Alameda (MAXREFDES24#) LX9 MicroBoard Quick Start Guide
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15. Set up the terminal program to run on the PC using the following steps. Before
loading the executable firmware file on the FPGA, the terminal program on the
PC should be running. The example firmware running on the FPGA
communicates with the PC via a USB port set up to emulate a serial port (UART).
To establish this communication link, the PC must be configured with the
appropriate Windows drivers. A suitable terminal program such as Tera Term or
HyperTerminal should be invoked.
The micro USB (J3) on the LX9 is the communication port. The LX9 utilizes the
Silicon Labs CP2102 USB-UART bridge IC, so you need to install Silicon Labs’
virtual COM port (VCP) driver for their CP210x device family. These may be
obtained from the Silicon Labs website (www.silabs.com).
Once installed, Windows will assign a previously unused COM port. Use the
Windows
Control Panel | System | Device Manager
to determine the COM port
number. (It will be named
Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge
.) Make a
note of which COM port this is. That information is needed in the next step.
Next, a terminal emulation program needs to be installed and launched. For
Windows XP® and earlier systems, the HyperTerminal program is the usual
choice. However, since HyperTerminal was eliminated from Windows 7, it may
be necessary to locate an alternative. Several are available; one good choice is
called Tera Term (http://ttssh2.sourceforge.jp/). Whatever terminal program you
choose, the communication should be set up by opening the COM port number
previously described above and the port configured as:
bits per second:
115,200
;
data bits:
8
;
parity:
none
;
stop bits:
1
;
flow control:
none
.
