Installation and Licensing

[toines]

Brand new W7 64bit install on my computer. Installed ISE WebPACK everything went fine, followed the instructions in the kit's manual. 

I've got a design ready, kit is on and JTAG/USB LED is green, I Open iMPACT and get this thrown at me:

GUI --- Auto connect to cable...
INFO:iMPACT - Digilent Plugin: no JTAG device was found.
AutoDetecting cable. Please wait.
PROGRESS_START - Starting Operation.
Connecting to cable (Usb Port - USB21).
Checking cable driver.
 Driver file xusb_emb.sys found.
 Driver version: src=1029, dest=1029.
 Driver windrvr6.sys version = 10.2.1.0. WinDriver v10.21 Jungo (c) 1997 - 2010 Build Date: Aug 31 2010 x86_64 64bit SYS 14:14:44, version = 1021.
 Cable PID = 0008.
 Max current requested during enumeration is 74 mA.
Type = 0x0004.
 Cable Type = 3, Revision = 0.
 Setting cable speed to 6 MHz.
write cmdbuffer failed 20000015.
Error reading reference voltage level.
Cable connection failed.
Connecting to cable (Parallel Port - LPT1).
Checking cable driver.
 Driver windrvr6.sys version = 10.2.1.0. WinDriver v10.21 Jungo (c) 1997 - 2010 Build Date: Aug 31 2010 x86_64 64bit SYS 14:14:44, version = 1021.
Cable connection failed.
Connecting to cable (Parallel Port - LPT2).
Checking cable driver.
 Driver windrvr6.sys version = 10.2.1.0. WinDriver v10.21 Jungo (c) 1997 - 2010 Build Date: Aug 31 2010 x86_64 64bit SYS 14:14:44, version = 1021.
Cable connection failed.
Connecting to cable (Parallel Port - LPT3).
Checking cable driver.
 Driver windrvr6.sys version = 10.2.1.0. WinDriver v10.21 Jungo (c) 1997 - 2010 Build Date: Aug 31 2010 x86_64 64bit SYS 14:14:44, version = 1021.
Cable connection failed.
Connecting to cable (Parallel Port - LPT4).
Checking cable driver.
 Driver windrvr6.sys version = 10.2.1.0. WinDriver v10.21 Jungo (c) 1997 - 2010 Build Date: Aug 31 2010 x86_64 64bit SYS 14:14:44, version = 1021.
Cable connection failed.
PROGRESS_END - End Operation.
Elapsed time =      5 sec.
Cable autodetection failed.
WARNING:iMPACT:923 - Can not find cable, check cable setup !

 ... and now I'm tired.

Any ideas?

Edit: I installed ISE WebPACK 13.4

[joelby]

It's probably best to start a new thread, since the problem no longer matches the title!

Have you looked at AR24911: http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/24911.htm and AR31931: http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/31931.htm ?

[toines]

Parts of it, had a look at it now, I don't think those are the solution to my problem.

[toines]

So I'm back on linux, Windows 7 didn't work any better, and no help to get. Think my chanses to get it work there were even smaller than in Arch Linux, neither would it work in CentOS(as mentioned earlier in this post). I kind of doubt my linux distro is the problem here.

It's been two weeks since I got this dev board, I've spent too much time trying to get it work already, I can't believe why I still bother.

Anyways here I am trying again. This is where my iMPACT stops:

AutoDetecting cable. Please wait.
PROGRESS_START - Starting Operation.
Connecting to cable (Usb Port - USB21).
Checking cable driver.
File version of /opt/Xilinx/13.4/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin64/xusbdfwu.hex = 1030.
File version of /etc/hotplug/usb/xusbdfwu.fw/xusbdfwu.hex = 1030.
 Using libusb.
 Kernel release = 3.2.1-2-ARCH.
 Max current requested during enumeration is 74 mA.
Type = 0x0004.
 Cable Type = 3, Revision = 0.
 Setting cable speed to 6 MHz.
write cmdbuffer failed 20000020.
Error reading reference voltage level.
Cable connection failed.

Using the solution at http://www.rmdir.de/~michael/xilinx/ (libusb + fxload). As you can see further up I got something pretty similar in Windows too.

Another thing is, after some minor tweaking in xc3sprog/xup I got it to detect the chain (XC3S500E, XCF04S, XC2C64A), however when I tried to program the XC3S500E with different Xilinx reference designs, it didn't act like supposed to; all LEDs got turned on (including the finished programming orange LED).

The design preloaded into XCF04S seems to work all fine.

Yes I'm trying to program it with J30 in JTAG mode.

[joelby]

You don't need to set J30 for JTAG - JTAG will work in all modes. The JTAG mode just disables configuration from any other source.

Bit of a long shot - do you have J8 connected? (it should not be)

Even longer shot - you could see if there is a voltage on the J12 JTAG port VCC pin. If your board is damaged and this power rail is wrong, then maybe checking this will help. Possibly not, if the board works fine with the self-test. You could probe it at the JTAG programmer circuitry if you can work out where it is (I don't have the board, and it doesn't seem to be on the schematic).

Another option might be to use a Xilinx Platform Cable USB II or clone - not a bad investment if you're planning to do more Xilinx FPGA development in the future (hopefully this experience hasn't turned you off!)

Also, try it on another computer in case you've been doing all of this on the same one and there's some bizarre incompatibility with your USB ports.

[toines]

J8 is not connected. and J12 isn't touched yet, brand new board.

I've been trying this on 2 computers all the way.

I really believe the problem here is bad software.

thanks for help though joelby :-) not anyone else who bothers wherever I try..

[joelby]

No worries at all!

Have you got a voltmeter that you can test J12-VCC with? If you bought the development board from a distributor, can you get them to check it/swap it if it's bad?

Another cheap-ish option if you've got a good collection of electronics components lying around and a suitably equipped computer is building a parallel port programmer (or buy one from Sparkfun for $10) but I'd probably just buy a USB one for about $50.

[toines]

Heh, I don't have that kind of stuff.

I don't know, I ordered the board from Digilent.

I just know I want to get started soon, if those are my only opportunities and I can't program it with this cable, what solution is most likely going to work? I'm mostly concerned about costs in terms of time; If the best solution is to buy a new Altera board for 200$ well, I wouldn't doubt.

Also, shipping anything to Northern Norway, is most likely going to take 2 weeks. (there's really no market here for such, and only the fewer people have heard of it.)

I also know I'm not the first one with this error message from iMPACT, but couldn't find out how anyone else worked around this problem though.

Could it be worth trying to install earlier versions of ISE WebPack on Linux? Tried this on Windows too but there were some compability problems; Only the newer versions works on W7 64bit.

[joelby]

It might be worth a try - or you could try something like 12.4 on Windows XP (or even 32-bit Windows 7, which I don't think is supported but works fine for me).

I use a Platform Cable USB clone and it's never failed me (except that it's cheaply built and fell apart after I disassembled it, but I've sticky-taped it back together) - but the built-in programming circuit on your board should be equally up to the task and well-supported. If no-one else here who knows more about the board is chiming in, you could try contacting Digilent support.

[toines]

I tried 12.4 on linux, still no luck (writing cmdbuffer 20000020 fails).

I'm considering Windows XP with some older version of ISE WebPack, it's just that I already tried one OS(W7) which was suppose work and be supported without any luck. It takes a whole day to reinstall OS find out it doesn't work and reinstall again. If someone who knew could tell me exactly which environment, ISE WebPack version etc they got it working under, it would of course be easier...

Regarding the cables I don't know how much more effort I'll put into this device... I could easily get that parallel port cable but I don't have parallel port on any of my computers. Would it make such a big difference to get a Platform Cable USB instead? If someone could tell me that this would solve my problem, sure I'd do that too.