Dangerous Prototypes Open Source Hardware

BusBlaster, ISE, the DP XC2C64A CPLD board

October 14, 2012, 12:38:06 am

New here, like many.

There are a lot of pieces that beginners have to understand in order to have any results at all with sophisticated products such as the Bus Blaster.

I bought a Digilent Xilinx Coolrunner kit and had no issues making it do stuff.

Now I want to build a product.  Since i don't want to lose my Digilent dev kit, I bought a DP XC2C64A CPLD board from seeed.  I figured I'd just buy a cable and be good to go.  Wrong.  I got sticker shock and was overwhelmed by choices, many of which didn't seem feasible.

I'm running Windows and ISE.  I like the idea of DP and would prefer to support the cause.  So I'm looking at a Bus Blaster.

I'm pretty sure the Bus Blaster can program the CPLD board.

I also know I can use ISE and Impact to produce an SVF as well as XSFV files.

Is it correct that urJTAG will program the DP CPLD board, even on Windows?

This seems to be what this page says, but I see conflicting threads here.

What beginners need is a definitive statement, by experts, on what they should use in order to get started.  Trust me, we don't want to innovate at this stage.  I want to follow instructions until I gain experience; it's hard enough to program the CPLD, test it, make it fit into a CPLD that's always 2 macrocells too small, wire the card it to its interfaces, and get it in a box.  We don't need the extra challenge of guessing which OS and drivers to use, etc.

So right now, I have win XP, ISE 14.2, and a DP Coolrunner CPLD card.  If it's the right choice for a beginner, I will add to this a Bus Blaster and download urJTAG.  Then I can develop using ISE, generate a SVF file using Impact, and use urJTAG to tell the Bus Blaster how to program the CPLD.  But will it work?

Re: BusBlaster, ISE, the DP XC2C64A CPLD board

Reply #1 – October 14, 2012, 10:59:12 am

Hi tonyennis,

Is there a programmer that came with your Digilent dev kit, or are the programming pins maybe broken out with a header? In that case you may be able to tap your existing programmer and use it just like the dev kit.

If you;re doing a lot of CPLD stuff I'd advise against the Bus Blaster or Bus Pirate route and go for the manufacturer's real cable. There is one at Seeed Studio that  works with Xilinx and Altera CPLDs, but also tons of cheap clones on eBay.

While the Bus Blaster and Bus Pirate can both be used to program a CPLD, they're not the idea tool if you have to do a ton of development work. Each update has to be exported, then imported to a "player" application ion to program the chip. That extra step is a big hassle compared to the integrated tools from the manufacturer.

Where the Bus Blaster really shines is integration with ARM processor debugging apps of all varieties, but especially OpenOCD. The Bus Pirate's CPLD programming works great in a pinch, but is a general multitool instead of the best way to do it.

All the tools presented will work on Windows and the CoolRunnerII CPLD, including urJTAG and OpenOCD, and all our small utilities.

Here are some methods to program the cplds:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/CPL ... rogramming

Here is our beginner step by step tutorial on the three main design method supported by ISE:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/CPL ... _tutorials

Re: BusBlaster, ISE, the DP XC2C64A CPLD board

Reply #2 – October 14, 2012, 02:02:12 pm

Thanks Ian. Sorry for the mostly-dup thread, I thought I'd ask the BusBlaster people too.

The Digilent board is programmed using a vanilla USB cable.  The JTAG header, while present, is not used.  Digilent supplies a tool called "The Coolrunner Utility Window"** that programs the CPLD.  I'd generate a file using ISE, select the file in CUW, and click 'load.'  5 seconds later, it's done.  I guess I was spoiled by the simplicity of this.  Now I'm buying a new board or device and I'm not really sure why.

For grins, here's a little info about my project.  Regarding how much I'm going to play in the CPLD space, I don't know.  Maybe never again.  I'm not an electrical engineer; I have an interest in the art but no training or real knowledge.  (I can make LEDs blink according to the output of a counter chip being driven by a 555.  That's about it.)  One reason I asked for a turn-key answer here is that I'm already learning a lot on this project and if I get bogged down in doubt I will not complete it.

(** My "D model" dev board is a few years old and no longer supported which is why I'm on Win XP.  More recent versions of the dev kit don't use the Coolrunner Utility Window.  I am not sure what replaced it.)

Re: BusBlaster, ISE, the DP XC2C64A CPLD board

Reply #3 – October 25, 2012, 05:09:13 am

Finally getting back to this. I'm not a hardcore CPLD developer.  Therefore the time saved by using a dedicated programming device versus the BusBlaster is not material.  I'm going to support DP and buy the BusBlaster.

Re: BusBlaster, ISE, the DP XC2C64A CPLD board

Reply #4 – October 25, 2012, 09:25:34 am

[quote author="tonyennis"]Finally getting back to this. I'm not a hardcore CPLD developer.  Therefore the time saved by using a dedicated programming device versus the BusBlaster is not material.  I'm going to support DP and buy the BusBlaster.[/quote]

Thanks for your support, good luck with your Bus Blaster :)