User configuration

Once you are all set up and ready to begin, download the necessary files for this project from its Github repository (click on the "ZIP" icon).

Open the file vhdl/config.vhd in a text editor and change line 32 (constant NUM_PANELS...) to indicate the total number of LED panels you have daisy-chained together in your display. For example, if you are using a 1x2 or 2x1 grid, you will want to change the line to:

constant NUM_PANELS : integer := 2

You may optionally edit line 33 (constant PIXEL_DEPTH...) in a similar manner to indicate how many bits-per-pixel you want to use. This will affect the level of brightness control available to you later. Finally, save the file!

Creating the Quartus II project

Start Quartus II and open the "New Project Wizard" from the "File" menu. On the first page, name the project rgbmatrix-fpga (or something similar) and name the top-level entity top_level. Click Next.

Now we will add the source code files to the project. Click the "..." button to open the file browser and select the .vhd files in the vhdl folder you downloaded earlier (do not include the testbenches directory). Click "..." again and open the megawizard folder. Set the type drop-down menu to "All Files (*.*)" so you can select the .qip, .cmp, and megawizard_vjtag.vhd files (do not include megawizard_vjtag_inst.vhd). Add them to the project and click Next.

The FPGA chip in use on the DE0-Nano is the Cyclone IV EP4CE22F17C6N. You can find it by setting the device family to "Cyclone IV E", package to "FBGA", pin count to 256, and speed grade to 6. Select the chip and click Next.

Set the "Simulation" tool name to "ModelSim-Altera" and the format to "VHDL". Leave everything else as "<None>" and click Next.

Click Finish to create the project!