Gadget Factory

Knowledge Base

  • FPGA Platformer Game Written Entirely In VHDL

    FPGA enthusiast and nostalgic gamer Ben created a 1980s-style side-scrolling platformer game (think Super Mario Bros.) entirely in VHDL. Hence there is no microprocessor present. Ben’s game was originally written to run on an Altera dev board, and some other hardware. The hardware consists of: •A single FPGA •Power and clock circuitry •A controller, which…

  • Cool QR Code Clock On Graphical LCD

    Sometimes its good to see what other people are up to on their projects. It can serve to spark an idea for your own designs, and this one here is just plain cool. This QR code clock is displayed on a graphical LCD screen, and is totally indecipherable just to look at. You have to…

  • ZX Spectrum ULA Chip Implementation On OBLS

    Above: OpenBench Logic Sniffer running the ZX Spectrum ULA chip clone. As a follow-up to Friday’s article on the ZX Spectrum clone running on the Pipistrello, I thought it would be good to share a little more with you on the implementation of the Sinclair ULA chip. The chip was originally included in the ZX…

  • ZX Spectrum With HDMI Out On The Pipistrello

    Jozsef Laszlo, AKA “joco” has come up with a very good implementation of the 1982 ZX Spectrum computer using his Papilio-based Pipistrello board. Joco says he wanted to do the ZX Spectrum project to “prove that a Spectrum clone can have a modern HDMI video output. Pipistrello was a good choice for this, because it…

  • FPGA Nixie Tube Speedometer = Steampunk Goodness

    A Nixie tube speedometer for a vintage pickup truck – seems like the coolest combination ever, right? Check out the video above and you’ll see what I mean. For those who have never heard of a Nixie tube, it’s basically a numeric-display (there are also character-display variants) vacuum tube that works very similarly to a…

  • Motion-Tracking Project Lets You Be A Robot Puppeteer

    Embedded Systems Design student Annie Dai recently finished up her final project for the Spring 2013 semester at Cornell University. Based on an Altera DE-2 FPGA board, her project was designed to track realtime movement in a subject’s upper body (head, torso, right & left arms) using the DE-2, a VGA monitor, and a video…

  • Controlling An LCD Module With Your FPGA

    By way of FPGA 4 Fun, we have a great and easy project on driving a one line/ 16- character (HD44780 chip-based) LCD display using your FPGA. This project works with HD44780-compatible modules also. The project page covers controlling the LCD module by utilizing a 7-bit design, an 8-bit design, as well as some code…

  • Chess-Playing FPGAs @ Design West 2014

    Warren Miller of All Programmable Planet has a plan to turn his research and writings about teaching an FPGA to play chess into a real thing – at next year’s Design West event. His plan is to have “an extravaganza at Design West 2014 in which electronic “Robot” chess players can compete on the big…