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Iterating on a new wave of inspiration

A project log for Video Input Delay Meter

An FPGA-based video input delay meter using a DVI output chip and an amplified photodiode light sensor

mike-kibbelMike Kibbel 04/28/2023 at 01:000 Comments

This project appeared on the Hackaday blog, and I'm feeling new inspiration to iterate on the design. I will try taking on a few of the improvements I had brainstormed for this project.

The first idea is to lower the cost barrier to entry with a cheaper FPGA board. A new Digilent Basys 3 board arrived in the mail today (less than half the price of a Nexys A7), so I'll start by porting the design to the new board. I'd like to also try some smaller boards in the future, so long as they can drive the required DVI clock speeds (148.5 MHz for 1080p) and have dedicated DDR outputs.

The next idea will be to redesign the light sensor circuit to output an analog signal to feed into the FPGA board's ADC. Both Digilent boards have an Artix A7 with a 12-bit, 1 MSPS ADC. I'd like to be ambitious and try to do a PCB layout for the new sensor board, so I'll be sure to post about that.

Beyond these changes, most of the other improvement ideas can happen in HDL and software, which is my comfort zone. I'd love to have a printed enclosure for the PCB, but 3D design and printing are too far out of my experience to try for now. If there are any takers, please send me a message!

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