We will be creating a UART receiver that will get data from the serial port of the Arduino Micro boards. If you have a board that has a serial port built in, you can also use that directly. All boards will be programmed ahead of time and source code will be available.

If you have an AVR programmer (AVRISP, Dragon, etc) that can do In System Programming (ISP), feel free to bring it. The instructor will have an AVRISP mkII on hand as well as a breadboard set up for easy programming.

The slides for the upcoming and previous classes can be found here. The slides are generally made during the three days before a class.

Agenda:
1. Overview of last class
2. How 8N1 serial works
3. Create VHDL module to receive serial from Arduino Micro

If you would like to join the class, then please E-Mail fpga@unallocatedspace.org. The class is now to a point where you need to know VHDL prior to joining. We also stream the class on Google Hangouts. Please send an E-Mail to fpga@unallocatedspace.org if you would like to join the Google Hangout.

IMPORTANT You MUST have ISE (not Vivado!) installed prior to the start of class!!! ISE can take upwards of 30 minutes to an hour to install. We will not have time to wait for ISE to be installed. Please go to here and download the ISE Design Suite package for your operating system. If you have licensing or installation issues, please contact fpga@unallocatedspace.org

Required Items:
1. FPGA development board with Spartan 3 or Spartan 6
2. USB cable for programming
3. JTAG programmer if your board does not have USB
4. Laptop with ISE installed and either wired or wireless network connectivity
5. Breadboard
6. Jumpers

Provided Items:
1. Breadboard and jumpers (if you don’t have any of either)

We have been given ‘academic’ status from Digilent Inc (http://www.digilentinc.com). This means that the instructor can (sometimes) purchase boards from Digilent at the academic price. This discount will only apply to people who are attending the class regularly and is on a case-by-case basis from Digilent.

Since Unallocated Space runs off of donations, we would like to mention that the recommended donation for this class is $5. It is by no means a requirement! Attendance to the space, and this class, is 100% free to all!