I’d like to use the base project and pynq functions to implement the introduction and spectrum analyzer with an external clock instead of the internal one. I realize that this might not be so trivial, but on the other hand the hardware supports it. Does base support it? Or another pynq project somewhere on git?
Thanks!
Hi,
Which board do you want to use?
Why do you want to not use the clock from the PS of the board, the internal clock?
How do you want to generate your external clock?
Hi. thanks for your response.
I’m using the RealDigital 4x2 board. The RF clocks come from a 160MHz VCXO that has a 40 ppm max precision. Using pynq, I set the DAC frequency to 1.2000000 GHz and measured it with a good solid spectrum analyzer, and it was off by around 10kHz, which is consistent with 40ppm (which would be 6.4kHz). I think using a precision external clock would help, I need the DAC to be precise to better than 10kHz (maybe down to 1kHz). I believe I can compensate by adjusting the output frequency, but that would probably mean I’d have to recalibrate often, whereas an external clock would be solid. So I would use an external clock from a standalone precision waveform generator or clock generator or something like that and just input it in via one of the SMA inputs.
Does this make sense?
Understood. About the base architecture, check via Vivado how it is describing the SMA inputs, if you could use them as the new clock for the blocks in the architecture
Thanks. I think it can, but I’m not sure how to do this in PYNQ, what methods to call to set it up, etc. Any ideas?