Zedboard Newbie

The Speedway labs have been updated to work with the current version of Vivado, 2014.4.1. Download the most current version from the same page you downloaded the original files: http://avnetexpress.avnet.com/content/zed/lab/ZynqSW_v04_student.zip .

-Gary

Dear Sir:

     I own the 2013 software package and I cannot upgrade to the Vivado 2014 software.   The Speedway labs use Xilinx SDK primarily - not necessarily Vivado software (although some Vivado software may be included in the Xilinx SDK software package and the Speedway labs).

I would like to thank you for your reply but I cannot pursue this potential remedy.  

It is my belief that this problem may have been a common problem (I have not deviated from the lab instructions, at least, to my knowledge) and someone has already found a remedy.

Again, to restate the problem:

Lab 5, the memory test, appears to "hang" (never stops processing).

I can only hope that someone else had experienced this same problem and found a remedy. 

Not sure what would cause this error if the lab was implemented correctly. You could load the 'solution' for that lab that is included in the archive to verify that your hardware setup is correct.

Just a note. The free webpack version of Vivado 2014.4 has all of the capability of the Design Edition except for the Vivado Analyzer.

-Gary

Dear Gary:

     I did a complete search of the accompanying supporting documents zipped with the zedboard training download.  I did not find literature telling me how to utilize the solution files for the labs.

      I realized after attempting to import the *.LAUNCH files into my project that I require a formal explanation of how one properly utilizes a *.LAUNCH file within the SDK IDE.

    There is no readme file contained within the solutions folder that tells the programmer how to use these files.

    Can you please point me to link that will tell me how to correctly utilize the lab solution *.LAUNCH configuration files or can you offer the readers a step by step explanation of how to utilize the *.LAUNCH file configurations?    

       Thank you for your past reply and I look forward to reading your next reply.

The solution files are just resulting files from a successful completion of a lab so that you can start a lab without having completed the prior lab, or as in your case, to test your hardware and development setup with known good project files.

It this case I would suggest that you unzip the Lab 5 solutions (write over the results you generated in the SDK workspace) in the C;/Speedway/ZynqSW/2013_3/SDK_Workspace directory. You will need to extract at least the 'Test-Memory' and "Test_memory_FullDDR: folders. You may want to extract the others as well. With this known good implementation of the labs you can run the test that you are currently failing. If they pass that indicates an error in your implementation. If they fail in the same manner that indicates an issue with your hardware or setup.

When you used the 'Debug As' option in the SDK and set up a 'Debug Configuration' ( or used 'Run As' and setup a 'Run Configuration') you selected certain options and may have made changes or added init files. Importing the * Launch files will restore these configurations, as that is not done by importing the project. Once you have imported the projects and any other configurations you saved you may run and debug programs as shown in the labs.

-Gary

Dear Gary;

     I found out why the program was "hanging" and I got the program to run correctly.   The source of the problem was memory "allocation"  (Lab 4, Experiment 3, Step 3).

     Although I got the program running, at this stage of development, the "absolute noobie level," one isn't certain whether the software was installed correctly or not.  There was a lot of software to install.  This was the absolute very first program run using I/O and there is a lot of uncertainty when the first program run is made. 

     To test whether the software is installed correctly or not, there were some lab solution files that were provided to the user.   The files were created in the *.LAUNCH format.  However, literature on how to use the *.LAUNCH format is not provided.  Of course, one could "theorize", guess, how to correctly import the file but this is not the same as knowing with certainty how to use the file.  I guessed on how to import the file, however, although the compiler did operate, what I saw on the program output was open to interpretation.  It is important to know how to "formally" use the *.LAUNCH lab solutions within the IDE. I may start a new thread if I encounter another problem.  If you happen to see another discussion about using the *.LAUNCH file, I just wanted you to understand the rationale of why this discussion is relevant.  Also, second question that will follow the how to use the *.LAUNCH file is, what are the limits of this file as a remedy (what pre-conditions are necessary for this file to operate correctly).

     I would like to thank you for your prior technical support.

     - Sincere Regards