UPduino v2.1: low cost FPGA board

Name: UPduino v2.1: low cost FPGA board
SKU: 18085
Price: 19.00 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 3.90 (5 reviews)

(5 Reviews)

A low price FPGA platform for makers using the Lattice ICE40 Ultra Plus 5K FPGA, programmable with open source toolchains.

Designed by tinyVision.ai Inc. in United States of America

2019-09-16T17:27:36.855Z-UPduino_v2.1_back.jpg

2019-09-16T17:27:36.855Z-UPduino_v2.1_front.jpg

Retired

This product is no longer available for sale. The seller may be offering an improved version or it may be hanging out on the beach, enjoying the retired life.

A low price FPGA platform for makers using the Lattice ICE40 Ultra Plus 5K FPGA, programmable with open source toolchains.

Product retirement notice The UPduino v2.1 is being retired in favor of a much better designed UPduino v3.0 with added features and is available for pre-order/sale here. What is it? The UPDuino v2.1 …

Product retirement notice

The UPduino v2.1 is being retired in favor of a much better designed UPduino v3.0 with added features and is available for pre-order/sale here.

What is it?

The UPDuino v2.1 is a small, low-cost FPGA board, built with a license from Lattice Semiconductor. The board features an on-board FTDI FPGA programmer, flash and 3-color LED with all FPGA pins brought out to easy to use 0.1" header pins for fast prototyping.

The tinyVision.ai UPDuino v2.1 Board Features:

Lattice UltraPlus ICE40UP5K FPGA with 5.3K LUTs, 1Mb SPRAM, 120Kb DPRAM, 8 Multipliers

FTDI FT232H USB programmer
30 GPIO on 0.1” headers, 3.3V/Ground to supply project DC power (<200mA)
8MB SPI Flash
RGB LED
PMOD compatible
On-board 3.3V and 1.2V Regulators
Open source schematic and layout using free Eagle PCB design tools and an RGB LED Example Project.
Improved USB footprint to minimize connectors ripping off the board.

UPduino's are manufactured at our facility in Carlsbad, CA and fully tested and programmed with a blinking LED flash image before shipping. Included is a 16 pin and 24 pin 0.1" header (not soldered on!). Please note that in order to optimize for shipping world wide, a micro USB cable is not included!

Why did you make it?

The UPduino is a great way to get started to learn about programming FPGA's as it is low cost, self-contained and you can be up and running in a few minutes.

What makes it special?

The main draw of the UPduino is its low cost and open-source toolchain, allowing you to experiment and learn about hardware programming.

I am committed to the constant improvement of products, please fill out this quick survey on your way out! Also, do consider joining the Discord channel for discussions on the UPduino/next-generation version. Please message me for the invite.

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.00)

Documentation: (3.60)

Shipping: (4.00)

Communication: (4.00)

David | July 10, 2020

Nice board at a great price but get the V3.0

I was evaluating this board to use in a class I am teaching on digital electronics. This board is built around the Lattice UltraPlus ICE40UP5K. It runs on USB power or a 5V and outputs 3.3V for external circuitry. The only on board I/O is a RGB LED. It uses a standard micro-USB cable. Headers are included but must be soldered in by the purchaser. It is supported by the Lattice iCEcube2 development environment, the open source iceStorm tools and the easy to use iceStudio visual development environment. It is an earlier revision of the UPduino 3.0 board. Electrically it is identical to the 3V.0; however, fewer pins are available to the user. This should not be a problem in terms of I/O (in my application), but to run it on external +5V (rather than USB) requires connecting to pins which are not available on a solderless breadboard. The cost is slightly lower at $19, but I prefer the v3.0 for the easier power connections since the 3,0 version has the 5V on pins that plug into the solderless breadboard.

Arnaud | June 17, 2020

Never received

Parcel not received at the time I write these words (ordered 3 weeks ago). —————————/-/—/-/—-/-//-/—

Response from tinyVision.ai Inc. | June 19, 2020

Hello Arnaud,

Sorry that your package hasnt arrived yet. It seems like its on its way there. Heres the very crude tracking information that I've been able to dig up. https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction.action?tLabels=UA438589256US

I've noticed a lot of customers have had issues with either greatly delayed or lost mail over the past few months, apparently due to COVID. As a result, I've changed the shipping policy to be tracked shipping for US orders and shipping with insurance for non-US orders.

Please contact me if your package doesnt arrive over the next few weeks.

Thank you,
Venkat

Thanh | March 12, 2020

Great low cost FPGA board for beginner

I've wanted to learn FPGA for a while. Found this nice little low cost board and bought one. Board arrived with a bright RGB flasher already programmed so you know it's working right away. Got some hiccup with the flashing the bit file at first. I flashed some bad stuff into the FPGA board, and it appeared dead later. I contacted seller and received quick responses with helpful suggestions right away. It turned out my USB cable was dropping too much voltage and caused problem. Replacing the USB cable solved my problem. Was able to use iCEStorm tool chain for some blinky and serial port demo. All worked well. Now I can spend time learning more about FPGA. Will definitely buy again. It's much cheaper buying this than fabricating this board myself.

David | Feb. 20, 2020

Just great

Just upgraded from UPduinoV1 and I am very satisfied both by the product and the shipment. Took only six working days to cross the Atlantic.
Hats off!

Response from tinyVision.ai Inc. | March 10, 2020

Thank you!

Steinthor | Dec. 25, 2019

Product good quality, fast shipping, documents decent

The board arrived in a small bubblewrap envelope in pristine condition. Seller shipped the item very fast after I ordered. Shipping price was great and even if it was low priority mail it reached me before Xmas in the craziest shipping month of the year. The board looks good, assembly and finish are very good. There is some decent documentation with the board from the maker, but you can easily find alot of information if you do some searching. I have only had it in my hands for 24hrs. so I can not comment much on using it but I have done some blinkies and such so I think that's a good start.

Response from tinyVision.ai Inc. | Dec. 25, 2019

Thank you for the positive review! Hope you enjoy playing with the board and create some cool stuff! Please let me know if you need any help and I can try.

Retired

This product is no longer available for sale. The seller may be offering an improved version or it may be hanging out on the beach, enjoying the retired life.