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From: bish on 12 Nov 2008 12:57
Hello everybody,

We have a problem with platform cable usb II (model dlc10) that came
with the spartan 3a dsp embedded platform microblaze edition.
We had used it initially to check if everything is ok with the board
as suggested in starter guide and some user guides. Everything worked
fine. Then we had a vacation for about a month and we packed the board
and was not used.
Well now when we connected it with the target board the led keeps on
glowing with amber color but no green color. And while trying to
download bitstream, error occurs like cable not detected.

Hope to get answers for:
i) We checked the vref from the target board which was ok. We don't
have a clue of what could be wrong!!

ii) Further is there any way of checking whether the board is ok
downloading any bitstream to the fpga. And can we use anything other
than this platform cable usb to configure the fpga in Spartan 3a 1800a
dsp board.

Being a student, it was with great difficulty (financially) that we
acquired the board and now just when our project was going really
well, we seem to be in deep trouble.

From: Paul Boven on 13 Nov 2008 16:16
Hi Bish,

bish wrote:
> Well now when we connected it with the target board the led keeps on
> glowing with amber color but no green color. And while trying to
> download bitstream, error occurs like cable not detected.
>
> ii) Further is there any way of checking whether the board is ok
> downloading any bitstream to the fpga. And can we use anything other
> than this platform cable usb to configure the fpga in Spartan 3a 1800a
> dsp board.

There is a default configuration file on that board, which will run some
counting sequences on the green leds, drive the VGA with a rainbow
pattern, and you can even talk to the RS232 to do a full suite of tests.
Does the default configuration still exist and load/run?
Do all the 3 power-supply LEDS (next to the 3 small power converter PCB
modules) light?

Btw., on my board only 2 of the three red LEDS light up because someone
forgot to place resistor R152 on my board. :-(

I've experienced several difficulties when programming my 3A-1800-DSP
board as well (using a parallel cable from Digilent in my case). It
would work great at home, but at other locations, I couldn't programm it
- never really worked out why. Also, when loading a bitfile succeeds
only partially, make sure that you check the temperature of your FPGA -
mine got rather hot a couple of times after getting CRC errors on a
configuration.

Regards, Paul Boven.
From: bish on 14 Nov 2008 05:06
On Nov 14, 2:16 am, Paul Boven <p.bo...(a)xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Hi Bish,
>
> bish wrote:
> > Well now when we connected it with the target board the led keeps on
> > glowing with amber color but no green color. And while trying to
> > download bitstream, error occurs likecablenot detected.
>
> >ii) Further is there any way of checking whether the board is ok
> > downloading any bitstream to the fpga. And can we use anything other
> > than thisplatformcableusbto configure the fpga in Spartan 3a 1800a
> > dsp board.
>
> There is a default configuration file on that board, which will run some
> counting sequences on the green leds, drive the VGA with a rainbow
> pattern, and you can even talk to the RS232 to do a full suite of tests.
> Does the default configuration still exist and load/run?

We had tested the board before our vacation and it had worked fine. We
have configured the board with other examples too. So I don't think at
present we have the default configuration file on the board.


> Do all the 3 power-supply LEDS (next to the 3 small power converter PCB
> modules) light?

Yes all of them light.
>
> Btw., on my board only 2 of the three red LEDS light up because someone
> forgot to place resistor R152 on my board. :-(
>
> I've experienced several difficulties when programming my 3A-1800-DSP
> board as well (using a parallelcablefrom Digilent in my case). It
> would work great at home, but at other locations, I couldn't programm it
> - never really worked out why. Also, when loading a bitfile succeeds
> only partially, make sure that you check the temperature of your FPGA -
> mine got rather hot a couple of times after getting CRC errors on a
> configuration.
>

We didn't get any difficulty earlier when we had used it for may be 3
- 4 times. But then now when we tried to use it the usb cable's
indicator led does not glow green even when we connect the board and
power it up.
> Regards, Paul Boven.

I cannot figure out how this can happen because if the platform usb
cable had a problem it shouldn't have worked for first few times. The
Vref pin in the cable from target board has required voltage (>1.5v,
when it is powered on) and the PC has detected the cable, isn't these
conditions sufficient for the cable to light the green led?
From: MM on 14 Nov 2008 14:31
It sounds as something happened to the cable's USB driver. Try unplugging
the cable from your PC and plugging it back to a different USB port. This
might trigger the driver's reinstallation. If it does be patient as
depending on the software version it might have to install 2 or 3 drivers in
a row before you can use it. Always tell it to install automatically (don't
let it do any web search). The bottom line: wait for that green light on the
adapter to appear before trying to do anything with the cable.

/Mikhail



From: bish on 15 Nov 2008 03:20
On Nov 15, 12:31 am, "MM" <mb...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> It sounds as something happened to the cable's USB driver. Try unplugging
> the cable from your PC and plugging it back to a different USB port. This
> might trigger the driver's reinstallation. If it does be patient as
> depending on the software version it might have to install 2 or 3 drivers in
> a row before you can use it.
Yes I have done it, but still the problem persists.

Always tell it to install automatically (don't
> let it do any web search). The bottom line: wait for that green light on the
> adapter to appear before trying to do anything with the cable.
> yeah, but the amber light has not turned green even when the target board is powered up.

> /Mikhail

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