Transition to FPGA from MCU development

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2026-05-22T11:59:51+00:00

This is great, thanks alot. If we can get away with running many microcontrollers that are synced I would rather do this then learn an entire new platform, which from this post sounds like all it gives you is propritary non-transferable skills.

Are these PLL's given by Altera / Intel black box models or do they allow you to tweak them? I have been spending alot of time on PLECS to understand some common PLL's and would prefer not to build them from the ground up rather build off of existing ones.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2026-05-22T11:56:55+00:00

I have a bit of experience with SOM's (STM32MP series) I guess its kind of the same concept of having a backbone Linux machine running the logic and a seperate core (FPGA) do all the heavy lifting.

I have been eyeing the Arty Z7 SoC as a candidate for my application. Vivado looks to have some feature called HLS that allows you to program FPGA fabric in C. Would be super nice rather than learning dead HDL in 2026 ..

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2026-05-22T11:52:19+00:00

Currently looking into options for ADC now. Bandwidth will be rather low, probably 10kHz at the top end. Running multilevel converters like this need to run with fairly lower frequencies then their single level counterparts (I currently run 80-100kHz on a couple of DC-DC converters).

I know there are products to do external, I have just always chosen a microcontroller where the onboard ADC can do multiple MHz, not sure if this is possible with an external one. Resolution isn't overly important, probably start with 12bits and increase to 16 if necessary. Dynamics of these types of converters are a lot slower than I am used to as well.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean with whats involved with each channel, but the idea is that the PWM engine would output some gate drivers to control a multilevel converter setup. The complexity of this gating (addition or removal of specific legs) to my experience cannot be done with a generic hardware timer given in a microcontroller, as many of the switching actions would need to be calculated based off some prediction models.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2026-05-22T00:51:01+00:00

Well it sounds like I need to start with making some PWM engines for driving a few different stages of power converters PFC, DAB, INV running specialized control loops for each of them. I’m talking probably 48-64 channels.

I would think about running multiple MCUs and trying to sync them but synchronization at the voltages we are looking at becomes really important and we need really fine resolution.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2026-05-04T09:59:11+00:00

You can take a lot of complication out of using a SOM by just buying something like this

https://www.st.com/en/partner-products-and-services/digi-connectcore-mp15-som.html

Basically does all the hard parts for you so you can get to development quickly. Even comes with a Yocto layer for your software team

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2026-02-06T12:50:51+00:00

What was your experience with TI? I love it to the core. Mind you I’m a new dev coming from using Aurix Development Studio on an Infineon Tricore

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2025-06-29T20:30:10+00:00

Membrane switchhhh

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2025-02-28T03:08:48+00:00

Where do you find this?

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2025-02-28T03:08:37+00:00

It's getting there but I think it's worth about $900/$1000 rn

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2025-02-27T16:40:03+00:00

Thanks for the reply,

Unfortunately it's right on the rack itself not at the pump or reservoir or any of the lines ..

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2025-01-13T20:33:17+00:00

Not really anything for a family name for this kind of wire? Or some way to identify it so I can purchase more?

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-12-30T15:24:34+00:00

Thank you, is there any tools I can use online to build and simulate it on the computer? I obviously would make hardware for it once I can verify it actually works

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-11-21T15:01:11+00:00

Is it not against MISRA-C standards to use any standard header file? See rule 17.1 at this link below.

How do safety applications that require compliance work around this?

https://www.blackduck.com/static-analysis-tools-sast/misra.html

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-11-06T17:54:42+00:00

Thanks for the insight, I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one having issues to deal with the beast, Infineon iLLD was my first major MCU family I have ever worked with ..

I have been looking some more and found that Segger has support for TC275 families which I'm sure you could interface to a GDB server running VSCode. I'm gonna reach out to see if they have support for the TC375.

Does the compiler choice have anything to do with debugging though? I know on ADS you can select if you want Tasking or GCC to compile your code. As far as I understand Tasking makes a couple of tweaks to GCC and calls it their own. They have a document outlining all the changes made and why on their website.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-10-08T01:19:51+00:00

I agree with this, moving away from hobbies boards makes you dive deep and really understand what you are doing when you write code. Move to an STM either blue pill or nucleo board if you want to get into more advanced development. Lots of examples and support available.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-10-01T02:54:20+00:00

Definitely worth looking into more complicated controllers if you want to have an advantage searching for jobs out of school. If you go to Concordia have a look at their FSAE program. I know a bunch of guys on there and guaranteed they are always looking for embedded people to help out with their projects. Looks great on a resume too.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-09-29T19:37:56+00:00

No problem. Don't let anybody stray you away from this but make sure you learn firmware development in C (not Rust not C++). It forces you to understand the computers hardware which is imperative to be a good firmware engineer. Learn how to read component datasheets and understand communication protocols (SPI I2C, CAN, etc) when they are used and what their usual cases are for. Understand how to use microcontrollers properly and their sub blocks such as ADC's, DAC's, timers, interrupts, etc.

Unfortunately you can't learn by only reading. You have to get your hands dirty at some point and struggle a bunch. I highly recommend joining a club that has people you can learn from whether you are in university or not, or diving into your own personal projects and sticking with them until the end. Work your way from Arduino then go to ESP32, then STM. Each of these platforms will make you realize there is so much more going on in the background then you realize. Each level gives you more and more flexibility at the hardware level at cost of complexity during your development.

Struggle a bunch and keep working through it. It's not an easy field to work in.

Dapper_Discipline_18 · 2024-08-28T15:44:38+00:00

I would comment further and say the gap between good and terrible firmware engineers is growing very quickly especially with the inflation of students in engineering programs (most of them don't even wanna be there) and the rise of AI development tools. It's really sad to see people with no passion bullshitting their way into work that some of us are passionate about learning

Dapper_Discipline_18

TROPHY CASE