Hi,

I'm hoping to use a Balloon 3 for some research in power-electronics,
and need to be able to program the FPGA as a multi-channel PWM
generator.

Is the FPGA VHDL source code available for download somewhere?
(Is it in a Xilinx ISE project, or does it require other tools?)


I'd ideally like to find a reasonable number of IO signals connected to
the FPGA, which can be driven as outputs and picked up (presumably via
the samtec connector) for buffering and isolation, before being used to
drive power converter IGBTs.

In an ideal world (where I emit each transistor switch's gate-drive
separately from the FPGA, I am looking at needing 8 lines per power
converter (perhaps one or two more for hardware trip indication). I'd
like to be able to run multiple converters from the same FPGA, so the
more lines I can find, the better.

I've been looking at the pin-out documents, and don't see many (if any)
uncommitted lines, then again.. I'm not really following Chris Jones'
documents that well.

Ethernet is a real desire, so I'd not like to re-use any data-lines
which would stop the CF socket working. USB would be nice to have, but
if any other features could be sacrificed in exchange for more IO, that
would be something I'd consider.


Best wishes,

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)