Visual Analog integration

Step by step guide for PCB revision -01

  1. Connect your AnalogMAX DAQ1 via USB with your computer.
  2. Change FTDI FT2232H Port B to "OPTO Isolate" mode.
    1. Download FT_Prog 3.3.88.402 from here.
    2. Install FT_Prog.
    3. Start FT_Prog.

    4. The window should look like Figure 1.





    5. Press "F5" or select "DEVICES → Scan and Parse" to find the FTDI chip.

    6. The window should look like Figure 2.





    7. Open the "Hardware Specific → Port B → Hardware" as visible in Figure 2.
    8. Select "OPTO Isolate" on the right side, as visible in Figure 3.






    9. Then, press "Ctrl+P" or select "DEVICES → PROGRAM" to change your FTDI FT2232H Port B to "OPTO Isolate" mode.
    10. Press "Program" in the new window, as visible in Figure 4.






    11. After that, press "Cycle Ports" in the window shown in Figure 4 and then press "Close".
    12. After pressing "F5" and opening the path "Hardware Specific → Port B → Hardware", as visible in Figure 2, the value "OPTO Isolate" should be selected.
  3. Program the FPGA with new POF file.
    1. Download Quartus Prime Software from here. The Lite Edition is sufficient.
    2. Install Quartus Prime.
    3. Install Arrow-USB-Blaster-Setup-2.2.exe from here.
    4. Start the Quartus Prime Programmer. The window should look like Figure 5.






    5. Press "Hardware Setup..." and select "Arrow-USB-Blaster [USBX]" in "Currently selected hardware" as visible in Figure 6, whereby the "X" in [USBX] is a placeholder.





    6. Then, press "Close" and return to the previous window. The window should look like Figure 7.





    7. After that, use "Add File..." to select the file to program the FPGA. The window should look like Figure 8.





    8. Mark the "Program/Configure" box for the selected file. Then, the window should look like Figure 9.





    9. To program the FPGA use the button "Start".
    10. The Quartus Prime Programmer can be closed.
  4. Figure out the correct COM port number for the AnalogMAX DAQ1 board.
    1. Open the device manager.

    2. Open ports and identify the port used by the AnalogMAX DAQ1 as visible in Figure 10.





  5. Download adcapture.exe to local drive from here "????????"
  6. Setup Visual Analog "External Tools..." custom menu item to launch adcapture.exe with commandline parameters.
    1. Download "Visual Analog" from here.
    2. Install "Visual Analog"

    3. Start "Visual Analog" and open an "Blank canvas". After that, the window should look like Figure 11.





    4. Open the file "AnalogMAX_DAQ1_Capture.vac" via "File → Open...". The window should look like Figure 12.





    5. Then change the Sample Frequency in the "Pattern Loader" to 0.5 MHz as shown in Figure 13.






    6. Press "Tools → External Tools..." to prepare the usage of the adcapture.exe.
    7. Click "Add" in the opened window and insert the name "adcapture" in the "Display Text". Select the file "adcapture.exe" after using the button "Browse..." for the "File Name", and insert "COM20,115200 1024 c:\temp\capture.txt 7" for the "Arguments". The parameters are the COM port (COM port 20 in our case), the baud rate, the number of samples, the location to store the data and a value to adjust the system. Then, click on "Ok".
  7. Launch adcapture.exe and after completion click run to update the screen.
    1. Select the above inserted tool by selecting "Tools → adcapture".

    2. A window shows the activity of the tool "adcapture", as visible in Figure 14.





    3. Then, using "F5" or "Canvas → Run" uses the information to create the graph in the previous window, as visible in Figure 15.





Quick test with UART terminal (putty or ...)

  1. Figure out the correct COM port number for the AnalogMAX DAQ1 board
    1. Open the device manager.

    2. Open ports and identify the port used by the AnalogMAX DAQ1 as visible in Figure 10.

  2. Open terminal (for example putty) and set the parameters.
    1. Set the connection type to Serial.
    2. Set the "Serial line" to your above found COM port.
    3. Set the "Speed" to 115200.
    4. Use "Open" to start the connection.
  3. Type following signs for the appropriate usage.
    1. "?" to get the ID (0x0002 - TEI0016)
    2. "t" to read the data from the ADC into the memory.
    3. "." to get one data point.
    4. "+" to get 128 data points.
    5. "*" to get 16*1024 data points.


VisualAnalog parameter description (COM20,115200 1024 c:\temp\capture.txt 7)