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Do you want to know more about StageConnect? Its a connection to transmit 32 uncompressed audio-channels via a single XLR cable. StageConnect is based on A2B, the Automotive Audio Bus (A2B).

4 Comments

  1. Andrea Valle

    Reply

    Hi Chris, your projects and ideas are great, and I’m following you as I’m interested in learning about using FPGA with digital audio in combination with microcontrollers. However I found that the Arduino MKR Vidor 4000 has been discontinued, so it’s impossible to find and buy it. I’m trying to start some work with the Lilygo T-FPGA, which combines an ESP32-S3 with a Gowin GW1NSR FPGA. What do you think about it? Have you considered using different FPGA boards like this as alternative to the Vidor 4000? I think this would facilitate people like me who are unable to replicate your great stuff with a discontinued board.
    Thanks for your consideration!
    Andrea

    • Chris

      Reply

      Hi Andrea,

      thanks for your comment. Yes, you are right, the EOL of the Vidor 4000 might be a problem, but one of the best things of FPGAs is the very good portability. In the meantime I used FPGAs from Xilinx and Lattice and I was able to use the exact same VHDL-logic on all three different FPGAs. I’m working on a follow-up-video of this StageConnect-video and here I’m using a Lattice FPGA together with the Lattice Diamond Software. In a couple of weeks I will write more about the Lattice FPGAs here on this Blog and will publish a new video in December about this.

      If you are searching a comparable FPGA to the Vidor 4000, have a look at the CYC1000 by Trenz Electronics (https://www.trenz-electronic.de/de/CYC1000-mit-Intel-Cyclone-10-LP-10CL025-C8-8-MByte-SDRAM-8-MByte-Flash/TEI0003-03-QFCT4A). Its cheaper than the Vidor 4000, has more logic elements (25k instead of 16k) but lacks an Microcontroller. But for this you can use a Raspberry Pi Pico together with tis CYC1000 and you are good to go.

      best regards,
      Chris

  2. Andrea Valle

    Reply

    Thanks Chris. The main issue for a FPGA newbie is also to cope with the different approach (and sometimes terminology) used by their software. I’ve done some progress with the Lilygo board and will consider the CYC1000 to leverage your hints on the dev tools.
    One more question is about the importance of quantity of SDRAM and Flash on the FPGA board to run digital audio applications.
    Thanks and keep up the great work!
    Andrea

    • Chris

      Reply

      In the past weeks I learned to work with three different VHDL-Tools and FPGA-Vendors: Intel, Xilinx and Lattice. The VHDL-Code is 98% hardware-independent. The software-tools are bit hard to get in touch with (Xilinx ISE14.7, Lattice Diamond, Intel Quartus Prime) but after a couple of days you can get in touch with them. The easiest software was Intel Quartus Prime. Its free without license and the tool is great – I like to work with it. Lattice Diamond is in the middle-field, but without a schematics-editor. Xilinx ISE14.7 is the oldest and toughest one.

      Regarding the question for the RAM: as long as you are not implementing a delay or “real” effects like reverbs, you do not need any RAM. The FPGA itself has enough logic-elements that acts as a RAM. Even calculating an EQ can be done in pure logic, so you do not need any additional components besides the FPGA. When it comes to high-level-effects you should get in touch with DSPs. As I showed in my last video a full-featured 5-band EQ needs only a single line of code while using floats or double – its so much easier compared to the FPGA-implementation. But FPGAs have other benefits. Its up to you 🙂

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