The Nandland Go Board - The First FPGA Board You Should Buy

[nandland]

For the past two years I've been working on building up a large amount of examples and tutorials for people who want to learn about FPGAs.  My website www.nandland.com shows you how to get started with VHDL or Verilog, and is accessible for anyone, even if you've never used an FPGA before.  My goal is to make learning about FPGAs as easy as possible. 

With that goal in mind, I created the Nandland Go Board.  It is an inexpensive, easy-to-use FPGA development board to learn about how FPGAs work and what they are capable of.  This board is unique because it provides a lot of options for projects built directly into the board.  It comes with:

-        Four LEDs
-        Four Push-Button Switches
-        Two 7-Segment LED displays
-        Micro USB Connector (for Power, Programming, and Communication)
-        VGA Connector
-        External Connector
-        Low Price, Just $50!

Most other FPGA development boards come with just a simple connector but the Nandland Go Board has lots of functionality built right into it.  The Kickstarter page shows a bunch of examples of what is possible using the Nandland Go Board, and it's pretty impressive.  You can even program it to play Pong!  Take a look at the Kickstarter page and pick one up today.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1531311296/nandland-go-board-your-fpga-playground?utm_source=eevblog&utm_medium=posting&utm_campaign=kickstarter

Thanks for your support and your feedback!

[timb]

Looks like it doesn't have a lot of IO broken out. The Cypress PSoC has got me interested in learning VHDL, so I've been looking for a good board to start out with. Having the 7-segment displays and stuff built-in is nice, but it would be great if it had a decent amount of I/O to expand with. For example, if I want to play with ADCs and DACs.

[nandland]

The PMod connector adds a surprising amount of versatility. Check out all of the PMod add on boards available through Digilent. There's some ADC and DAC boards there that will definitely work to interface to the Nandland Go Board.

http://digilentinc.com/Products/Catalog.cfm?NavPath=2,401&Cat=9&CFID=21582414&CFTOKEN=619ff8f2ca43e991-15FAA95D-5056-0201-026C5950F83758DB

[AF6LJ]

This is very Cool.

[ElektroQuark]

I really like the MIMAS V2 board.
It's cheap and can be programmed with a simple USB cable and a free little program.

[bingo600]

@Nandland

That's a nice looking site you have made.

And i just learned how easy it is to make a MUX in VHDL.
Even as a beginner.

I will be looking at the examples from end to end , thank you

/Bingo

[Tainer]

It's a nice looking board, but I can't really agree on the 'Low Price' point. XO3 dev board from Lattice has plenty of GPIOs and is only half of that price.

[hamster_nz]

Nice looking board... ...but analogue VGA must die!

http://hamsterworks.co.nz/mediawiki/index.php/Minimal_DVI-D

Maybe for Rev 2

[westfw]

XO3 dev board ...  is only half of that price.   

Digikey claims that XO3 is "only" a CPLD...

[nandland]

Nice looking board... ...but analogue VGA must die!

http://hamsterworks.co.nz/mediawiki/index.php/Minimal_DVI-D

Maybe for Rev 2

That's an interesting link, thanks for sharing.  It's a bit more complicated than I wanted for this FPGA board.  I wanted to abstract as many details of the interfaces away from the users as possible.  I want them to focus on learning Verilog or VHDL and not struggle with disparity codes and special characters and whatnot.  Certainly for a more advanced board this would be viable. 

And yes, the board is slightly more expensive than the cheapest thing on the market.  That's mainly because I don't have the volume that others have.  But you should remember that other boards do not have the support and the peripherals that the Nandland Go Board has.  Videos, documentation, projects, you'll get it all when you order a Go Board.

[VK3DRB]

Nice looking board... ...but analogue VGA must die!

http://hamsterworks.co.nz/mediawiki/index.php/Minimal_DVI-D

Maybe for Rev 2

The VGA test pattern - why not generate the WYCGMRBB pattern? And a cross-hatch pattern for phase alignment etc?
If anyone is using ye olde VGA, they might also be using a crappy picture tube monitor.

(My Luddite CEO still uses a 17 inch picture tube monitor on his desk because he does want to spend the money on an LCD monitor.  )

[peepo]

Is there a Windows dependency?
ie Diamond Program seems to be glossed over.

loved the concept, missed Kickstarter, cannot find where/how to buy!
emailed Russell, no response.

stymied

[aventuri]

NOTE: This message has been deleted by the forum moderator Simon for being against the forum rules and/or at the discretion of the moderator as being in the best interests of the forum community and the nature of the thread.
If you believe this to be in error, please contact the moderator involved.
An optional additional explanation is:

[marshallh]

Lattice Diamond is available on both windows and linux. You can always run a VM in addition.

[peepo]

better and better, but where can I buy?

[Yansi]

Don't see a reason why to buy this one. I can build myself better suited board, customised to whatever specific needs.

Like this one. Btw, who has a small CPLD dev board? 

//I'd like to publish design files fort this one, unfortunately there is still one unsolved mystery with the xtal oscillator.

[ale500]

It is a nice board, I just ask myself why would I go for a ICE40 instead of a MachXO2 in TQFP-100. You can get 2k LUTS in that package, and built-in flash. Probably like always, you have to draw somewhere the line. I personally would be happy with a 40 DIP board with a medium sized device in it, and some memory

[Yansi]

heh... an DIP FPGA adapter in a breadbord. Should be cool and usefull too!

PS: My CPLD mini-board has been repaired, oscillator now running properly, so preparing documentation for publishing...

[PA0PBZ]

heh... an DIP FPGA adapter in a breadbord. Should be cool and usefull too!

http://www.micro-nova.com/mercury/

[Tainer]

Is there a Windows dependency?
ie Diamond Program seems to be glossed over.

we are lucky here because the Nandland Go is one of the few boards boasting a LatticeSemi iCE40  FPGA.

so you can have the only one fully open source toolchain for HDL programming, thanx to yosys / arachne-pnr and icestorm, look at this thread.

BTW  Clifford, the main developer behind this huge accomplishment, gave a talk two days ago at 32c3. it really worths the time watching!!!

what a breakthrough! FPGA development will never be the same it used to be!

So you registered just to say how wonderful this board is? Very nice of you, but I'll report this comment.

If you guys are selling an FPGA dev-board then there is nothing wrong with that. But when you start saying that an overpriced closed-source PCB with a 5$ FPGA and a 7-segment display slapped onto it is the best thing ever since the invention of condoms, your advertising campaign becomes slightly unappealing.

[nandland]

Hey all... just wanted to check in, Russell from www.nandland.com here.  First I wanted to let you all know that Pre-Orders are up on the website, so if you missed the Kickstarter and still want a board they're available for pre order. 

Regarding some of the feedback, firstly thanks for your input!  I appreciate the feedback, as it helps me focus my efforts.  I definitely see some real enthusiasm for the open-source toolchain stuff, so I'll definitely spend some time up-front putting together some neat tutorials for that.  Clifford thanks for putting together that video, great resource! 

I won't argue with those of you saying that it's not the least-expensive FPGA dev board on the market.  The others that are made by large companies have the advantage of large volume to keep costs down.  Where the Go Board surpasses the others will be with its support.  I am putting together many tutorials, examples, and videos, to make learning Verilog or VHDL as easy as possible.  The tutorials are designed to work perfectly with the Go Board, so hopefully that will be worth something to you.

[Yansi]

I think there are many HDL tutorials already available.  So there's no need to make such other beginner stuff.  Half skilled person will easily find required info on the web and in the manuals.

What would be very nice is for example making some tutorials about some more advanced stuff. Like interfacing external memories. (for your price you could easily add there for example a simple SRAM device, or at least something more interesting. FPGA with only few buttons, LED and a pseudoVGA is not so much interesting, as these same I can fit on a decent CPLD and end up with a close price range).

Simply said, the problem with your board is (or might be) that it lacks what other "adult" dev-boards have and that is some amount of peripherals.

If you dont offer them, it is a way easier for that price to just buy a random chinese FPGA junk board. And let me tell ya, there are many to choose from. So you have to at least go down with price (which you said you can't), or offer more for that price (which I think is pretty possible). A decent capability FPGA dev board for a decent price is what many will be looking for. (or.. at least I would).

In reality, I make my own dev-boards for anything. If I want to learn FPGAs, I also have to learn how to design a proper HW around them, so why not begin with making a custom board for it first. (but this attitude might not be suitable for some people, nor am I saying it is the only correct one. It's just how I like it. I like challenges.)

[aventuri]

Is there a Windows dependency?
ie Diamond Program seems to be glossed over.

we are lucky here because the Nandland Go is one of the few boards boasting a LatticeSemi iCE40  FPGA.

so you can have the only one fully open source toolchain for HDL programming, thanx to yosys / arachne-pnr and icestorm, look at this thread.

BTW  Clifford, the main developer behind this huge accomplishment, gave a talk two days ago at 32c3. it really worths the time watching!!!

what a breakthrough! FPGA development will never be the same it used to be!

So you registered just to say how wonderful this board is? Very nice of you, but I'll report this comment.

If you guys are selling an FPGA dev-board then there is nothing wrong with that.

Ehi, Tainer, me i'm not mother tongue english speaker, so i really "could" have stated some subtle unintended meaning in my post,  but let me tell you that:
* i'm not involved in any way on the selling of this or any other FPGA board.
* the focus of my post was completely related to the Clifford open source toolchain for programming iCE40 chips

i really do not understand where you did read i was suggesting to explicitly purchase THIS board.

i was just meaning that this board, AS IT'S BASED on iCE40 FPGA, can leverage an open source toolchain (in addition to the proprietary vendor provided one).

then, i suppose that one really registers on a web forum when has something to say, otherwise he'll stay in lurker mode (as i've been for a long time..).

let  me tell you finally, that  i suppose you are not the real one to blame here, but the moderator is, as it accepted your complaint without really investigating or understanding the matter, that's why i'm going to write to him too..

rest assured that if i'm going to finally understand that this kind of involvement in a web community is seen as worthy of such a quick and simple post censoring, i'm pretty fine with leaving you to your own similars peers.

bye

[Tainer]

@aventuri - it just seemed like an advertisement to me, sorry if I misunderstood the real intention behind your comment. I do agree that having an open-source toolchain for an FPGA is a great thing, it would be nice if manufacturers started working in that direction as well.