Digital video for FGPAs over PM

From Kevin Hubbard of Black Mesa Labs:

img_2528.jpg

BML DVI DIGITAL VIDEO FOR FPGAS OVER PMOD

2018.11.18 : Update – new board added. Does full 24bit color video using DDR instead of SDR.  Board fab may be purchased from OSH-Park here.

bml_24v_ddr_dvi_video.PNG

2017.12.15 :  Black Mesa Labs is proud to present two open-source-hardware DVI  video boards for adding TMDS digital video to FPGA platforms with standard PMOD connectors.  These two boards are currently available to purchase as bare fabs directly from OSH-Park, or Gerbers and design files may be downloaded from BML here.

——————————————————–

BML 3bit DVI over single-PMOD:

bml_3b_hdmi_top_and_bottom.PNG

The BML 3bit DVI over single-PMOD uses 7 of 8 available LVCMOS 3.3 pins on a single PMOD to provide 3bit color ( R,G,B 100% On or Off ). Example Verilog design drives 800×600 using a 40 MHz dot clock. The TI TFP410 is very versatile in the resolutions it can generate and is really just limited by the clock that the FPGA can provide and the data rates the PMOD connectors are capable of. The bare 2-layer fab may be purchased from OSH-Park directly for $5 USD ( for 3 boards ) from this link. The TFP410 is about $8 USD. The IC and this HDMI Connector is pretty much the BOM, so the entire cost to assemble is less than $20 USD. The rest of the BOM is Qty-2 0603 0.1uF Caps ( 25V 20% X7Rs were used ), Qty-1 0603 10uF Cap, Qty-1 0805 500ohm 1% resistor and an optional 0805 Ferrite Bead ( 240-2390-1-ND was used, but may be replaced with a wire ).  If you don’t want to power the TFP410 from your FPGA’s 3V rail, the Ferrite Bead may be removed and a BU33 ( or equivalent 5SSOP) 3.3V LDO regulator and 10uF cap may be stuffed and the board may be powered by a 5V input via.

The 3bit color Test Pattern from the board driven by FPGA sample design looks like this:IMG_2530.JPG

Note that blue exists, it is just off screen.  With 3bits of color you get 8 colors by additive color mixing  for Black, White, Red, Green, Blue,  Yellow, Cyan, Magenta.

Below is a picture of the 3b board plugged into a Lattice ICE40 icoBoard which is available from Trenz here.  The smaller iceZero board (PiZero dimensions), also a Lattice ICE40 is a joint BML and Trenz design and would also be a good platform for DVI video and is available here.

IMG_2539.JPG

Design files for the board, including Gerbers, BOM and text netlist description may be downloaded from my public Dropbox here.

Digital video for FGPAs over PM

Leave a comment