Direct RS232 Communications to Nexys Video™ FPGA Board

[Paul B]

Hello,

I am currently working on refurbishing an existing programming bench using the Nexys Video™ FPGA Board Development Kit. Requirements for the test station require that I must use direct Tx/Rx RS232 data communication to the Artix-7 FPGA without the use of the FTDI FT232R USB-UART bridgeUART/Serial Converter Interface as described in the user manual.

This used to be achieved with a now obselete Spartan-6 FPGA development board that provided a direct RS232 Serial Port on board. I cannot recall the exact model # for the retired board.

Is there any way I can input RS232 data directly into the Nexys Video FPGA Dev Kit without the use of a USB/UART Bridge?

Thank you

[JColvin]

Hi @Paul B,

Are you looking to configure the Nexys Video with a bitstream through RS232 or just send serial data with it? If it is the latter and you needed the 9-pin header, you could use something like the Pmod RS232 to facilitate this. You would still need to configure the FPGA to facilitate the communication on the board side though.

Thanks,
JColvin

[Paul B]

On 3/6/2020 at 1:24 PM, JColvin said:

Hi @Paul B,

Are you looking to configure the Nexys Video with a bitstream through RS232 or just send serial data with it? If it is the latter and you needed the 9-pin header, you could use something like the Pmod RS232 to facilitate this. You would still need to configure the FPGA to facilitate the communication on the board side though.

Thanks,
JColvin

Hey JColvin,

Yes I only intend on just sending serial data through it. Looks like the Pmod adapter you referenced should do the trick!

Thank you for your help

Paul B