fpga4fun.com

Hey guys, this is my first time using an FPGA so this is all very new and somewhat confusing to me. I've done a fair amount of reading but would best appreciate some direct communication with those more experienced.

I'm building an arcade-style USB controller for a computer game, and simply need my FPGA to take button/direction inputs from the controls and encode each into a particular ASCII character. Then in the program code we'll assign the keys we choose to the required function and that'll be that. So it should in essence run like a USB keyboard.

How is this going to work? If there is already an IP Core available for this, that'd be great but I'm sure it doesn't require the most complex of coding. Am I going to need an IDE for writing in Verilog/VHDL, or can I use Visual Studio? Also, will there be I/O pins on the chip onto which I'll solder the wires from each direction/button? Probably. Sorry about my noobness, like I said I have no experience with this.

What would you all recommend I use for this? I keep hearing people talk about the Cypress FX-2, but I don't know if it's an FPGA with a USB interface or just the USB interface. There's also this site with a bunch: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ftdi-usb-ics.html

Obviously, cheapest is best as long as it is able to perform the functions necessary, and what I'm getting it to do is very simple so I should be able to get a pretty cheap one. Well thanks to everyone who at least even read this, I really appreciate you guys helping me out!

not fpga

$3 in parts
http://www.obdev.at/products/avrusb/prjhid.html

ishkabum wrote:I'm building an arcade-style USB controller for a computer game, and simply need my FPGA to take button/direction inputs from the controls and encode each into a particular ASCII character. Then in the program code we'll assign the keys we choose to the required function and that'll be that. So it should in essence run like a USB keyboard.

Have you made any progress with producing this controller that works like a USB keyboard?