Defective MiniZED board

The MMC error is a red herring.  I also had that error but it should be checking the flash instead of the SD card.  The cause of not being able to program the board is probably that you do not have the boot selector switches configured for JTAG.  The switches are on the same side as the USB connectors and next to the LEDs.  The switches should be toward the LEDs.  My board was delivered with boot from Flash selected.

Ralpfh,

Nope, the switch is correctly set to JTAG.  The fact that the issues is intermittent with no changes to the hardware is significant aspect that I wrote and you missed.

the fact that sometimes, 25% of the time, the same JTAG downloaf of code works, and the 75% of the time it does not over a 2 hour period (newly opened, following instructor webinar) is significant.  Remember, I switched that small switch to JTAG so it does not boot to the Petalinux OS before I started working  (powering it up).

The error stops the JTAG booting in mid process. As if it partially downloads, then stops due to a CRC error.  I try the same operation multiple times, pushing the reset switch after each failure and most of the time the JTAG process fails, but occasionally it succeeds.

pretty sure the board is defective.

Robert,

Yes, sorry - I did read too fast and skipped over that line.  I was on the way to walking the dog !   I was reacting to the error message that you got as I also get that message but did not have issues programming the board (in the same webinar) once I switched the boot switches and reset.  I read in a Xilinx forum that other people have had the MMC error.  Here it is when I was running the Hello World exercise.

I see that you tried different USB ports so I assume that you've tried different cables also.  Not sure how you were providing the aux power (the second cable).  I am using a 5V 2.5A Raspi power supply rather than a second USB port.  If you've tried all those things then it could be a defective board.  I would check the power if you haven't already - especially since the problem is intermittent.

You'll need to contact sales support to get an RMA.

Ralph

Yes, different cables, different ports, and the secondary power supply I tried was two different power blocks from wall powered devices to USB that can power 2.1 AMPs at 5. volts.

it is the intermittent issue that bothers me.

oh, and I asked for an RMA snd was told by them to first post on the forum.

Hopefully now I will get an RMA number from support.

Thanks

Good luck getting everything working.  Maybe one of the Avnet engineers will also respond.  Intermittent issues are the worst.  I wouldn't expect that you would have a problem getting an RMA.

Which webinar is this? Are you rebuilding PetaLlinux as part of the webinar?

What else do you have plugged into the MiniZed? You might try unplugging any USB devices, Pmods, etc. and then also unplug the Aux supply to simplify what you are doing. Then try to download a bare metal design.

All boards are functionally tested before they leave the factory. To have a brand new board fail is very rare.

Bryan

I have seen this error before and it can indicate an incorrect u-boot setting, or perhaps something misconfigured in the hardware platform. 

Let's put aside JTAG momentarily.  Are you able to reliably boot the factory installed image from QSPI?  I believe the factory boot image boots the FSBL and u-boot from QSPI, then fetches the Linux OS image from eMMC.  See this screenshot from u-boot as an example:

2783.contentimage_205947.png

The MiniZed cannot boot directly from the eMMC device - it has to boot (FSBL and u-boot) from JTAG or QSPI first.  Can you post screenshots of your JTAG and QSPI boots?

I am afraid you are on the leading edge to be using Vitis with the MiniZed board.  This isn't something we have been working on yet, so our ability to support this endeavor will be limited.  Would you consider taking a step back from Vitis and instead get started with one of the known-good PetaLinux BSPs that we have posted here:

https://www.element14.com/community/community/designcenter/zedboardcommunity/minized#e14tab2

Instructions for how to install and use the BSP can be found in Xilinx user guide #UG1144:
https://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/sw_manuals/xilinx2019_1/ug1144-petalinux-tools-reference-guide.pdf

That will help us in our ability to support you and resolve this issue you are currently having.

Thanks!

Tom

Guys,

So Bryan,

The webinar was from HacksterIO and it was last Tuesday with a great leading instructor.  It was a three hour webinar which is based on the miniZED board using a PMOD HB3 H-bridge which can power up to 2 Amps at 12 Volts.  the webinar is named: Mini But Mighty and Vitis for Motor Control.

I have used Xilinx Vivado for multiple years since version 14.4 and basically Vitis is the equivalent to Vivado 19.2 with a built-in SDK integrated environment.

The webinar is strictly a bare-metal small application to drive the motor attached to a PMOD connection of positive and negative 3.3 volts taken from the PMOD HB3 board instead of external driving with an external power supply.  In point of fact, if the secondary micro USB connection is not applied to the miniZED board the motor will not be powered enough to move the motor.  The PMOD HB3 supports two sensing lines, but they are not used, so it is run in an open feedback method whereby using PWM methods it stimulates the enable line at about 2KHz.

I definitely set the switch to boot from JTAG and not the first stage boot loader FSBL from the QSPI memory.which since it is so small, then boots the second stage boot loader SSBL from the eMMC slower but larger storage device.

At first, I powered the miniZED up in the mode to boot in Petalinux Ubuntu 14.04 (I think it was) but definitely a Linux OS which I logged into and set a password and user.

I then changed the switch setting to the JTAG setting.

To  Tom,

Thanks I saw that reference before, but as I stated it the situation was intermittent.

To both of you,

I found the issue...

I put a scope to the power line going into the miniZED and found it unstable.  I changed desktop computers and now that the power going into the miniZED on the programming JTAG microUSB connection it seems to be consistently working.

I will change the power supply on the other desktop.  This was a weird issue having to do with power fluctuations on the power supply line going into the miniZED which caused an intermittent weird configuration and only exacerbated by the JTAG process.

I now have a stable environment.

No RMA required.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I guess the only question is:  Is it possible to transfer the Xilinx license from one workstations to another since it is based on a MAC address?  How do I go about getting a new Xilinx license so I can continue with another workstation and Xilinx Vivado 19.2 (Vitis)  ?

Thanks,

Robert

Robert,

Very glad to hear you resolved it! I also found the webinar -- https://www.hackster.io/adam-taylor/mini-but-mighty-the-minized-and-vitis-for-motor-control-9c376b . Looks very interesting.

Regarding you licensing question, I don't believe Vitis requires a paid license, so you may just be able to generate a new, free license for your new machine.

If you have IP or some other reason for transferring the license, do the following:

1. Goto https://www.xilinx.com/getlicense
2. Log in
3. Select your account, if that applies to you.
4. Click the Manage Licenses tab
5. Select the license that you want to change
6. Click Modify License
7. Follow the prompts to change the license.
8. Be aware that you can only do this a few times before your account will get flagged so be cautious how frequently you do this.

Bryan

Bryan,

Great to know about changing the license.  Previously Xilinx was really restrictive of licenses.  The point that there is a license provided in the miniZED development board says something about Xilinx and their insistence of licenses.  In the past Xilinx restricted changes to two times.

In reality, the license is really only required for certain Xilinx IP that goes out to the licensing server (that is installed with the Vitis and previous Vivado licenses.  It provided access to the simulator and to using specific IP included in the Vivado product.

I will certainly try to add a new machine (MAC address).  I have used the licensing server previously.

And yes, the webinar was good, but it helped to know a bit about Vivado prior to taking the 3 hour webinar.  I enjoyed it.  The main issue I had was the descriptions of what pins on the PMOD where for what purpose (I finally downloaded the specs and schematics from Diligent's website) (I should have initially).  Easy to make mistakes in hardware configuration.  Another issue was which PMOD connection to use, the upper one or the lower one as it was not explicitly stated in the webinar and if you get it wrong (bottom line in the PMOD miniZED connector instead of the upper one) nothing will happen although the application does run and looks correct (no feedback pins used on the PMOD so no sensing and therefore no feedback sent back to the application) and the motor only had two input wires; lots of warnings about which was the positive and which was the negative connector on the motor.

Downloading the schematics for the miniZED helped a lot.

Thanks again,

Robert