VHDL Processes for Pulsing Multiple GPIO Pins at Different Frequencies on Altera FPGA

 

DE1-SoC GPIO Pins connected to 780nm Infrared Laser Diodes, 660nm Red Laser Diodes, and Oscilloscope

The following VHDL processes pulse the GPIO pins at different frequencies on the Altera DE1-SoC using multiple Phase-Locked Loops. Several diodes were connected to the GPIO banks and pulsed at a 50% duty cycle with 16mA across 3.3V. Each GPIO bank on the DE1-SoC has 36 pins. Pin 1 is pulsed at 20Hz from GPIO bank 0, and pins 0 and 1 are pulsed at 30Hz from GPIO bank 1. A direct mode PLL with locked output was configured using the Altera Quartus Prime MegaWizard. The PLL reference clock frequency is set to 50MHz, the output clock frequency is set to 50MHz, and the duty cycle is set to 50%. The pin mappings for GPIO banks 0 and 1 are documented on the DE1-SoC datasheet.

Pulsed Laser Diodes via GPIO pins on DE1-SoC FPGA

- -- ---------------------
- -- CLOCK A AND B PROCESSES --
- -- INPUT: direct mode pll with locked output 
- -- and reference clock frequency set to 50MHz, 
- -- output clock frequency set to 50MHz with 50% duty 
- -- cycle and output frequency scaled by freq divider constant
- -- ----------------------------------------------------------- 

clk_a_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_a)
begin
    if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_a) then
        if (cycle_ctr_a < FREQ_A_DIVIDER) then
            cycle_ctr_a <= cycle_ctr_a + 1;
        else
            cycle_ctr_a <= 0;
        end if;
    end if;
end process clk_a_process;
 
clk_b_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_b)
begin
    if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_b) then
        if (cycle_ctr_b < FREQ_B_DIVIDER) then
            cycle_ctr_b <= cycle_ctr_b + 1;
        else
            cycle_ctr_b <= 0;
        end if;
    end if;
end process clk_b_process; 

- -- ---------------------
- -- GPIO A AND B PROCESSES --
- -- INPUT: direct mode pll with locked output
- -- ------------------------------------------------------- 
gpio_a_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_a)
begin
    if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_a) then
        if (cycle_ctr_a = 0) then
            gpio_sig_0 <= NOT gpio_sig_0;
        end if;
    end if;
end process gpio_a_process;

gpio_b_process : process (lkd_pll_clk_b)
begin
    if rising_edge(lkd_pll_clk_b) then
        if (cycle_ctr_b = 0) then
            gpio_sig_1 <= NOT gpio_sig_1;
        end if;
    end if;
end process gpio_b_process;
GPIO_0 <= gpio_sig_0;
GPIO_1 <= gpio_sig_1;