Altium Hardware FAQs - Peripheral Boards

Use the following links to browse through the frequently asked questions relevant to development using one or more of Altium's peripheral boards.

Can I build my own peripheral board?

Peripheral boards may be constructed with any required resources, provided the pinout requirements of the motherboard's generic peripheral board docking connector are met.

What is the maximum current rating for a peripheral board?

The maximum current consumption will depend upon the number and type of peripheral boards attached to the motherboard, and the type of daughter board used, as well as the power requirements of each individual rail. In any case, the connector contact rating of 1.0A for each individual power rail (1.5A for the 5V rail) is not to be exceeded.

Can I attach a peripheral board to the Desktop NanoBoard using any of the three connectors?

The three peripheral board connectors on the NB2DSK01 motherboard (labeled 'PERIPHERAL BOARD A', 'PERIPHERAL BOARD B' and 'PERIPHERAL BOARD C') are identical in their pinouts, providing generic docking platforms that allow for a peripheral board to be affixed to the motherboard in any of the three locations.

That said, some peripheral boards (e.g. PB01 – the Audio / Video Peripheral Board) are twice the width of other available peripheral boards and, as such, can only be connected to the NB2DSK01 using the 'PERIPHERAL BOARD A' or 'PERIPHERAL BOARD C' connectors.

Where can I find the port components for use in my FPGA design, when interfacing to resources on a peripheral board?

The port components for all design-accessible resources located on the PBxx peripheral board can be found in the FPGA PBxx Port-Plugin integrated library (FPGA PBxx Port-Plugin.IntLib), located in the \Library\Fpga folder of the installation.

What happens if I use both the microphone and line-in signals as inputs to the audio CODEC on the PB01?

The pre-amplified MicIn signal that arrives from the motherboard at the peripheral board connector, is fed in parallel through two FSA4157 low-voltage, 1Ω, SPDT Analog Switches. The outputs of these switches and the line input signals arriving from the motherboard are AC-coupled. They will be effectively 'mixed' if you try to use both sources as input to the audio CODEC concurrently. If you are using the motherboard's 'LINE IN' socket, ensure that the AUDIO_MIC_EN signal is tied to GND in the FPGA design.

Can I concurrently connect multiple storage devices to the PB02?

The three ATA/IDE connectors and the CF card reader share the same base set of ATA/IDE signals and, as such, only one storage device may be interfaced to from an FPGA design. Put another way, you can only connect a single storage device to one of these four connectors at any one time. Concurrent device usage is not permitted.

In addition to using one of these four connectors, you can also insert and use an SD card.

Which IR transmission protocol is used by the remote controller that ships with the PB03?

The general purpose remote controller, which features a range of common function buttons, transmits data using the NEC IR transmission protocol.