DAC (analog output through sreapder?) on Spartan 3E FPGA

[Lelle]

Hi everyone,

I've been looking over the LabView training excercises for the Spartan 3E board, specifically the DAC.vi and DAChost.vi in excercise 8. The vis are there in the solution folder, but there's no real explanation for the DAC specifically in the write up section of the excercises. I've also been looking at Xilinx's manual to the board, but I can't seem to figure out the answer to my question.

My goal is to be to out put an analog signal adjustable between 0 and 3.3V as a control to another system while the rest of my code runs. Sure, the premade DAC vi's can be used to put analog voltages on the DAC pins, but I'm wondering is it possible to output an analog signal through one of the spreader connectors (while other digital connectors are also outputting)? It seems like it should be, but I'm not sure how to implement. If that's not possible, then well, I guess I have a bigger problem 🙂

Thanks

[Lelle]

On the other hand maybe it's not possible!

[Matt.M · Accepted solution]

The only place where the DAC would output would be the DAC pin.  I doubt there are other routing options for that pin because you cannot route an analog signal through an FPGA.

Regards,

Matt M.