This week the Embedded team worked on updated power considerations for the PCB, redesigned the layout to be much cleaner, ordered all relevant parts, replanned the layout over the FPGA, and continued working on the layout of the PCB.
Embedded team is currently in progress for unit testing individual parts (e.g. SD card reader, MAX7219) to confirm power considerations. The datasheet specifies a range but the FPGA GPIO pins is only able to supply 3V3 so further testing is needed to determine if output signals of these components are sending properly with a lower voltage than typical (5V). We also looked into alternate methods of powering such devices – for testing purposes – and finalized our testing plan.
For the upcoming week, Embedded team plans to complete unit testing, update layout accordingly, finish tracing the layout, and order the PCB.
This week the Verilog team worked on writing the protocol for the PS/2 keyboard. After implementing it and trying to test it, we found multiple online implementations for the same protocol to use as a guide. However, all 3 had more depth in implementation (extra acknowledges and error checks), so tried to simulate with their code (an university group from Toronto as the other two implementations were unfinished). This did not work initially because of power constraints with our PS/2 keyboard, and after some research we determined this may be because of the specific Perixx manufacturer who tied their power to 5V whereas our FPGA GPIO pins only supported 3.3V. Tanisha and Amelia sourced another PS/2 keyboard (HP manufactured) from facebook marketplace which worked with our implementation (and sustainable!).
Currently, the Verilog team is working on the encryption modules and successfully got them to simulate! The goal for this week is to synthesize and start working on the SD Card reader as that is the other component that has potential for integration issues.
As a team we received feedback on our Design Report and had a meeting to discuss improvements that need to be implemented for our final report.