Adapting or Reconfiguring the Firmware (FPGA)

The Digital Signal Transceiver Driver includes preconfigured projects that you can use to create your own project for compiling and adapt for your application.

Creating a Project in LabVIEW

Create a new project in LabVIEW.

  1. Open LabVIEW.
  2. Select File » Create a New Project.
  3. Select Sample Projects » NI DST and then select NI DST Custom Serial Protocol from the list.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Define a project name and project root folder for the project.
  6. Click Finish to create the project for your application.
    After the project is created, you can develop your own FPGA Serial Interface that can be adapted for your device under test.
    Note You must ensure that you can add or extract the I/Q data from the stream of bits before connecting to the DST backend framework. Refer to the Aurora 64B/66B example.

Updating Parameters for Your Application and Compiling the Firmware

After creating or opening an existing project, you can change some of the properties and recompile the project for your use-case.

Examples of parameters you can change:
  • Disable DSP components
  • Number of channels
  • Number of samples per cycle
  1. In LabVIEW, open the project.
  2. Expand the project in Project Explorer. Navigate to and right-click the FPGA target, and select Properties.
  3. In the FPGA Target Properties window that opens, select Conditional Disable Symbols and then select the entire list of symbols in the table.
  4. Modify a symbol by double-clicking the symbol and editing the value. Click OK.
    Note Refer to the DST FPGA Developers’ Guide, installed with the Digital Signal Transceiver Driver, for a list of supported symbols and values.
    Note After you apply your changes, you may have to update some constants in the LabVIEW block diagram.
  5. Compile your bitfile by opening Build Specifications and performing one of the following:
    • Click Build to build locally.
      Note Requires the LabVIEW FPGA Compilation Tool installed on your computer.
    • Change the settings to use a compile farm. Refer to Getting Started with the LabVIEW FPGA Compile Farm Toolkit for more information.
    For additional information, refer to the DST FPGA Developers’ Guide, installed with the Digital Signal Transceiver Driver.