Cmod A7 GPIO Demo

This VHDL project demonstrates the basic use of most of the Cmod-A7's general purpose I/O.

• The two user LEDs are tied to the two push buttons
• The RGB LED is set to smoothly change colors
• The UART bridge outputs a beginning message and a status message whenever a button is pressed

• Cmod A7 with MicroUSB programming cable
• Vivado installation compatible with the latest release of this demo (2020.1)
  • See Installing Vivado, Vitis, and Digilent Board Files for installation instructions.
• Serial Terminal application to receive messages printed by the demo
  • See Installing and Using a Terminal Emulator (Redirect) for more information.

First and foremost, releases - consisting of a set of files for download - are only compatible with a specific version of the Xilinx tools, as specified in the name of the release (referred to as a release tag). In addition, releases are only compatible with the specified variant of the board. For example, a release tagged “20/DMA/2020.1” for the Zybo Z7 is only to be used with the -20 variant of the board and Vivado 2020.1.

The latest release version for this demo is highlighted in green.

Note for Advanced Users: All demos for the Cmod A7 are provided through the Cmod-A7 repository on Github. Further documentation on the structure of this repository can be found on this wiki's Digilent FPGA Demo Git Repositories (Redirect) page.

Instructions on the use of the latest release can be found in this dropdown:

Using the Latest Release

This page has been moved, the new location is Using a Digilent FPGA Github Demo's Releases (2020.1).

Set up the Cmod A7

Plug the Cmod A7 into the computer using the microUSB cable.

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This page has been moved, the new location is Using a Digilent FPGA Github Demo's Releases (2020.1).

At this point, the demo is now running on your board. Refer to the Description and Functionality sections of this document for more information on what it does.

When a button is pressed, the corresponding LED will light up.

The RGB LED smoothly transitions between colors.

Connect a terminal program with the settings 9600 baud rate, 8 bits, one stop bit, and no parity bit. On reset, the board will display “CMOD A7 GPIO/UART DEMO!”

Whenever a button is pressed, the message “Button press detected!” is sent over UART.

All materials related to the use of the Cmod A7 can be found on its Resource Center.

For a walkthrough of the process of creating a simple HDL project in Vivado, see Getting Started with Vivado for Hardware-Only Designs (Redirect). Information on important parts of the GUI, and indirect discussion of the steps required to modify, rebuild, and run this demo in hardware can also be found here.

For technical support, please visit the FPGA section of the Digilent Forum.