[Coco] Cheap alternative to the DE-1?

[tim franklinlabs.com]

   LOL well, I consider the resisters a form of a DAC.
   As for the USB Blaster, I have two of them. I also have two DE-1's. I
   just saw this and thought it might be an inexpensive alternative for
   those on a budget.

     On October 28, 2015 at 12:51 PM Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com>
     wrote:
     Well, the DE-1 doesn't have a DAC either, just a resistor network.
     You
     could probably hack that board though to get more colors if you
     wanted.
     Another thing you'd have to consider on this board is that it
     doesn't
     have the built in USB Blaster like the DE1. You'd have to buy a
     blaster
     on eBay or somewhere. If you are patient you can sometimes find a
     DE1
     on eBay that will go for around $90 or so. I even saw one go for
     around
     $55 bucks once. My experience finds that they are usually in
     excellent
     condition.
     Dave
     On 2015-10-28 12:32, tim franklinlabs.com wrote:
     > Yeah, you're probably right. I found another problem too. I found
     the
     > schematic for it and they limit the video to 8 colors. Not DAC to
     > the
     > VGA connector. Just logic.
     > Manual: [1]http://www.dukelanovic.com/A-C8V4%20MANUAL.pdf
     >
     > Schematic:
     >
     >
     [2]http://d1.amobbs.com/bbs_upload782111/files_44/ourdev_671042EUF7C
     8.p
     > df
     >
     > Shorter links too LOL!
     >
     > On October 28, 2015 at 12:23 PM Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com>
     > wrote:
     > FWIW, I think Gary's project uses north of 9,000 LEs which means
     > that
     > even if you can trim it down to fit you won't have a lot of extra
     > space
     > for future expansion/additions. Not trying to be negative...I hope
     > you
     > get it working...would be an interesting project.
     > Dave Philipsen
     > On 2015-10-28 07:23, tim franklinlabs.com wrote:
     > > I ran across this while surfing E-Pray this morning. It looks
     > > interesting. For those, like me, who are interested in FPGA's,
     > this
     > > $70.00 unit seems to have everything needed to port Gary Beckers
     > > CoCoFPGA to it:
     > >
     > >
     > >
     >
     >
     [1]http://www.ebay.com/itm/Altera-Cyclone-NIOS-II-SOPC-FPGA-Developm
     > ent
     > >
     > >
     >
     >
     -Learning-Board-EP2C8Q208C8N-LCD1602/272020523309?_trksid=p2054897.c
     > 100
     > >
     > >
     >
     >
     204.m3164&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D2
     > 014
     > >
     > >
     >
     >
     0407115239%26meid%3D8d211755ec994eff8913982e805be0c8%26pid%3D100204%
     > 26r
     > > k%3D12%26rkt%3D21%26sd%3D261661704545
     > >
     > > It uses a smaller FPGA so there may be a limit here. I'm not
     > sure
     > > how
     > > many LE's Gary's code uses.
     > >
     > > This board: EP2C8 8,256 LE's
     > > DE-1: EP2C20 18,752 LE's
     > >
     > > Also, there are only 2 PLL's and I'm not sure if both are
     > connected
     > > to
     > > clocks. I bought a small FPGA that had 4 clock inputs with 2
     > PLL's.
     > > The
     > > moron who designed the board connected the clock to one of the
     > CLK
     > > pins
     > > not connected to the PLL's.
     > >
     > > This board: 2 PLL's This assumes there are clocks connected to
     > > both.
     > > DE-1: 4 PLL's DE-1 uses only 3 (one connected to the
     > > external clock)
     > >
     > > Since Gary posted an "almost" up to date project of his 3.0 FPGA
     > > code,
     > > i went ahead and bought one to see if I can port it. It comes
     > from
     > > China, so it wont arrive for a while (slow boat from china joke
     > in
     > > real
     > > life). I'll keep everyone posted.
     > >
     > > References
     > >
     > > 1.
     > >
     >
     >
     http://www.ebay.com/itm/Altera-Cyclone-NIOS-II-SOPC-FPGA-Development
     >
     >
     -Learning-Board-EP2C8Q208C8N-LCD1602/272020523309?_trksid=p2054897.c
     >
     >
     100204.m3164&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%
     >
     >
     3D20140407115239%26meid%3D8d211755ec994eff8913982e805be0c8%26pid%3D1
     > 00204%26rk%3D12%26rkt%3D21%26sd%3D261661704545
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     >
     > References
     >
     > 1. http://www.dukelanovic.com/A-C8V4%20MANUAL.pdf
     > 2.
     >
     http://d1.amobbs.com/bbs_upload782111/files_44/ourdev_671042EUF7C8.p
     df
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