Getting started with the Altera DE1 FPGA board: Create and download a simple counter

[@laurawasson9585]

All of the tutorials out there are SO CONFUSING and this was so clear and really broke it down into the basics. I feel like so many of the tutorials available jump around making assumptions about what we know and used complicated examples. I was so grateful to stumble across this (before I threw my laptop across the room in frustration) and this was so helpful. THANK YOU!!!

[@TheDonMan97]

Thank you muchly for this! I worked with this board quite a while back when I was at university. But, then got into a SW programming job and completely forgot verilog. Now, I want to get back into it and this made one of verilog codes work! Few things that you forgot to mention on this video: 1. You mentioned that you should make sure you have set the board to "programming mode". For people who don't know, if you flip the board, you should find a MSEL pins. Make sure that the switch 2 and switch 5 (index starting 1) have been set to high. 2. I got one of the latest USB-Blasters and it no longer appears as "USB-Blaster" as the name. It says "DE-SoC[USB-1]". 3. If the programmer failed, click AutoDetect. It worked for me!

[@akasht]

Excellent video. Appreciate the simplicity. This guy is a pro. Leave out the unnecessary stuff. Focus on how to get things moving.

[@mozportal]

I just got a DE0 board, and this tutorial happens to be my savior. Greatings and thanks from Turkey.

[@TecnoDesarrollos]

Hello. I bought the same altera card, installed and everything like your video but, there is no .SOF file to program in teh board (14:04 of your video) is it license issue? what type of license did you installed?

[@TecnoDesarrollos]

TecnoDesarrollos I could now with version 13... Your video helped me a lot understanding the process if setting up a program. You need the next code changes in order to avoid pressing KEY1 all time to avoid reset: change to negedge CLR in the always and ad the not operator ! in the if ( CLR) test it. always @(posedge C or negedge CLR) begin if( !CLR ) tmp = 8'b00000000;

[@elpidiopiscosiii6435]

+TecnoDesarrollos it can be found in the output_files.

[@alekseyborisov8986]

Finally found this video, this is what I've been looking for for my FPGA board. Thanks!

[@jsathish1990able]

totally.

[@jpechacek80]

Thanks, good video. If writing the CPLD code prior to pcb layout, the fitter can optimize the pin assignment. Then route to pins to the FPGA based on the fitter pin mapping.

[@pfrieden1]

This was a fantastic video. I just received a DE0-Nano-SOC the other day and worked through a simple counting example, but it would have been much easier if I had seen this one first! Thanks!

[@JeffSmith03]

Thank you, I'm glad I bought the DE1 from my local college surplus becuase I had a DE2-115 already but have trouble figuring out because it's all so much stuff and software not simple as Quartus II anymore. The DE1 seems easier to begin with, and has more support on the CoCo3FPGA project.

[@radiumlofi]

Great tutorial thanks, very clear explanations without being boring. Many thanks!

[@artifactingreality]

I look forward to seeing more of this. So many possibilities, I just wish I had the time and patience to get into it myself.

[@dkohkemper]

hey mr, thanks so much for this tutorial, I could finally get started with my board following your instructions.

[@CaptiveReefSystems]

This might be the best video on your channel! Do you have any more videos on this subject?

[@oisiaa]

@bkraz333 True, I didn't think about your microscope being a linear accelerator. You could try to use CRT television steering magnets to etch some kind of material. Depending on how accurately you can steer the beam, you could create ultra-high resolution images. Just the first thing that came to mind.

[@MaxThrun]

Great video, would love to see more videos as you progress.

[@NexxuSix]

Thank you for this basic video!!! For a beginner, it is very informative and has good tips =)

[@monahanz]

Outstanding! Total Newbie, Keep up the good work!

[@eeramzi]

very nice tut, I started to like fpga. Thanks for the efford.

[@Ma_X64]

I never touched on this topic, but it seemed to me quite uncomplicated. Just a discrete logic, only you do not solder it on the board, but simply describe it. Then I watched a few overview videos about how FPGAs and CPLDs are programmed in general, and became discouraged by how many related operations need to be completed and how many components to connect. And now after this video it seems to me again that if necessary, I can. :)

[@superdau]

I want to get into FPGAs sometime. Since I have no real project in mind (learning for the sake of learning wont work with me), I don't know when i'll get started. Those large dev boards always scare me a little. But now at least I know it's not that hard. Thanks! Was the same with microcontrollers. Before I used one I thought of them as chips with a huge amount of magic smoke in them. After the first project (including the release of the magic smoke in one ;) ) I don't know what i'd do without!

[@googacct]

Nice start. If you have not done so already, be sure to check out the opencores website. Lots of good cores there and mostly in verilog. You can even go so far as to synthesize an SOC that can run uclinux. Though practice the basics first before you tackle that one though.

[@robwillful]

@bkraz333 This is going to be a really naive question, but when I see these or other microcontrollers, I wonder why wouldn't you just use your main, large computer to control things? Your computer with gpu can drive a lot more than 640x480 @ 25mhz. Is it because the controller has special outputs that the computer doesn't? Portability?

[@sj314]

Perfect tutorial was following you on video everything working Thanks!

[@adam09putra]

Good tutorial. I have encountering an inability to program into the Altera DE1 Board. The Quartus II doesn't seem has created the .sof file and it's not even there whenever I search it manually. The program was compiled successfully. Please help me.

[@JackWexler067]

Thanks, sir. From XJTLU students.

[@miguelhuerta9414]

do i need to buy a license to run programs on my cyclone EP1C3T144C8?

[@Mr_ASIC]

thank you very much sir , better than 2 semesters at collage

[@DiggaDiggaDug]

Hi Ben, I'm curious to hear how much you have worked with your FPGA in the last 8.5 years. If you have done a significant amount with it, would you maybe considered doing an update video about things you have learned?

[@bhgtrd34]

This was really good. With the expertise at the level of Ben in this video, how much time it is likely to take to be FPGA design expert? Any clue on which designs to attempt first? I need guidance and I request it from anybody including Ben.

[@miguelhuerta9414]

when I'm about to send the program to the FPGA first the device detected is EP1C3 but the one i got its ep1c3t144c8, and the program I did its already synthetized and all good, but when i want to add files, it wont locate them on my computer and its on the right folder, i only have ,qpf, .qsf and .vhd archives :S

[@nishadpadariya5341]

Vey useful for beginners thank you so much

[@metalfusionf]

You could do Lichtenberg figures on acrylic with a particle accelerator. Would need quite a lot of power, though.

[@clarisscrisol7134]

hello sir, I would like to ask how to store the counted value?

[@zohaibisrunning]

Did you do the Pin assignments ? Leds are hardwired with the FPGA chip on DE boards. There are specific names for those pins, You need to assign ports in you VHDL entity to the real Pin names on the board. Search Pin assignments of ALTERA on google you will find help. If it no works,let me know i can explain in detial

[@dacres2002]

Thank You Very much. It worked on my board.

[@martinarathna1492]

Does anyone know where to get the pin assignment.csv file for cyclone v starter kit? I cannot find it in the CD ROM.

[@oisiaa]

Ben. You need to make a particle accelerator.

[@puiyeefung3428]

i cant connect with the usb-blaster, wt should i do? plssss help me

[@naikrovek]

make sure the driver is installed.

[@power-max]

How does 'always' differ from a 'while' function in C?

[@ixamraxi]

Im not familiar with the 'always' function, but if I had to guess, I would assume one would execute independent of conditions, the other would execute only while certain conditions are true.

[@johnkapri6306]

As far as my understanding goes, this 'always' does not actualy act like a 'while' at all. In FPGAs there is no program that is running, rather all the "methods" (modules) are present at any time. This 'always' statement acts like a listener for certain events, in this case one of the C or CLR going high. The main module at the top does not call the 'counter' module, rather links the inputs with the appropriate outputs. It's quite a task to wrap your head around that.

[@myNerdStuff]

We made a frequency counter prototype shield for maxII

[@ShizzleMyChizzle]

You are a boss!

[@old_guard2431]

Where is the hydro test?

[@kittukumar6700]

hello can any one tell me how to implement on ASYNCHRONOUS fifo in de1 board using UART CONTROLLER...BY USING ON CHIP SRAM MEMORY.AND ALSO PIN ASSIGNMENT FOR ROM MEMORY

[@MohamadSayadiFars]

thank you

[@smtkl]

are we able to develop the code by using schematic? is it possible? I hear one of my friend say the same thing but no proof by him, if you have a video I really wanna see it :)

[@ezequiasantunes6025]

Muito bom!

[@AnatoFIN]

Comment section is full of help requests, like Ben was a paid tech support...

[@Axman6]

Microcontrollers are capable of doing anything you want, but maybe not in the time you want. You have no limits at all except for things like propagation delays. You do say a thousand additions in a single cycle, or a single cycle FFT if you want. These are things that will take thousands of cycles on a microcontroller. Once you've used an FPGA, you'll realise just how incredibly limited the capabilities of most mictocontrollers actually are.

[@Mpthedawn]

heyy can you help me with a code for controlling the lcd im working on verilog need your help thnx

[@rezarebk4237]

Hi All, Could you please help me regarding simple PWM with Cyclone II (for example changing the light level of some LEDs by using PWM). I'm very new in FPGA. Please help me in Source code and Pin Assignment.

[@steveb7600]

My favorite part was "Select EDA Tools, who knows? were against that" Sir, your flippant antipathy towards EDA tools is appalling yet hilarious. Also the vast majority of those warnings are due to importing the complete pin-out for the chip while using very few I/O's. You probably figured that out already.

[@dtiydr]

FPGA programming is the most unintuitive and least pedagogical thing there is in the entire world.