sliceKIT woes - JTAG not working

[JasonWhiteman]

Team,

I received my XP-SKC-L2 based sliceKIT a few days ago and have been working on getting JTAG to recognize the downstream target.

A few items to orient the reader:

Software Environment:

S1. Windows 7 Home Premium (SP1) 64-bit
S2. xrun version 12.2.0 (build 7741)
S3. xTIMEcomposer SDK 12.2.0
S4. Using PWM example from initial kit tutorial

Hardware Environment

H1. Host PC is an AMD
H2. Kit contents in use when debugging
a. Core board XP-SKC-L2 Rev 1V1
b. JTAG link XA-SK-XTAG2 Rev 1V1, XMOS Link switch in "off" position
c. USB/jtag XTAG2 Rev 1V0 (Sticker shows Ver0.4 Firmware) 0.4 firmware

Debug Steps and Results

1. First, I plug all the boards together (H2 a-c). Next I plug the entire unpowered assembly into the host PC's USB port. Last I connect the 12VDC power to the Core board.

2. As a debug step, I reverse the order of 12VDC application to core board and plugging assembly into the PC's USB port (no functional difference)

3. Running xrun from the "xT Command Prompt" does not see the target:

Available XMOS Devices
----------------------

ID Name Adapter ID Devices
-- ---- ---------- -------
0 XMOS XTAG-2 D7QSYFV1 None

4. Attempting to program a binary shows an error:

C:\xmos> xrun PWM.xe
Cannot connect, device is in use by another process
xrun: Problem in connection to device

5. Disconnected XP-SKC-L2 and XA-SK-XTAG2 boards from the USB XTAG2 (xTAG-2) board to measure signals with oscope

6. Measured 5V - power is good. Measured TCK, TMS, serial signals, etc while executing xrun (-l command, programming command, -lb command). I saw no activity on the signals triggering on transitions crossing the 1.6V level.

I have a few issues in order of highest to lowest priority:

1. JTAG is not connecting to the core board
2. Version of core board is not latest (is 1V1 while 1V2 is current production)
3. Noticed static bags were opened and resealed with scotch tape. The distributor stated they checked with the warehouse and nothing has been done with the kit except receive from XMOS (EU) and ship to my location.

Any ideas?

Regards,
Jason

[mon2]

Jason, do you see the JTAG tool being listed in your Device Manager tree (when it is docked) ? Believe it should appear under your USB devices. Respectively, somewhere along the installation process, you should have been prompted for a device driver to marry with the docked USB JTAG device. Do you recall this ? Upon request, I can install and test on a Win7 (64 bit to compare the results (currently on XP32). Let me know.

Kumar

[sethu_jangala]

Hi Jason,

Did you try uninstalling and re-installing the tool. While you install the tool make sure install JTAG driver option is enabled.

Sethu.

[JasonWhiteman]

To follow up to both questions:

1) Under "Devices and printers" I see the JTAG driver load as the XMOS XTAG device shows up when I plug the board in. Although I did not check the device manager listing - this would also show up there in the same manner. Furthermore, when plugged in the "xrun -l" showed it could see the jtag USB device. The problem was in seeing the downstream Core board's XMOS part.

An oscope showed no activity on JTAG TMS/TCK/etc which seems to indicate a failure with the XMOS part on the JTAG board (outright failure or missing/corrupted firmware).

2) With regard to re-install: I did not reinstall in-place. What I did do previously was install the full suite on a secondary machine to both validate the install process and to give a different USB host. The initial install was on a Windows 7 laptop while the second installtion was on a Windows 2008 server. The JTAG failed in the same manner using the 2nd installation (JTAG recognized on USB, but no communication with downstream devices).

Regards,
Jason

[Bianco]

Hi Jason,

I can advise you to create a support ticket on the XMOS website.

Bianco

[JasonWhiteman]

I had created a ticket and the determination was that the hardware is faulty. I have ordered a second kit today for overnight shipping. Therefore, I will have both the previous non-functional kit and a newer kit tomorrow morning.

I am working on the RMA process to return the initial kit.

Unfortunately, there's a schedule hit and cost impact due to expedited shipping and going to a vendor with a distributor with higher costs (taxed vs. non-taxed).

Given there may be other users who have seen this issue or will see this issue - I believe it's useful to document in the support boards.

Regards,
Jason

[JasonWhiteman]

Follow-up:

I received a new kit from a second source - much better experience. The kit was sealed with an outer static bag and none of the seals appeared to be previously tampered with as my 1st shipment from another vendor. Also, contrasting from the 1st kit - this kit has a 1v2 core board while the 1st kit was a 1v1 (with electrical errata).

That said, I plugged the core board to the XTAG2 boards then plugged in the 12V to the core board to power the board (green LED illuminated), then plugged the USB of the Xtag2 to the host PC. Like before, the USB driver loaded. The moment of truth:

Console: xrun -l

Available XMOS Devices
----------------------

ID Name Adapter ID Devices
-- ---- ---------- -------
0 XMOS XTAG-2 1Qx431-e L1[0..1]

Conclusion: success. Devices found. Kit is healthier than 1st kit.

It would be interesting for XMOS to perform failure analysis on the XTAG board from the 1st kit. It's on the way back to the 1st distributor.

Regards,
Jason Whiteman