vin and Vout. 2.As a result, a counter in the ex. board starts running. 3.The counter’s result is returned to the FPGA. 4.When the desired address is reached, the pulse stops.

The Buzzer – When the data is received from the PC, the FPGA send a signal to the buzzer, to indicate connection. The Board Number – There are lots of Boards in the lab. This is the serial number of the board. It is set by a dip-switch. The Board Type – There are different types of boards. The type is also set by a dip-switch. The FPGA verifies this numbers matches the data received from the PC. Other Elements

We have decided to use a board designed in a project at previous semester. It contains a USB adapter which connects the PC to the FPGA. The FPGA has 20 connected pins and 20 test points. USB Adaptor and FPGA Cyclone FPGA Transceivers DLPDLP CLK PCB EPCS Reset PCPC D-9 D-15

Another Possible solution MORPHC-IC

The FPGA Contents 1.Gets the address, the board type and number from the pc. 2.Signals the buzzer. 3.Compares the board number and type to the numbers received from the Interface Card. 4.If it doesn’t match - sends an error number to the PC. 5.Sends a pulse to the counter control. 6.Checks the address received from the ex. board, and stops the pulse when it matches.

Schedule Finding solution - Done Detailed Understanding of the system - Done Learning Orcad and Drawing the circuit using it - Done Layout Planning and choosing components - Done Mid-Semester presentation - NOW Passing the electric circuit to editing and building - 13/01/05 Configuring of the FPGA (VHDL) – 31/01/05 Simulation + Debugging – 15/03/05 Writing Driver – 22/03/05 Integration – 12/04/05 Delivering final report to Mony - 01/05/05