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Omri Raz edited this page May 21, 2021 · 6 revisions

Using the µLab Project Generator

The µLab Project Generator is an open source software, used to generate project settings and pin assignments for the µLab FPGA Development boards.
The software is currently not available in a precompiled executable, but it will be available soon.

For those who are interested in using the Beta Project Generator, all of the project's files which are needed to build the projects are available in the Github repository.
To run the software, download the Visual studio IDE for .NET development and open the .sln file.

after opening the project and starting it, you'll see the main window of the software, which contains 4 sections:

  1. Onboard peripheral view
  2. Project Name input
  3. Onboard peripheral selection
  4. Generate button
  • The first section (Onboard peripheral view) shows the selected onboard peripherals (Switches, LEDs, GPIOs, etc...)
  • The second section is the name input for the project. The files will be created according to it. The name can't contain any special characters or numbers in the first character of the name.
  • The third section contains the selection checkboxes for the onboard peripherals.
  • The fourth section contains the Generate button, which will open the file explorer (allows you to choose the directory of the generated project)

To generate your project:

  1. input a valid name in the name input (No special characters allowed, and no numbers are allowed as the first character)
  2. Select the required peripherals for your specific project.
  3. Click generate and choose the wanted path for your project.

When selecting the peripherals for your projects, green rectangles will highlight the peripherals in the Peripheral Selection view section.
This is what an example peripheral selection looks like in the software:

If you're using the ESP32 and want to communicate with it using the FPGA, Select the ESP32 checkbox and select the wanted protocol of communication.

Click Generate and the software will open a file explorer. Choose the desired path and click Select folder.
The folder generated contains three files:

  • .qsf - This file contains the pin definitions and voltage levels of the pins. Don't touch it unless you have to.
  • .qpf - This file contains some of the project's general settings, such as name, date and version of software. Double click it to open your project in Quartus Prime.
  • .v - This is where the magic happens, it's the Verilog file. This file is where you write the code for your project. Feel free to edit it in your favorite editor / Quartus Prime.

Thats it! Now you can open your .qpf file with Quartus Prime and start playing with your Kiwi FPGA-ESP32 Development board. Good luck!

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