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Spartan-3 Board
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 3:01 pm
by djcouchycouch
In a total surprise, one of my coworkers gave me one of these:
http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Det ... od=S3BOARD
He received as a gift and didn't need it (he's already got tons) and he knew I'd be interested.
I'm so excited! I've always wanted to mess around with electronics but could never justify the expense of a hobby I wasn't sure I'd like.
Now that I have it, I have no idea what to do with it

My first idea would be to make a 8-bit or 16-bit console out of it. Totally have no idea how, though
I foresee a lot of documentation reading in my future!
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:13 pm
by TmEE co.(TM)
Very awesome !
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:12 pm
by Chilly Willy
Nice! If you want to get started making hardware, a great place for existing free and open designs is OpenCores.
http://opencores.org/
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:50 am
by foobat
time to learn verilog
good luck soldier
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:44 am
by djcouchycouch
foobat wrote:good luck soldier
That's funny.
Spent time with the manuals and "Introduction to programmable logic" last night. They were the densest, hardest to read books I've ever read.

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:01 am
by HardWareMan
Nah. Verilog is quite simple. Hell begins when you project get more complicated. Very hard to hold all interconnected modules in head.
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:19 pm
by djcouchycouch
HardWareMan wrote:Nah. Verilog is quite simple. Hell begins when you project get more complicated. Very hard to hold all interconnected modules in head.
I don't doubt that! Reading the documentation, I find myself so out of my element I need an instruction manual for the instruction manual.
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 8:00 pm
by djcouchycouch
The board comes with a parallel port JTAG cable, but I don't have a parallel port on my PC. Looking at the Digilent site, they have a USB cable for almost fifty dollars. FIFTY DOLLARS!
Surely there must be a much cheaper compatible cable somewhere. Anyone has an idea?
Worst case I can get a parallel port card but for around 20$ but 50$ for a stupid cable is ridiculous!
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 8:23 pm
by TmEE co.(TM)
Those cables are expensive for sure...