DExx-vd_isl in DE10-Nano GPIO 1 port

[Calolo]

Hello,

I have ordered a DE10-Nano board for MiSTer and I would like to also use it as a “OSSC Pro Lite” scaler using the DExx-vd_isl board. I don’t plan to add an I/O board so the two GPIO ports will be available.

It would be great if the SDRAM module and the DExx-vd_isl board could be installed together, then I would only swap the SD cards.

As the GPIO 0 is already used by the SDRAM module, can we use the GPIO 1 for the DExx-vd_isl board ? If not, is it a hardware or software limitation?

Thank you.

[marqs]

That’s one of the things on my TODO after the next fw release. Most likely the board can be used on GPIO1 without issues via an alternative firmware. The audio connector cable would then need to be a bit longer since none of the single column Arduino IO on GPIO1 side are digital pins.

[Calolo]

Great news, thank you for your reply.

Maybe you can also make use of the SDRAM for existing or new features?

[marqs]

The SDRAM has low latency but also low bandwidth (compared to the DDR3 on DE10-Nano) so it’s not really useful for this project.

I tried today configuring the fw for GPIO1 and it seems to work well. I’ll do some more testing and try to release the image next week.

[Obed Samuel]

This is great news, I too would be interested in this. Do you think there will be options to add shadow masks eventually? Thanks in advance.

[marqs]

Github has now a de10n_gpio1 branch for GPIO1 connection. There are 2 ways to take the alternative firmware in use:

1. Download and write full SD card image from the new branch the same way as described in quick start guide.
2. If you have already flashed SD image which shows 64MB partition (0.59->), just replace the RBF file on SD card with one from the gpio1 branch

!!! Please note that the 4-pin audio cable must be connected to the same place as with standard firmware since the single column header on other side has voltage supply pins which can damage the expansion card. The connection thus needs a longer jumper cable or daisy chaining 2 shorter ones. Below is a picture how the card should be connected when using GPIO1.

. Link to image if not shown.

[Marcutso]

For newest FW, is there a separate FW for GPIO1 and GPIO2, or we just replace the rbf file regardless what orientation the Dexx is?

[marqs]

Firmware is separate for GPIO0 and GPIO1 (de10n_gpio1 branch) so you need to replace the rbf with a matching one.

[Author]

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