DE3 User Manual
28
Chapter 3
Control Panel
3
The DE3 board comes with a PC-based Control Panel that allows users to access various
components onboard. The host computer communicates with the board via USB port. The tool can
be used to verify the functionality of components.
This chapter presents some basic functions of the Control Panel, illustrates its structure in block
diagram form, and finally describes its capabilities.
3.1
Control Panel Setup
The Control Panel software utility is located in the directory “/Tools/DE3_control_panel” in the
DE3 System CD. To execute the program, simply copy the whole folder to your host computer and
launch the control panel by double clicking the “DE3_Control_Panel.exe”.
The DE3_Control_Panel.exe will auto-detect the FPGA and download the control codes, the .sof
and .elf file, to the Stratix III device through USB-Blaster port.
To activate the Control Panel, perform the following steps:
1.
Make sure Quartus II and NIOS II are installed successfully on your PC.
2.
Connect the supplied USB cable to the USB Blaster port and the supplied power cord to
J18. Turn the power switch ON as shown in
Figure 3.1.
3.
Start the executable DE3_control_panel.exe on the host computer.
Figure 3.2
will appear
and the Control Panel starts to auto-detect the FPGA and download the .sof and .elf files.
4.
After the configuration file is programmed to the DE3 board, the FPGA device information
will be displayed on the window.
5.
Note the Control Panel will occupy the USB port, users will not be able to download any
configuration file into the FPGA before you exit the Control Panel program.
6.
The Control Panel is now ready, as shown in
Figure 3.3
Summary of Contents for Altera DE3
Page 1: ...Altera DE3 Board ...
Page 67: ...DE3 User Manual 64 Figure 5 5 Plug USB Devices into DE3 Figure 5 6 Display Device Information ...
Page 75: ...DE3 User Manual 72 Figure 5 14 Display SD Card Information for the SD Card Demonstration ...
Page 79: ...DE3 User Manual 76 Figure 5 19 Parameter Settings in DDR2 Controller ...
Page 114: ...DE3 User Manual 111 Figure D 5 The reported message of the invalid I O pins ...