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Connecting (2) Basys2 Boards Together


kpparr

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Hello

 

I'm thinking about a project where I multiplex some data from one Basys2 board and send it to another board to be demultiplexed and displayed.

 

The communication would be over one of the PMOD connector lines with three other lines used as my selection lines for an 8-bit multiplexer.

 

I'm wondering if there are going to be any problems regarding isolation and how the two boards would be powered.  Could I power each board from its own USB connector and own PC and just go from PMOD to PMOD, or would this cause problems?

 

Should I write one program to ROM and then power that board from the second board through the first board's battery connector? 

 

Would it be best to go from J5 to J5 or could a PMOD Vcc from the second board be used to power the first board?

 

Any other preferred methods?

 

thanks

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Hi kpparr,

 

If you are only communicating between the Pmod headers, you should be able to power each of your boards from their own USB connector and attach them both to the same PC.  As long as your boards aren't drawing a ton of current (which from your description sounds like you won't even be coming close to limit), this should not be an issue.  I have done a similar project with two Digilent microcontrollers and powered them both from my laptop without any problems.  

 

Alternatively, you could program one (or both) of your FPGAs to ROM and use an external wall power supply to power your boards.  

 

However, I would not recommend trying to power one board off of the other board. I think going from J5 to J5 would result in too much of a voltage drop to successfully power both boards if you are powering the first board from a USB port.  It may work if you were instead using an external power supply, but I would personally power the boards separately.  I believe the Pmod Vcc is only able to output at 3.3V, so that is not within the required input voltage range of 4.5 - 5.5V (ideally 5.0V) that a Basys 2 board needs to operate.  

 

So in the end, I recommend powering the two boards separately. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

JColvin

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Thanks for the reply.

 

I hadn't thought about running both boards from a single PC. 

 

I was thinking of this as a digital project where each student would work on either the receiver portion or transmitter portion separately and then bring the two boards together.  They could still do that and one student burn his program to ROM and then move the board to the other PC and connect them.

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