Canvas - a free graphical DSP design tool for Red Pitaya's FPGA

18 May

We are excited to share with you an amazing project by Pau Gómez Kabelka, a PhD student at the Photonic Institute of Barcelona. Canvas is a free graphical DSP (digital signal processing) design tool that requires no HDL (hardware description language) or FPGA knowledge.

First, the user makes a DSP drawing with the graphical design tool which is based on an add-on package for LTspice. The drawing is then sent to a remote server where VHDL code is generated and sent back to the user. Finally, the code is configured and loaded onto Red Pitaya STEMlab 125-14's FPGA over SSH via ethernet connection. Canvas also allows for changing the configuration of the DSP circuit, meaning the user can tune it in real-time. This makes Canvas a great tool for rapid prototyping of your DSP on Red Pitaya.

If you are looking to get started with using Canvas, you can read more about it on Pau's website and check out the project on GitHub. There you will find a detailed wiki with instructions for how to prepare your Red Pitaya, install Canvas on your PC, register to the remote server, configure both LTspice and Python GUI as well as tutorials with some example use cases.