VHDL - Using output of one entitiy as input of another - vhdl

Question

I am trying to make a basic distance indicating module using ultrasonic sensor. When I dumped the code for the same into my FPGA board(Helium V1.1 developed by IIT-B) all the LEDs in the board started glowing since the clock frequency was too high. So now I am using a frequency divider to reduce my clock speed but I am not getting how to use the output of my frequency divider code as an input to my main code. Can someone help me since this is the first time I am working on FPGA and I dont quite understand VHDL yet?
Code for frequency divider
library IEEE;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_1164.ALL;
use IEEE.numeric_std.ALL;
entity Clock_Divider is
port ( clk,reset: in std_logic;
clock_out: out std_logic);
end Clock_Divider;
architecture bhv of Clock_Divider is
signal count: integer:=1;
signal tmp : std_logic := '0';
begin
process(clk,reset)
begin
if(reset='1') then
count<=1;
tmp<='0';
elsif(clk'event and clk='1') then
count <=count+1;
if (count = 25000) then
tmp <= NOT tmp;
count <= 1;
end if;
end if;
clock_out <= tmp;
end process;
end bhv;
Code to measure distance using ultrasonic:
library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
use ieee.std_logic_unsigned.all;
entity ultrasonic is
port(
CLOCK: in std_logic;
LED: out std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
TRIG: out std_logic;
ECHO: in std_logic
);
end ultrasonic;
architecture rtl of ultrasonic is
signal microseconds: std_logic;
signal counter: std_logic_vector(17 downto 0);
signal leds: std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
signal trigger: std_logic;
begin
process(CLOCK)
variable count0: integer range 0 to 7;
begin
if rising_edge(CLOCK) then
if count0 = 5 then
count0 := 0;
else
count0 := count0 + 1;
end if;
if count0 = 0 then
microseconds <= not microseconds;
end if;
end if;
end process;
process(microseconds)
variable count1: integer range 0 to 262143;
begin
if rising_edge(microseconds) then
if count1 = 0 then
counter <= "000000000000000000";
trigger <= '1';
elsif count1 = 10 then
trigger <= '0';
end if;
if ECHO = '1' then
counter <= counter + 1;
end if;
if count1 = 249999 then
count1 := 0;
else
count1 := count1 + 1;
end if;
end if;
end process;
process(ECHO)
begin
if falling_edge(ECHO) then
if counter < 291 then
leds <= "11111111";
elsif counter < 581 then
leds <= "11111110";
elsif counter < 871 then
leds <= "11111100";
elsif counter < 1161 then
leds <= "11111000";
elsif counter < 1451 then
leds <= "11110000";
elsif counter < 1741 then
leds <= "11100000";
elsif counter < 2031 then
leds <= "11000000";
elsif counter < 2321 then
leds <= "10000000";
else
leds <= "00000000";
end if;
end if;
end process;
LED <= leds;
TRIG <= trigger;
end rtl;
I am using Quartus for simulating these codes.

Answer 1

welcome to the HDL languages :)
For simulation clock_out is missing from the sensitivity list process(...)
For synthesis/implementation you might need to check all processes as they should be dependent on your clock signal. I've learned it's considered bad practice to use rising/falling edge on other signals than clock signals.
You probably want to go for a pattern something like:
...
-- entity declaration
s : in std_logic;
...
-- architecture declaration
signal s_d : std_logic;
begin
...
process(clk)
begin
if rising_edge(clk) then
-- s_d is s one clock cycle delayed
s_d <= s;
-- detect s transition from 0 to 1 == rising edge
if s = '1' and s_d = '0' then
-- Code dependent on rising edge s
end if;
end if;
end process;
NOTE: s may be an internal signal and is not needed to come from entity. If s is a strobe (1 clock cycle long generated with the same clock) s_d is not needed as there is no need to detect the edge, just the signal state.