MicroZed Boot Problem

Hello All,

I have been running my MicroZed (BD-Z7MB-7Z010-G REVF06) with a Breakout Carrier Card for several months now with no issues. Recently, however, when I booted up in SD Card mode (as per usual, I have Ubuntu loaded on there) the board & card powered up but I was unable to connect to the serial port using my terminal program. I then tried booting up in QSPI mode and JTAG mode (which seemed to work fine, although oddly the blue "ready" light was on immediately) but I was not able to connect to either the serial port or the JTAG cable.

To isolate the problem I separated the MicroZed from the Breakout Carrier Card, and tried booting it up as a standalone device. The MicroZed would not boot up at all when powered only by the USB cable. I tried switching USB cables and using different USB ports, but none of the LEDs would light up.

Any troubleshooting ideas out there?

Thanks.

Adam

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Hello Adam,

Sounds like there are a couple of things to address, so perhaps we can work on them one at a time.

It is very possible to create a Zynq design that will require more power than the typical USB port will provide. If you can try an actively powered USB hub, or some other USB port that you are sure will provide enough current. Otherwise you might try connecting the USB power supply from your Break Out Carrier Card directly to the MicroZed. While this will not provide the USB UART terminal it should provide enough current so that you can see if the MicroZed will boot. If the LEDs do light as expected this would indicate the 'standalone' booting issue might be power related.

Next, you could try enabling the built in terminal in the SDK, using JTAG mode, to see if the board is otherwise operating correctly. The first exercises in the Avnet Zynq Software Speedway workshop labs detail how to enable the SDK terminal.
http://zedboard.org/course/developing-zynq%C2%AE-7000-all-programmable-soc-software-vivado-20133-and-201441

Let us know if you are able to make any progress and we can proceed from there.

-Gary
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

Gary,
Thanks for your prompt and on-point suggestions. Here are the results:
With the standalone MicroZed plugged into the USB power supply from the Breakout Carrier Card there is still no visible boot activity, and no LEDs light up.
With the MicroZed reconnected to the Breakout Carrier Card I ran through the workshop labs you suggested. I booted up into JTAG mode (all jumpers towards the center of board) it powered up, immediately giving me both the green "Power Good" LED and the blue "DONE" LED. Clicking Program FPGA produces the following error:

Connection to Board Failed
Unknown Error Occurred
Cable is not powered-on

I get the exact same error when I try to run the Hello_Zynq application with a JTAG UART STDIO Connection. And just for giggles, I get the exact same error if I open a XMD console and try "connect arm hw".
Any other suggestions? I've got a sinking feeling about this issue...
Thanks.
Adam
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0 bhfletcher over 10 years ago

Are you using a cost-optimized MicroZed? That would explain why it doesn't power up standalone?

Which JTAG cable are you using? The error you listed seems to implicate the JTAG cable itself.

Bryan
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to bhfletcher

Gary,
I bought the MicroZed (Evaluation Kit) and Breakout Carrier Card separately from Avnet. I'm fairly certain that when it first arrived, I powered up the MicroZed as a standalone device to test it out. How would I know if it is a "cost-optimized" version? Is that indicated anywhere on the device?
As for the JTAG cable, I bought the recommended HS2 JTAG cable (with the little adapter) directly from Digilent.
Thanks for trying to help probe this issue.
Adam
P.S. Since you mention "the error you listed" I assume you were able to see my reply to Gary above. That reply is not visible to me for some reason, even though I posted it!
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to bhfletcher

Bryan,
I was looking at Avnet in case I need to replace this MicroZed, and it looks like there are none in stock (lead time is 10 weeks). What they do have in stock is the same part with a C01 added to the end, which I imagine is the "cost-optimized" version you had mentioned. Is there anything else different about this version, other than it not working as a standalone device? I'm tempted to buy this version as a replacement since I already have everything else from the Evaluation Kit and I can't really wait 10 weeks...
Thanks.
Adam
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Adam,

It does sound as if your board is broken.

I don't think the 10 week lead time is accurate. I believe we will have MicroZed boards pretty soon but I will check and post the expected availability when I can confirm a date.

The Cost Optimized MicroZed SOM which, like the MicroZed SOM, comes in the four versions and has no cables, voucher or microSD card. This version costs a little less and is intended for production where the customer is going to operate only in a carrier card environment where power is supplied by the carrier card as well as the JTAG connections. The boot options are fixed as well as a couple of other changes such as no user LED and push button. AES-Z7MB-7Z0x0-C01-x-G
This post has additional details on the Cost Optimized MicroZed:
http://zedboard.org/content/what-cost-optimized-c01-microzed-som

-Gary
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago

We are now showing stock on the MicroZed 7010 SOM.
http://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/Development-Kits/Avnet-Design-Services-Custom/AES-Z7MB-7Z010-SOM-G/_/R-5004356219481/A-5004356219481/An-0?action=part&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201&listIndex=-1&page=1&rank=8

We expect to have the MicroZed 7020 in stock next week.

-Gary
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0 alexiscabello over 10 years ago

Adam, do you mention that you have ubuntu on SD card for the microZED. where can i find that image?
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