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Evaluation of the TMS320VC5505 eZdsp USB Stick

bbolo1

Hi guys,

 

I have received the ezDsp board some time ago but due to some personal matters I am writting this review only now. I am planning to extend it with further information on its usage and creation of an example customer application.

There are also some other great reviews on Roadtest about this product. Sorry for not mentioning all of them. I had a problem when I tried to access the older reviews on this product. Could this be a server problem?

 

http://www.element-14.com/community/thread/3113?tstart=15

 

 

Evaluation of the TMS320VC5505 eZdsp USB Stick

General description

The whole kit comes in a small box (~13cm x 11cm x 4cm) and contains the USB stick itself along with a small 4 page leaflet and a small DVD (~1GB) containg the CCS 4 and a zip package containing useful examples for VC5505. The examples are centered around various peripherals on the DSP.
I wanted to go with the tools on the DVD, try the board and see how it is working and afterwards download and install the latest tools.
 
Tool installation & try-out
The installation process took me something like 10 minutes or so. Besides the installation of the Eclipse based CCS4 IDE, it installed the drivers needed for the board. I haven’t followed yet the steps to activate a licence. Without licence, Code Composer is limited to 30 days of evaluation.
I gave a particular attention to the leaflet since it was describing the necessary steps to be followed immediately after installation of the IDE.
  1. The      first step is to create a target configuration. The settings you have to      make in order to create a target configuration are described in detail      into the leaflet. I also created 2 more targets. One for a cycle accurate      C55 simulator and one for the functional C55 simulator
  2. Then      we can import the workspace containing the example projects for VC5505.      Here as well, the leaflet describes in great detail the needed steps.
  3. The      leaflet contains some links to various resources
 
Then, I tried to run the LED blinker project but I got some errors on the compilation process. It turned out that I needed to set some paths in order to “help” the IDE find some additional files (headers and libraries).
 

Running/Debugging the LED blinker application

The LED blinker was the first project to be run onto this board. I have started a debugging session for the real target and also for the functional simulator
 

Debugging with the real target

The debugger is built around a FTDI chip (FT2232D) and its speed is limited to only 12Mbps. This makes it a little bit slow in the debugging/program loading process. More on the debugger later…
The total execution time for the project was around ~35seconds (having the PLL set at 100MHz by the GEL file)
 

Debugging with the C55 functional simulator

Running the same LED project on the functional simulator took me more than 10 minutes. A significant difference but I’d say the simulator can have a good use as well, at least when you need to run some signal processing task and you can only provide files.
 

HW extensions

-         One of the things I would have liked to see was the USB signals tied at the expansion connecter. This would have offered some broader portfolio of possible application with the 5505 DSP
 
-         The expansion connector is not a standard one. The pair connector is: SAMTEC - MEC1-130-02-S-D-NP-A
 
-         USB-UART converter not used
o       The UART pins are not tied with the Rx/Tx into the FTDI chip. This would have offered support for USB-serial port. I will try to connect the Rx/Tx UART pins from the spare FTDI channel B adapter to the UART pins of the DSP onto the expansion connector
 

Application building process

The TI support movies were very useful and they’d helped accelerate my first application. I attached a few links on the clips I have found most useful.
 
The samples provided at code.google.com have missing files and dependencies. I tried to reference the missing folders where the files in cause were found but I still miss some other files needed to run these projects. I will detail the application development in a following post.
 

USB details

The debugger is built around an FTDI device (FT2232D). This chip is a composite device and it presents 2 interfaces. One of the interfaces is used as a USB-serial port, while the remaining interface is used as an USB-JTAG adapter. Both of the interfaces are using 2 bulk endpoints each. This is important to know because the available USB full-speed bandwidth is split between the JTAG “interface” and the USB-serial port.
image
image
Channel A is used as JTAG, while channel B is used as USB-serial port emulator. When clicking on any of the devices there’s a choice of designating any of the channels as either USB-serial port or USB-JTAG interface.
 
I will continue on this review with my HW modifications and application(s).
Thanks for your patience!
 
Bogdan
Parents

  • Thank you very much for all your support! I am looking to find some other interesting thing to do with this board.

    I am considering a few applications for this baord and I hope to come back soon with the details.

    It will probably consist of another HW modification (maybe connect a different board to this one) and some firmware as well.

    I'll keep you updated. If you also have suggestions, please let me know. There might be great application ideas and it would be great if you can share them here.

     

    Thank you all!

    Bogdan

Reply

  • Thank you very much for all your support! I am looking to find some other interesting thing to do with this board.

    I am considering a few applications for this baord and I hope to come back soon with the details.

    It will probably consist of another HW modification (maybe connect a different board to this one) and some firmware as well.

    I'll keep you updated. If you also have suggestions, please let me know. There might be great application ideas and it would be great if you can share them here.

     

    Thank you all!

    Bogdan

Children
  • in reply to bbolo1

    Really nice evaluation.  Looking forward to more on this thread.  I'd even be interested in seeing something fairly basic like how to implement a real time audio filter... say for filtering CW ham radio signals.

  • in reply to Former Member

    Thanks for all your appreciations. I am working on such a project right now, but it takes a bit since I am working on this in my spare time (and always there's not enough of it).

    I am hoping to come up with a few updates on this project in a couple of weeks or so.

    Cheers!

  • in reply to bbolo1

    Hi everybody,

     

    I am coming back with some updates on my project involving this board and also to offer some links to useful materials for people involved with DSPs.

    Since my previous post, I was able to create a framework for audio signal processing. I've used the CSL (Chip Support Library, provided by TI) to setup the audio codec and exchange 16-bit samples using DMA mechanisms in order to offload the DSP on the audio samples processing.

    The framework offers a simple interface for audio signal processing projects, so it can be used as a starting point.

    Anyway, I am close to complete this framework but I've ran into some HW issues with the 5505 DSP. I am awaiting some answers from TI, but till then I'll try to find a way to get this task done.

     

    In the meantime, I've stumbled upon some great links with nice tutorials on the TI products.

     

    http://www.ti.com/ww/eu/university/roms.html

     

    This page contains links for tutorials on popular TI products like the MSP430, C2000, C5000, C6000 and Stellaris Cortex M3.

     

    The C5000 section contains a link for a zipped CD with lessons/tutorials using the eZdsp stick.

     

    http://www.ti.com/ww/eu/university/cd-rom/C5505.zip

     

    I'll come back with details as soon as I will finish the audio framework project.

     

    Cheers,

    Bogdan

  • in reply to bbolo1

    Finally got around to messing with this thing again.  The C5505.zip find is AWESOME!  I wish Spectrum Digital had referenced this file with their documentation!!  I feel like I'm finally using this thing the way it was intended.  i.e. An inexpensive introductory tool to learn some aspects of DSP.  Although this is mainly for audio/low frequency appplications.... at $50, this is really a nice way for someone with a mainly analog/rf background to break into the digital world. 

     

    Thanks again for the info Bogdan,

    -Ryan

  • in reply to Former Member

    If you like the C5505, go look at the C5535.  You can get one with the new Audio/capacitive Launchpad booster pack for about $30 USD.

    The C5535 is the newest version and comes with both the Audio library and the Capacitive touch library.

     

    I hope to get some time to build up my audio detector soon to record the sound of thunder.  I have developed some interesting theories on how lightning propagates through the atmosphere and I think I can unravel the path through processing the audio.

     

    Meanwhile, look at the C5535, it may be worth your while.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to Former Member

    Great to hear those links actually helped you! Good luck with your projects! Let us know of your progress on your apps. As DAB stated, since the C5505 eZdsp kit appearance, TI released some other C55 based DSP kits. I had a look onto the board (ACTBP) mentioned by DAB and it is very interesting, especially at the $30 price tag.

     

    DAB, I saw the board here but it is mentioned there's no debugger on this board. Are you using an external debugger for the C55 or is it possible to use the MSP430 debugger for the C55 board? BTW, your project fascinates me. I would love to hear more about it.

    Good luck!

     

    Bogdan

  • in reply to bbolo1

    Hi Bogdan,

     

    TI supports the C5535 with CCS and the schematic shows connection via USB and JTAG, so there should be no problem updating the DSP.  Plus they give you source code for the board, so you should have no problem using it for other projects.

     

    If not, go to the EZDSP board.  Its a little more expensive, but has full CCS support.

     

    Either way, its a neat chip and has lots of TI support.

     

    DAB