Dangerous Prototypes

Other projects => Past projects => CPLD programmable logic => Topic started by: tonyennis on October 13, 2012, 04:57:04 am

Title: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner board?
Post by: tonyennis on October 13, 2012, 04:57:04 am
Sorry for the newb question here. I don't know enough to formulate a proper search.

I bought a pair of DangerousPrototype's XC2C64A boards.  They look great.  I program my Digilent dev kit using a USB interface, so I thought I'd just buy a JTAG cable and be able to program my new boards.

It took about 10 minutes of Googling for me to become completely confused.

Exactly what do I need to program these cute little boards?
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: systemstech on October 13, 2012, 05:51:37 am
You might try reading this first: http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Export_%28X%29SVF_from_Xilinx_ISE_Webpack
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: ian on October 13, 2012, 09:56:17 am
That's one way (export XSVF and play it with bus pirate or your own simple setup). You can also use the manufacturer's JTAG cable within the IMPACT software. These boards are also supported via SVF (no X) players like urJTAG through many programmers (even simple JTAG cables).

There's a summary of these methods on the CPLD docs:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/CPL ... rogramming (http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/CPLD:_Complex_programmable_logic_devices#Programming)
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: tonyennis on October 13, 2012, 08:34:23 pm
Thanks Ian and systemtech.  Those links are informative.

So I can program the Coolrunner board using either a Bus Pirate (http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate) or a Bus Blaster (http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Blaster).

The Blaster is board that performs JTAG programming and ?debugging? while the Pirate is a more general purpose tool to allow easier communications with all things serial.

From the Pirate page:
Quote
The Bus Pirate is a slow serial port device intended for human-speed interaction. It was NEVER intended to do JTAG duties. Because it's open source, cheap, and versatile, the community hacked various JTAG features into it. They're great in a pinch, but no substitute for the real thing!

So it would seem I'd be better off going with a Blaster.  Is there anything else I need to order from Seeedstudio?  Delivery from Hong Kong is quick; US customs is not.  It took the better part of a month for these two CPLD boards to be delivered.

Finally, the Bus Blaster is shown connecting to the CPLD board using 6 individual wire connectors.  What are the female ends of those connectors called? I will need some.
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: systemstech on October 13, 2012, 08:55:29 pm
They are "Dupont Female 2.54mm 1x1P Connectors " I only buy from this guy because he has them all the time and in different lengths and colors. shipping is not the fastest.

http://http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pcs-Dupont-Connector-Housing-Female-2-54mm-1x1P-/130353433150?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e59ab8a3e

http://http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pcs-Pins-Dupont-Connector-Glod-plated-/140370574065?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20aebcfaf1

http://http://www.ebay.com/itm/20pcs-Dupont-Connector-Pin-Wire-24AWG-VW-1-90-300V-/130465688827?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e605c6cfb
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: ian on October 14, 2012, 11:11:00 am
I responded in the other thread, but my recommendation for your use is an actual manufacturer (compatible) cable so you can work straight from ISE IMPACT.

The debugging is for ARMS, and the Bus Blaster is primarily for ARM development. It lets you single step code, watch values in memory change, etc.
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: tonyennis on October 14, 2012, 04:02:13 pm
Sorry about the near-x-post, but I didn't know if the Bus Pirate people frequented this area.
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: sloos on December 18, 2012, 07:00:14 pm
Hi all

I´m a newbie too for dp programming. I have the dp running, upgraded the bp firmware for xsvf, i allready updated the cpld board with the delivered tutorial xsvf files by the player software.

But i failed to understand the design suite. I can load a tutorial  (e.g. VHDL-CPLDIntro1LEDon) from the cpld breakout package, and now????
i can run the project, it seems to "do" something, but i dont see any output files in xsvf or svf format

Can anybody describe please what to do to get an xsvf file for the player from the design suite, or update the cpld directly from the design suite?

thx a lo
Stefan
Title: Re: What do I need in order to program the DP Coolrunner boa
Post by: ian on December 20, 2012, 08:39:00 am
Next you synthesize the design, then export from Impact. This tutorial shows the step-by-step:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/CPL ... the_design (http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/CPLD_intro_1:_Light_a_LED#Synthesize_the_design)

For programing the CPLD here is a more in depth tutorial:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Exp ... SE_Webpack (http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Export_%28X%29SVF_from_Xilinx_ISE_Webpack)

You cannot update directly from the design suit (IDE) unless you have the manufacturer's programmer.

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