Gadget Factory

Papilio

  • A free version of Microblaze Soft Processor available in Coregen!

    Ever wanted to check out Xilinx’s premier Microblaze Soft Processor but the $500 EDK license was too pricey? Well, Magnus Karlsson pointed out that there is a free lightweight version of Microblaze, called Microblaze MCS, available in ISE’s Coregen wizard. Even better, here is a tutorial showing how to get up and running with it!…

  • Having problems installing Xilinx ISE on Windows 8 64bit? Here is a fix! (Video included)

    Hamster recently tipped us to a working fix for file dialog crashes in Xilinx ISE x64 on Windows 8. This issue has really been a thorn in the side for a lot of users, so it’s great to have this info! Rename libPortability.dll to libPortability.dll.orig, and copy libPortabilityNOSH.dll to libPortability.dll. Do this in: C:\Xilinx\14.5\ISE_DS\ISE\lib\nt64 C:\Xilinx\14.5\ISE_DS\common\lib\nt64…

  • Initial Impressions: Firing Up The Papilio Pro

    Well, what do ya know! Duane Benson over at All Programmable Planet has another nice article up, this time on the subject of getting his Papilio Pro ready. Ready to do his bidding, that is! If you read the previous article here about the progress of the tele-presence robotic avatar that Duane is working on,…

  • Status Update On Papilio-Based Robot Avatar Project

    Here’s a great follow-up on the progress of Duane Benson’s Papilio-based tele-presence avatar project which we covered here on the blog a little while back. Looks like he is moving forward with the overall implementation in strides. Referring to the photo above, Duane gives us the run-down from a hardware standpoint: Toward the lower-left, we…

  • Mains Hum Filter Using Papilio/ Logic Start

    Hamster has a new project up over at his Hamsterworks site, and he’s got code running both for the Papilio/ Logic Start combination, and for the Arduino. In this project, he has created a filter that can filter out commonly encountered “mains hum” frequencies up to the Nyquist limit of half the sample rate for…

  • An Interesting Take On FPGAs From A R-Pi Point Of View

    From Raspberry Pi @ Gadgetoid comes an interesting overview on FPGAs – in particular, our flagship Papilio-series dev boards. It’s refreshing to read Phillip Howard’s angle on all this, as it is decidedly from an Arduino/ Raspberry Pi angle on things. The article is a well-written synopsis and can serve its purpose well for those…

  • Papilio Pro Breathes New Life Into Old Laptop Display

    Papilio Pro user James Glanville recently posted a great project that he’s been working on, over at the Gadget Factory forums. He was nice enough to share his code and some photos for the project, in which he has got his Papilio Pro hooked up to an old laptop LCD display that he had sitting around the workshop.…

  • Implementing SPI & I2C Interfaces On Papilio One

    Papilio user and tech blogger Duane Benson from All Programmable Planet has a new article on his ongoing quest to create his own robotic tele-presence avatar. This one is about implementing SPI and I2C interfaces on his Papilio One for the project. Duane’s avatar will need a series of motors and sensor controls for various…