Hello all,


I have a Spartan 3 FPGA Starter board, and want to use the RS232 port from that board to output some data. I want to be able to view this data some how using my Windows based PC. Does anyone know how I can go about doing so? Would it be possible to use Windows HyperTerminal? Or do i have to download some kind of freeware from the net?? Tips, hints, suggestions are greatly appreciated.Thankssss

 

Hyperterminal will work to recieve the RS-232. You need to configure the parameters, such as baudrate, # stop bits, parity, etc. (usually no flow control, unless all of the signals are there, like CTS, etc)

As far as implementation on the spartan, that's another story. You need to map the IO to the IOs used on the development board, which run to some RS-232 converter, then into the serial port connector. You might have an IP core that does the RS-232 for you, or you can download one.

http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/rs232_syscon/overview

Goodluck,

Steve

 

Hi,

Thanks for the response. So Hyperterminal will work you say, thats great news. So how does HT display the data? Will is display in groups of 8-bits, can it take in the 8 data bits from the recieving serial port, and display the corresponding ASCII character?

Thanks again

 

You're welcome!

Yes, it will generate the ASCII character for the particular byte. It will keep on going until a new line command is generated. I'm not sure if the new line is an actual command or a bunch of spaces, I forget.

One time I built an interface to a bunch of motor controllers that had digital PIDs. The interface communicated between the actual controllers and the user, for programming and showing various information. It's a pretty handy thing to learn.

I actually prefer using a USB-type interface IC such as the CP2102, which acts like a UART, but without the annoying DB9 cable and I believe that it is faster.

Steve