Vaaman FPGA Programming

Uploading BIT files to FPGA

To upload the BIT file to the FPGA, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Hardware Connections

   Locate the 10-pin headers on the Vaaman board. These can be found from the schematic.

   Ensure the Vaaman board is powered On.

   Connect the USB-to-JTAG Module to the Vaaman board.

   While connecting the Programmer module, make sure to follow the indicated color code as shown in the image.

2. Download the BIT file

   Download the DEMO BIT file from the Simple LED Blink Bit Demo

   Unzip the downloaded file.

3. Programming the Flash using Efinity

   Open Efinity 2021.2 or later.

   Inside the Efinity IDE

   • Refresh USB Target as shown in the image.

   • Select the Bitstream file to be programmed. (The bitstream file is available in the unzipped folder)

   • Select the JTAG Programming mode.

   • Start the programming process.

Wait for the programming to complete. When the programming is complete, the FPGA will be configured with the bitstream.

Configure fpga from linux command

• Download the HEX file

• Download the DEMO HEX file from Simple LED Blink Hex Demo

• Unzip the downloaded file.

• To program the FPGA from the command line, enter the command:

sudo vaaman-ctl -i <path/to/sample_led_blink_t120_demo_hex.hex>

• You can get the usage information of the vaaman-ctl tool by using the command:

sudo vaaman-ctl -h

Verify the FPGA configuration

Once the programming is complete, you will observe the orange LED on the Vaaman board blinking.

This indicates that the FPGA is configured with the bitstream.

Tip

Additionally, you will notice that the four green LEDs on the Vaaman board will be blinking in a sequence.