VGA colors with Spartan 3E

[LightDiodeDesigns]

https://www.edaboard.com/threads/239645/

---------- Post added at 08:45 ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 ----------

I have asked a question
https://www.edaboard.com/threads/239645/

 

[mrflibble]

Yeah, I noticed. Maybe someone on the forum got one at the auction, you never know... There won't be many out there as of yet. But the moment these things become more available (I was hoping in 2-3 months) then I'll be grabbing me a few. Specs look awesome for that price.

And does this interest mean you have seen the light? ;-) Because contrary to what those lying religious pamphlets would have you believe it's not the meek that shall inherit the earth. It's the systems integrators that shall inherit the earth, because they actually get sh*t done.

 

[LightDiodeDesigns]

Watching the film "idocracy" will show you my emphasis on why I like to make things from bits from scratch, and develop my own systemz... Long live the PI... I'm making PI calculation engines on PICs, and using distributed-computing techniques using IP linked workers as a home project at the mo... I think multiple clustered PI's would bring us closer to the point where the PI digits wrap around!?
NEAL

 

[mrflibble]

With regard to pi wrapping around, last I heard it was still conjecture. As in plausible, but no proof as of yet. Hell, they haven't even proven e is normal in base 10.

And Idiocracy like things ... I know what you mean. But note that I didn't say "become a consumerist drone". I more or less said "chose your tinkering battles wisely". Only so much time, so no use (IMO) to reinvent the wheel. I'd rather buy some chunk of whatever-it-is that works already, and build from there to things that I cannot buy in The Shoppe.

Case in point, all the time you don't have to spend soldering 24 resistors to get your 24-bit ramdac, is time you get to spend doing the higher level functions.

 

[LightDiodeDesigns]

Only so much time

Speak for yourself I'm afraid.... I flick between making muisc, I'm coding my own 3d framework (only for 2d display) and UI, PI (clusetered calculation), DirectX/XNA, making robots and clocks out of old photocopier bits..
Even though it seems I'm massively experienced in some "good stuff" the UK is not where there seems to be any work for me to do and not for a long time... Even warehouse work I can't to look at so that'd be the big "battle"... "playing with" electronics is fun, at least my creations normally do what I ask them to do, unlike any living organism...

Time for some must be "finite", but not for everyone remember.. Time I spend on the internet isn't metered but if it was that would be "too much" if I was short on time too.. I can't imagine timing my day to allow 15 resistors to be soldered would be screwed up by using 24 instead, but if its not an issue then it doesn't matter...

Cool,

is time you get to spend doing the higher level functions

Are there any higher-level-funtions you can suggest to keep me busy..? If you would suggest pixel-particulate-exposive metaphysics experiments (active point sprites) I'm on that now...

 

[mrflibble]

Speak for yourself I'm afraid....

That's by human default. ;-)

I flick between making muisc, I'm coding my own 3d framework (only for 2d display) and UI, PI (clusetered calculation), DirectX/XNA, making robots and clocks out of old photocopier bits..
Even though it seems I'm massively experienced in some "good stuff" the UK is not where there seems to be any work for me to do and not for a long time... Even warehouse work I can't to look at so that'd be the big "battle"... "playing with" electronics is fun, at least my creations normally do what I ask them to do, unlike any living organism...

Well, said living organisms all have their individual manual. It's a real bitch to keep up to speed with all of 'm.

Time for some must be "finite", but not for everyone remember.. Time I spend on the internet isn't metered but if it was that would be "too much" if I was short on time too.. I can't imagine timing my day to allow 15 resistors to be soldered would be screwed up by using 24 instead, but if its not an issue then it doesn't matter...

Are you using timespace altering drugs or something? If so A) which ones and B) where do I get me some of that?

Are there any higher-level-funtions you can suggest to keep me busy..? If you would suggest pixel-particulate-exposive metaphysics experiments (active point sprites) I'm on that now...

Not really. But if you're bored, could you whip up a well documented restricted Boltzmann machine with either opencl or cuda interface, and open source it? That would really come in handy for some machine learning tinkering!

 

[LightDiodeDesigns]

Are you using timespace altering drugs or something? If so A) which ones and B) where do I get me some of that?

Just living in the UK makes time drag... I worked from 15years old up to about 3 years ago, defence engineering, IT/Comms management, now can't get a look. I've put a new roof on the house, plastered every wall and dropped all the ceilings... Rebuilt my 150mph car... I have nothing left to occupy me but ripping printers to bits making robots from them... OR A JOB would be so nice
NEAL

---------- Post added at 09:24 ---------- Previous post was at 09:16 ----------

I have *litterally* too much time on hands so think too much....... One day I'll (maybe) try
I am a big yo-yo-er to pass time... "String theory" makes the world "just a load" of gyroscopes on strings, surely there is a way (report from the future please Mr Fibble, if you could ask any nano bots you know) of using spinning gyroscopes on strings to "calculate" maths? By banging lines of them together (spinning left/right/not 1/0/z) in banks could there be a way of using them to make a full adder? I've lots of well balanced copier scanner-unit-mirror-motors on flexible wires.. Either gyroscopes-on-string, or electron spin, there must be a way....
NEAL

 

[mrflibble]

Well, with a username like LightDiodeDesigns you could always entertain yourself by building something like this:

https://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2012/january/sky-light-sky-bright.html

The real challenge being finding a way to do it on the cheap.

 

[LightDiodeDesigns]

I've got plenty of demos, I know graphics coding *well*... www . %MyEDAusername% .co .uk is where I send potential mates (give it 5 mins for alexan to remove this post), I've got the %MyEDAusername%UK youtube channel.... I've made a nice table-pong game using PICs and LEDs, lots of music-to-light effects, teach mates over 1000's of miles, C#, PICs, etc

---------- Post added at 09:40 ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 ----------

One of my *old* work mates turns out to make massive nightclub "LED Cloth displays" but won't speak to me.. Maybe thinks I want to be a competitor but thats not my idea

 

[mrflibble]

Cool! Got the links before alexan arrived.

I've never been one for leds except for the obligatory blinkenlights, but the Fraunhofer thing has me thinking. Really cool! Only the back of the envelope DIY cost of ~ 250 euro per m^2 makes it a weeeeeh bit expensive. *ouch*

 

[adelin]

Hi

I have a Spartan 3E board and I am working on a graphics project with the VGA controller. The userguide only mentions that 8 colors are possible. Is there any way I can generate more colors? Please let me know.

Thanks

you can help me with your email address? thx.

- - - Updated - - -

hy all .. looking for someone who is good at programming in verilog. someone can leave an email address? to discuss. thx

 

[Simon2]

Hi,

I have a virtex 5 ml507 FPGA education platform and I'm having troubles because i have too much possible colors I think.
I just want to try and make the 8 colors on a VGA Signal (640 x 480 @ 60 Hz) with one blue, one red and one green signal and the horizontal and vertical synchronisation signal
. I thought the VGA needed only that 5 signals, but when I want to assign the outputs of my design to actual FPGA pins, I get these to form my UCF.



NET VGA_IN_BLUE0 LOC="AC4"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE1 LOC="AC5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE2 LOC="AB6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE3 LOC="AB7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE4 LOC="AA5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE5 LOC="AB5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE6 LOC="AC7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_BLUE7 LOC="AD7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_CLAMP LOC="AH7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_COAST LOC="AG7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_DATA_CLK LOC="AH18"; # Bank 4, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN0 LOC="Y8"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN1 LOC="Y9"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN2 LOC="AD4"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN3 LOC="AD5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN4 LOC="AA6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN5 LOC="Y7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN6 LOC="AD6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_GREEN7 LOC="AE6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_HSOUT LOC="AE7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_ODD_EVEN_B LOC="W6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED0 LOC="AG5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED1 LOC="AF5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED2 LOC="W7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED3 LOC="V7"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED4 LOC="AH5"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED5 LOC="AG6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED6 LOC="Y11"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_RED7 LOC="W11"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_SOGOUT LOC="AF6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI
NET VGA_IN_VSOUT LOC="Y6"; # Bank 18, Vcco=3.3V, No DCI

In this link, there is some more information https://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/boards_and_kits/ml50x_schematics.pdf but I don't really see how to proceed... I can't find how to utilise those pins.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[mrflibble]

Doesn't look so strange to me. You have 8 bits for each color component R/G/B. So 24 pins for your color, and then some fluff for the rest. So I guess the "problem" would be your expectation value. Adjust expectation value and everything is peachy! ;-)

Besides, if you reeeeeaaally would rather have 3-bit color than 24-bit color, just set the lower 7 bits to 0, for each color component. So all is zero, except RED7, GREEN7, BLUE7.

Or set RED7...RED0 all to the same value, otherwise it gets a bit dark... Same story for green and blue.

 

[Simon2]

Thanks for the fast reply, ;-)
I just tried it, leaving the lower 7 bits of each color '0' and setting the highest bit of each color '1'. The only other pins I used were the horizontal synchronisation and vertical synchronisation.
However the only thing that happens is the screen that goes in to sleeping mode the moment the FPGA is configured :-?

 

[mrflibble]

Just for extra confusion I'll post the reply to this in your other post. That'll learn you to post doubles. Okay, real reason is yoiu said that was the post with the most detail. So weeeeeey, on to next post.

 

[Simon2]

Haha