openFPGALoader Programmer

FPGA

Introduction

The built in programmer in Lattice Radiant can have issues communiciating with the FPGA over FTDI. This document explains how to install an alternative, more reliable programmer.

When you synthesize your code in Lattice Radiant, it creates a .bin file contaning the design to be uploaded to the FPGA. This file exists at

<project_name>/impl_1/<project_name>_impl_1.bin

If your project is called lab_2 the file would be

lab_2/impl_1/lab_2_impl_1.bin

You will need the location of the bin file to upload code once you are done with the installation process.

After installing openFPGALoader

To upload a synthesized design to the FPGA

openFPGALoader -b ice40_generic -c ft232  -f <path_to_.bin_file>

If you are in a Lattice Radiant project folder and you don’t have the exact path to the .bin file, this command will find and upload the first .bin file it finds

find . -name '*.bin' -print | xargs openFPGALoader -b ice40_generic -c ft232  -f

If you are having trouble figuring out which path to use, ask a in office hours or on Discord.

MacOS install

First install Homebrew if you don’t already have it installed.

Then install it using

brew install openfpgaloader

Now you can upload code using the commands above.

Windows Install

This can only be done on personal computers (not lab computers) because you need admin access to install and setup the software

Option 1 (recommended)

Follow this tutorial to install openFPGALoader: github.com/DFiantWorks/openFPGALoaderWSL

Once it is installed run the commands at the top of the document, but replace openFPGALoader with openFPGALoaderWSL.

Option 2

First, install MSYS2. It should open a window that looks like this. If you don’t see it, open the UCRT64 that was installed.

Second, install openFPGALoader by running this command in the terminal window (you need to right click to paste, CTRL+V doesn’t work):

pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-openFPGALoader

You can verify that it installed correctly by running openFPGALoader -h.

Third, replace the default usb driver with one that work with openFPGALoader. Download and install Zadig. Then open it, select Options -> List All Devices, and select the UPduino in the dropdown menu. It should look like this before you press install driver.

Figure 2: Zadig before driver repacement

Then click replace driver and wait for it to finish (you won’t need Zadig again).

Now openFPGALoader is installed and you are ready to use it, however you need to go to the right folder in the terminal. Do this using the cd command, eg:

cd /c/Users/<username>/Desktop/E155/lab_1

Then run the commands at the top of this document to program your FPGA.

Linux Install

See the openFPGALoader documentation here