Connect Arduino parts to FPGA

[Youni]

Hi, 

is there any opportunity to connect parts like sensors or actuators which were made for Arduino-Boards to Digilent FPGAs like the Nexys A7-100? Thank you!

[zygot]

For the most part Digilent has its' own add-on board ecosystem that competes with ( or perhaps I should say is similar to ) the Arduino ecosystem and they design their boards to work with PMOD interfaces. Obviously, the PMOD connector isn't pin compatible with the Arduino connectors but that doesn't mean that you can't use any Arduino boards with Digilent FPGA boards; you just have more work to do.

Terasic makes a number of Intel low cost FPGA boards with Arduino connectors if you want something easier and simpler to work with. If you pay attention to the schematics there are a lot of Xilinx based FPGA boards that could work with anything, though you might need to do some bread-boarding or digital interface design for compatibility. It doesn't sound like that's of interest to you.

If you go with Terasic be sure to choose a board based on the Cyclone 10 LP or earlier Cyclone devices to avoid having to pay for Quartus development software.

I should point out that analog functionality on FPGA plaftorms with Arduino 'compatible' connectors tend to rely on the FPGA internal ADC and are not straight-forward in replicating implementation.

Do your homework. Rather than select an FPGA platform and hope that it works with any future project, choose your project or intended use and select an FPGA platform that supports that use.

Edited May 5, 2021 by zygot

[JColvin]

Hi @Youni,

Like @zygot mentioned the various Arduino add-ons can work, but you'll be needing to do some extra work in advance to check compatibility and connectivity options. Digilent has championed the Pmod connector, but not every sensor out there is directly mechanically or electrically compatible.

The main things I would be checking (presuming that I'm fine with connecting individual wires to available I/O pins on the Nexys A7 100T) would be if the sensor or actuator is 3.3 V compatible and what the available software support looks like. If you end up finding out that it will be a lot of wiring and creating and debugging your own software/firmware, then perhaps that might not be worth your time and money; but I don't know your situation or needs.

Thanks,
JColvin