| | 1 | WARP hardware uses a USB-UART transceiver to interface between a PC-based terminal and a UART in the FPGA. The primary use of this interface is to interact with STDIN/STDOUT of embedded processors. All WARP reference designs connect STDIN/STDOUT to a UART. |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | The WARP FPGA Board v2 (Virtex-4 FPGA) provides both a USB-UART and a RS-232/DB9 UART. The instructions below apply only to the USB-UART. |
| | 4 | |
| | 5 | The basic steps to using the USB-UART are: |
| | 6 | * Install the FTDI drivers |
| | 7 | * Install a terminal application |
| | 8 | * Connect to the USB-UART |
| | 9 | |
| | 10 | = Drivers = |
| | 11 | Both WARP v2 and v3 use USB-UART transceivers from FTDI. Although the boards use different FTDI devices, they use the same driver. |
| | 12 | |
| | 13 | Download the drivers for your OS from the FTDI drivers page: [http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm]. |
| | 14 | |
| | 15 | Be sure you install the '''VCP''' driver (Virtual COM Port). Do not install the D2XX drivers. |
| | 16 | |
| | 17 | = Terminal = |
| | 18 | There are many options for terminal applications. |
| | 19 | |
| | 20 | For Windows, we recommend [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ PuTTY]. |
| | 21 | |
| | 22 | == Configuring PuTTY == |
| | 23 | PuTTY is very flexible. We recommend adopting the following settings. |
| | 24 | 1. Launch PuTTY; you should see this window: |
| | 25 | |
| | 26 | [[Image(putty_config.png,nolink)]] |
| | 27 | |
| | 28 | 2. Apply these settings: |
| | 29 | * Session: |
| | 30 | * Serial line = ''see below'' |
| | 31 | * Connection type = Serial |
| | 32 | * Speed = 57600 |
| | 33 | * Terminal: |
| | 34 | * Enable "Implicit CR in every LF" and "Implicit LF in every CR" |
| | 35 | * Connection->Serial: |
| | 36 | * Speed = 57600 |
| | 37 | * Data bits = 8 |
| | 38 | * Stop bits = 1 |
| | 39 | * Parity = None |
| | 40 | * Flow control = XON/XOFF |
| | 41 | 1. Go back to the Session settings pane |
| | 42 | 1. Click Default Settings, then click Save |
| | 43 | * This will save your defaults and apply them every time PuTTY launches |
| | 44 | |
| | 45 | |
| | 46 | |
| | 47 | |
| | 48 | |
| | 49 | == Finding the COM Port == |
| | 50 | When you connect the USB-UART interface to your PC, your OS will emulate a serial port connection. The name of this connection is not fixed. |
| | 51 | |
| | 52 | In Windows the connection is named COMX, for some integer X. In our experience the FTDI drivers assign a new COM port number to each unique board. |
| | 53 | |
| | 54 | To find the current COM port number: |
| | 55 | 1. Open Device Manager (run 'devmgmt.msc') |
| | 56 | 1. Expand '''Ports (COM & LPT)''' |
| | 57 | 1. Look for the port named "USB Serial Port" and note the COM number assigned. In the screenshot below, the USB-UART interface is COM14. |
| | 58 | |
| | 59 | [[Image(dev_manager.png,nolink)]] |
| | 60 | |
| | 61 | 1. Use this port name in the "Serial line" field when opening PuTTY. |
