Actel offers a demonstration platform that showcases IGLOO devices as controllers for various Human Machine Interface (HMI) functions. As a result, you can evaluate an IGLOO FPGA as a flexible HMI controller for your designs. The platform consists of an HMI daughter card for Actel's IGLOO Icicle Kit. The HMI daughter card is comprised of a standard cell phone keypad with 18 keys (3 rows and 6 columns), 10 white LEDs, and 4 RGB LEDs that serve as the backlight for the keypad and a speaker. The block diagram shows the Icicle board connected to the HMI daughter card. Actel provides a software program that runs on a PC to control different functions. The data is communicated between the PC and Icicle board through the USB cable with a USB-to-UART chip that allows a simple UART controller on the IGLOO device
to communicate the data with the PC. Actel's IGLOO Icicle Kit, based on the 5 µW IGLOO device, is a low-cost, portable, low-power demonstration platform that can be powered by a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, USB cable, or external power supply. The Icicle evaluation board enables you to measure power consumption (dynamic, static, and Flash*Freeze modes) with the core operating at either 1.2 V or 1.5 V.
The following items can be purchased online through Avnet Engineering Services:
- Small form factor plug-in daughter card for Icicle Kit (based on the ultra-low-power IGLOO FPGA with Flash*Freeze technology)
- Evaluation and development platform with flexibility of demonstrating different HMI functions
- Keypad control
- Brightness control for White LEDs
- Color mixing for RGB LEDs
- Tone generation
- FREE Download of design examples
- No external power supply needed
- All functions can be controlled using a GUI software on a PC
- Serial communication between the PC and the IGLOO FPGA through USB-to-UART interface
- Jumper settings to:
- Select input voltage to LED driver
- Select speaker voltage
- Select demonstration through software or hardware control
- Select external 5 V supply
Design examples offer innovative ideas for Actel FPGA applications and help users create designs that utilize Actel's device advantages. Actel's design examples are available for immediate download and are always free of charge.
Keypad Control
This design senses the keypad (a standard cell phone keypad with 18 keys) by scanning the
6 rows and reading the 3 columns. This design can be targeted to any application requiring
a keyboard interface in a matrix form. The row-column matrix combination can easily be
changed to cater to the designer's requirements. The scan method can also be integrated
into an interrupt-based control logic function when interfacing to a processor.
Brightness Control for White LEDs
This design controls the intensity/brightness of White LED's (WLED) by varying the duty cycle
of the PWM logic. The 8-bit (256 steps) PWM drives the LEDs through a WLED
driver chip.
Color Mixing for RGB LEDs
This design controls the color mixing for the red-green-blue (RGB) LEDs using three PWM
signals. This scheme can be used to generate keypad backlight or LCD backlight of any
color or illuminate a particular area with required color using the RGB LEDs. The
brightness and color of the RGB LEDs are controlled through three 8-bit PWMs. These
PWMs signals are time-division multiplexed to reduce power consumption.
Tone Generation
This design generates tones of desired frequency (period) and volume (duty cycle) using a
16-bit PWM signal. Tone duration and dampening can be controlled through additional
counter logic.
