r/FPGA • u/Norympha • 1d ago

Advice / Help Is the Digilent Nexys 2 still worth using?

I'm considering buying a Digilent Nexys 2 for my project to learn fpga from scratch real-time Sobel edge detection on FPGA using an OV7670 camera and VGA output.

Would this board still be suitable for this project in 2026? Any compatibility issues or advice from people who have used it? Is it so ancient?

I found it online for only $30 idk if i shpuls buy

Thanks!

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u/joelby37 1d ago

Digilent boards are nice, but the main issue is that the ISE software this one requires doesn’t run on modern operating systems, at least not without some messing around. I would avoid it and find something newer so that you can concentrate on battling with the FPGA instead of with the software tool chain.

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u/0x80O0oOverfl0w 1d ago

This is an older legacy board and like the u/joelby37 mentioned, it requires Xilinx ISE which doesn't work on Windows 11 without workarounds.

The Nexys A7 is the replacement according to Digilent. You could take a look at the cheaper Basys 3 Artix 7, it has a VGA output and 4 pmod ports.