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Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 7:50 am
by liquitt
so this doesn't disappear in that other thread.
if you have problems with impact and programming your xilinx - this might help
cheers and thanks to our beloved megalomaniac his this awesome research & tutorial
BIOS
after getting the chip wired up and programmer built and impact finally installed i could not get a cable detected at LPT1. After remembering i had just changed the BIOS battery a few days ago i decided to take a look at my Bios settings for the parallel port...
It was defaulted to PS2...i changed that to ECP 378H DMA3...
sure enough the cable was detected by impact...


IMPACT HACKING
first thing i always do is try to read ID or verify some kind of response from any chip i am working with...in this case, it was my first attempt with impact and any xilinx chip...and first attempt with this programmer design...
as indicated previously i received the IDCODE mismatch...so, assuming my cable was working correctly and the chip was wired correctly, i started making modifications to the impact xc95144xl definition file (nothing to do with IDE_EXI). It was my belief this was a cloned / chinese knockoff with different data in the vendor, manufacturer ID labels within the chip...

after a few hours of changes to the definition file, i bypassed the IDCODE issue only to get a different identification mismatch...after a few more hours i gave up...started thinking i was going about troubleshooting this the wrong way by simply trying to hack impact files...i was sure there had to be another solution...

SO IGNORE ANY ATTEMPT TO MOD THE XILINX DEFINITION FILES AS INDICATED ABOVE!!!
:roll:



VOLTAGE
after more researching within the forums i found this post: viewtopic.php?p=2436#p2436
( BTW, wealth of different information in that thread, i never thought to look in the "NEWS" section )
seems yamaharacer was getting the same error and resolved it by adjusting voltage....
so my next attempt at testing was to try the following voltages: 2.6v, 2.8v, 2.9, 3.0v, 3.15v, 3.3v, 3.6v, 3.7v....still no success!!


STUPID
I did some stupidity testing with impact and discovered if i have the parallel programmer connected to the port with no chip and no voltage, then impact will still indicate the cable is connected

Code: Select all

Checking cable driver.
 Driver windrvr6.sys version = 10.2.1.0. WinDriver v10.21 Jungo (c) 1997 - 2010 Build Date: Aug 31 2010 X86 32bit SYS 14:35:41, version = 1021.
 LPT base address = 0378h.
 ECP base address = 0778h.
Cable connection established.
ive come to the conclusion that just because impact detects a cable connected does not indicate the cable is functional
This could be a major cause for the confusion experienced during attempting to program the chip.


NEW PARALLEL PROGRAMMER
In the past, working with other devices, i have never been successful with a parallel programmer design which had voltage connected to the parallel port...i never bothered to take voltage readings this time around during programming to see if there was any voltage drops but i suspect maybe that was part of the issue and decided to just scrap the parallel programmer design and build a different one...

SUCCESS!!! this design works for me

the LED at the top is optional to see flashing lights during programming, erase, etc...
Image


CONCLUSION
now that the programmer works, i decided to perform a few additional tests:
connected one wrong pin to JTAG connection...impact indicated IDCODE mismatch.
connected 2.45v...impact indicated IDCODE mismatch.
connected 2.6v...success
connected 3.6v...success

after some testing and playing around i believe the IDCODE errors are specifically related to:
1. bad programmer
2. 2.6v < VOLTAGE < 3.6v
3. incorrect jtag connections to the chip

all of these scenarios will cause impact to fail in establishing communication to the chip...and will result with a IDCODE mismatch.

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 7:58 am
by megalomaniac
thanks for reposting...
in the near future, i plan on making this design in PCB form so i wont have so many wires and cables all over the place other than just the 4 cables from the jtag unit to the ide-exi board...
...and while im at it, im gonna make a few extras if anyone might be interested...or if i lose mine

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 8:36 am
by Benni
i´m interessted! ;-)

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 8:55 am
by liquitt
megalomaniac wrote:thanks for reposting...
in the near future, i plan on making this design in PCB form so i wont have so many wires and cables all over the place other than just the 4 cables from the jtag unit to the ide-exi board...
...and while im at it, im gonna make a few extras if anyone might be interested...or if i lose mine
sure, i'll take one!

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 6:57 pm
by MockyLock
And I will too.
At least, i'll know that it's not my JTAG cable the faulty one !

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:37 pm
by yamaharacer
you can also use a xecuter nand-x for programming for any xilinx chip. there you also have the possebility to use usb connection and use nandpro and dont need to use impact anymore.

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:32 pm
by megalomaniac
i guess if someone was gonna build this programmer it would look something similar to this
...or smaller if someone was using smd components...



Image

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:56 pm
by liquitt
nice! did you order anything else from them? ;)

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:03 pm
by Benni
hm,... Parallel Port....

I don´t have any PC laying around with a Parallel Port anymore...

Maybe USB would be better!?

@mega

Do you have some of these programmers for sale, too?

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:32 pm
by megalomaniac
i will only have a few programmers available once they go on sale...
thought someone would like to have a programmer ready when the new firmware gets released

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:28 am
by yamaharacer
Benni wrote:hm,... Parallel Port....

I don´t have any PC laying around with a Parallel Port anymore...

Maybe USB would be better!?

as I wrote you can buy a xecuter nand-x which has USB and works under Windows 7 32/64bit.

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:52 am
by megalomaniac
yamaharacer wrote:
Benni wrote:hm,... Parallel Port....

I don´t have any PC laying around with a Parallel Port anymore...

Maybe USB would be better!?

as I wrote you can buy a xecuter nand-x which has USB and works under Windows 7 32/64bit.
no parallel and serial ports are one unfortunate missing aspect of newer computers....as of a result, it costs 50$ - 80$ for a usb jtag compared to a simple 10$ - 20$ parallel jtag...only choices available are to either spend the 50$ - 80$ on a single USB jtag or use the same amount of money to buy a old computer with parallel/serial port at the second hand store...



...i would rather look around for a second computer, at least you will also have the ability to make your own programmers rather than be stuck with limited choices of available usb compatible products....also, there are some programs which only use parallel or serial with no option for USB...or sometimes there is no USB support and not compatible with Vista/7...


...old computers can be a good thing to have around...

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:51 pm
by megalomaniac
to my surprise, the programmer design posted above has been tested and verified for use with a cable length of approx. 1 meter (3ft 3in)

my physical cable length measured 105cm (3ft 9in)
120cm cable would error...so keep it at 1m or less...


disclaimer: 1m cable is not recommended. cable length test performed only to determine maximum possible length

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:50 pm
by kel01
How long does it take to program the xilinx with one of these parallel port programmers by the way?

I was just wondering if it would be feasible to use some pogo test pins to connect it to the ide-exi whilst programming instead of having to solder it.

Re: Alternative programmer design for DIY IDE-EXI

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:45 pm
by megalomaniac
the actual programming process is a few seconds...
it could take about 10 minutes if you have never jtaged before or never used impact before...
once you understand what your looking at, then it takes a few seconds...


all my boards were jtagged with no solder to the jtag pads...
i used header pins just to make contact to the jtag pads, so pogo pins will work too