hamster Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 I've just sent a PCB away from manufacture - it will have four stereo ADCs and four stereo DACs for the CMOD A7. Once I have one built I'll have to find a use for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xc6lx45 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Cool! 7 Series should have sufficient horsepower for a decent convolution reverb / cabinet model, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygot Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 1 hour ago, hamster said: Once I have one built I'll have to find a use for it! I've long thought that it makes more sense to design a PCB that addresses the needs of a project rather than the other way round... but since it's you making the comment I have total faith that I'll see a result. The picture illustrates why modules like the CMOD and DE0 Nano are so nifty for experimenters... no wordy explanation needed. I've done more than a few dozen such PCBs over the years and more than a few FPGA modules are semi-permanently ( I always use sockets ) wed to one of them as a component. With a bit of technical know-how, some PCB tool effort ( and likely hair-pulling frustration ), and a minor expense investment almost anything is possible. I think that I know the answer but why did you choose separate audio DACs and ADCs rather than CODECs? Is this a manifestation of being bitten by the Hilbert bug? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted September 25, 2019 Author Share Posted September 25, 2019 I've got a few project ideas around a digital crossover for bi-amped speakers... I had the DACs left over from building a few stereo I2S boards with PMOD interfaces, but found using many of them at once was getting impractical - if I had to tidy my desk I would waste a lot of time connecting things up again when I got back to playing with them. The other reason for these chips is they are really, really dumb and simple to use. No preamp or signal routing to configure, no I2C management needed - just send the correct clocks and they send back the correct data. Dumb parts are also cheap parts - the DACs were $0.50, the ADCs are ~$1.00, the sockets are $0.40, making this around a $20 project... I've just had that pang of "I've sent the board away too early". On thing I should have done is added a few extra pads to allow for strapping resistors on the ADCs to configure them, but is is unclear to me how they will interact with the FPGA's pin's default state while the FPGA is being configured. I should have also have added a 24.576 MHz Oscillator too,... so I could run at 48kHz, not the 46.875KHz I'll be running at from the on-board 12MHz clock. Oh, and then... ... maybe I should have added a version number on the PCB too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygot Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Well my thought was totally wrong. It won't help but sometimes my best ideas pop up an hour after ordering boards... and I always reserve time trying to think of anything that I missed.. and I always sleep on what I have for at least one night before pressing the send button... if engineers would write sad country ballads that anyone else could identify with they'd be famous. Coming up with catchy lyrics that rhyme with oscillator is though... but there's a lot of potential with hertz... I'll be fun to see what's next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 Phew... not putting a space for "the perfect frequency" clock isn't a worry anymore, as 12MHz * 64 / 31.25 = 25.576MHz, the required for 48kHz sample rate and this is just within the range of the MMCM block. Most likely has less-than-ideal jitter and noise specs for hi-fi buffs, but should be perfectly adequate for my needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 So a long time between updates. Board has arrived, has been built and tested - I left off some RF filtering caps on the output.. In 16-bit audio pass-through went well. The CMOD-A7 is quite noisy - there is quite a lot of high frequency spikes and ringing from the FPGA. Event when I split the power supply so the CMOD is powered by a linear bench supply. Turns out a lot of the noise was through the air, not via the PCB or power trace, and due to the high impedance scope.probe. I could probe straight on the ground clip and still see the noise. However, on listening tests it is fine - even at high volumes there is minimal hiss. Move to using 24-bit I2S mode at 48kHz, and it too works well. Last night I wrote written a simple SDRAM memory controller for the CMOD-A7, and it is now storing samples into RAM and playing it back. I might play with some filters over the next few days. I am hHappy enough that I am doing a second version of the board, that has a nicer layout, better grounding and uses electrolytic caps (because that is what audio nerds are supposed to use!) It is quite a fun project to tinker with. All I need is more time alone at home to play the HiFi really loud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xc6lx45 Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Nice that it works. >> I could probe straight on the ground clip and still see the noise. The first thought would be a separate analog ground but I suspect that's hard with a 2-layer board. >> and uses electrolytic caps (because that is what audio nerds are supposed to use!) Note, there are abysmally bad electrolytic caps out there. Check the data sheet (frequency response, ESR). Also they exhibit electro-chemical effects (the oxide layer changes thickness with voltage), causing low frequency noise. Not sure if I'd use them anywhere near a signal path. You could try to set a "SLEW=QUIET" constraint for digital outputs (might be worth a try even if it shows mostly in the MHz range) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted November 28, 2019 Author Share Posted November 28, 2019 Oh, found the source of some of the noise, and it wasn't the FPGA (phew). I had inadvertently bodged the output RF filtering capacitor to the wrong side of the output resistor causing it to pull lots of current when switching. A bit more bodging to the correct side and it is now a lot better. Now if I short out the inductors on the DAC's power supply I now see the FPGA noise, and when I remove the short the noise goes away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 The last of the parts came in and the new board is up and running. Here's the old and new boards side by side, and spectrum of a 10kHz test tone going from the ADC, through the FPGA and then DAC (top = new board, middle = old board, bottom = no board in the loop. The additional work I did on grounding on the PCB has paid off, with a very good noise floor - better than I can measure with the tools I have to hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOMachining Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Do you need custom metal enclosure for the board? https://www.domachining.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SST Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 Which connector is used for CMOD A7? I am using Eagle to create pcb. I was not able to find a connector for cmod a7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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