spartan 3e USB communication over LAN or WiFi network

[MasterSteven]

Hi, my intension is to connect a Spartan 3e FPGA board to my computer running labview over a network connection. Using a direct USB cable everything runs perfectly as expected. I imagine connecting the Spartan 3e to labview using its onboard LAN port requires modifying drivers among other things since it is just the physical layer. As a result using the onboard LAN port isn't feesable.

I have come across an intersting device called NAU (Network attached USB). It is made by Addonics model # ADU2N1G . This device, in theory, does exactly what I want. It behaves as a local USB port for your computer over a network. This device works great for things like mice or wireless Xbox 360 controllers.My experiment with the controller involved a joystick VI and I watched numbers change as I moved the analog sticks. This device also works on flash drives and external HDD. It will not interactively run a VI on the FPGA. I'm not sure if there is some setting in labview that I can modify to change how labview works with usb connections.

I did some testing of bandwidth of the VI I am trying to run on a USB port and the results are that it is similar to a mouse being moved around and the device can handle a mouse fine. So I've ruled out bandwidth problems. The problem is as if there is a delay in the USB signal as a result of the NAU device and labview is seeing that as a disconnect or problem with the cable.

Any comments or suggestions are welccomed or if you want more info I'll gladly provide.

thanks,

Steven

[Nick-C]

Steven,

The drivers that allow you to use the Spartan 3e board weren't designed for use with this kind of adapter in mind. It's very likely that the adapter is injecting a delay into the network that may be causing the driver to time out in certain areas. It isn't possible to change those timeout values or make any adjustments to the driver with this in mind. Unfortunately this is a HW/SW configuration that's not supported and most likely isn't going to function properly.

-Nick-

[MasterSteven]

Well, I would like to thank you for the challenge you have given me. As a result I messed around with what I could and found success with what I am trying to do.

Thanks,

Steven

[BradM]

Unfortunately, the framework that the driver sits on (provided from Xilinx, since it's talking to their board) is somewhat… fastidious. If the moon is not in alignment with Jupiter and the Asian markets are down while you are facing East, it tends to break. Compounded by the fact that the USB device on the Spartan3E board acts as a firmware loader when initially plugged in, then internally disconnects and reconnects running the loaded firmware as another device, I don't hold high hopes that the software that comes with the adapter would be able to cope with such a device.

BradM

Staff Computer Engineer

National Instruments