MdntTrain wrote:
My CB kit includes what looks to be a bare nanoboard expansion slot connector. What is this for?
Rolling your own expansion card.
2. For making logic designs with the CB, apparently one must obtain additional parts and accessories. What's the recommended parts list a beginner should obtain? There appears to be many options, so specific recommended models would be very helpful. It's a bit of trouble but I can have a parallel port.
Are you referring to programming cables? If so, Digilent offers a $12 parallel port cable. It will work fine, albeit a bit slower than a USB "Platform Cable" (actually an external module). If you go with the parallel cable, use a 6-pin length of "snap off" pin header to connect the female connector on the cable to the female leads supplied with the CB.
If you pickup a USB "cable" that's complete, it will have the necessary adapter to work directly with the CB cable. The last batch of cheap ones on eBay came without any accessories and I ended up paying about $40 (2x what the cable cost!) to pickup the adapter and a short ribbon cable from Digikey. Still cheaper than buying a new one :-).
3. Same as #2 but for needed software. I take it that Altium Designer is not viable for beginners... but I see constant refs to it on the Applelogic.org sites. By chance, I have the "ISE Design Suite 10.1" DVD which includes ISE Foundation and ISE WebPACK. Is this the software and version that everyone here will be using?
Don't know about everybody, but I've been working with ISE WebPACK 10.1 for almost a year. Jury is still out on the user interface, but it gets the job done quite well. As an added bonus, it runs fine under Linux.