Cannot get programmer version, aborting...also.


dfleig

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Hello,

 

I'm also getting the "Cannot get programmer version, aborting" message when trying to upload a sketch to my Pro.  I've tried the suggestions provided to others but continually get the same message.  To date I've tried the following with no luck:

 

- Ensuring that I have the correct port selected (tried again after removing every last trace of FTDI software from my Win7 pc).

- Changing cables and ports on my pc.

- The Zap 2.2.0 IDE bootloader approach as well as the approach described in the "LogicStart MegaWing Example" sketch.

- Looking at it sternly to try and guilt it into working.

- Ensured that Papillio Programmer is selected as the programmer.

- Tried each of the Pro LX9 ZPUino boards when burning the bootloader and trying to upload code.

 

I can see the TX light flashing when I try to upload and, as the others have stated, the AVR quickstart works just fine so I'm at a loss. My environment is Win7-64, Zap IDE 2.2.0, Loader 2.6 and the board says "BPC3011 V1.3".  Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

David

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Hello David,

 

I think we can safely say that any hardware problems are ruled out if the AVR quickstart works. With the ZPUino a bit file that implements the ZPUino has to be successfully loaded to the SPI Flash before anything will work. There is a bootloader that communicates over the second Papilio serial port to load code to ZPUino, if a bit file is not correctly loaded to the SPI Flash then you will get the "Cannot get programmer version, aborting" message.

 

The main things to check for:

Ensure that you are loading to SPI Flash, ZPUino does not work if you just load to the FPGA. I would recommend that you can load a known good bit file to flash. Try to load the Quickstart bit file to SPI Flash and then power cycle the Papilio. If it stays after a power cycle then it was loaded to flash successfully. Just to double test I would then load a ZPUino bit file to flash and make sure that it no longer behaves like the quickstart bit file. If there is problems loading to flash then please check that you are seeing a erase, verify, program, verify cycle happening. If it is not then change to expert mode in Papilio loader and make sure all of those options are enabled.

 

Next, you need to make sure you are connecting to the correct serial port in the zap IDE. When you load the quickstart bit file you should see ascii characters being output on the 2nd papilio serial port. Open up zaps serial monitor until you find the correct port while the quickstart bit file is running. That will be the same port that ZPUino needs to be set to in order to load code.

 

Let us know if that helps, the next step is to get a little more advanced and see if zpuino is responding. I will have to dig through my notes for that one.

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  • 1 month later...

Jack,

 

I apologize for the long delay in responding but I'm still unable to use ZPUino even after trying another Win7 x64 PC, removal and reinstall of the drivers and removing all the old FTDI drivers off my machine.  I tried your experiment and it appears to load the bitfile to SPI as I'm no longer receiving any text over the serial port.  I've also tried the ZPUino 2 bitfile and IDE with no luck.  At the end of this post is the output of the loader.

 

Any other suggestions?  

 

Thanks,

David

 

JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x24001093 Desc: XC6SLX9
Using devlist.txt
JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x24001093 Desc: XC6SLX9
 
Uploading "C:\Program Files (x86)\Gadget Factory\Papilio Loader\programmer\bscan_spi_xc6slx9.bit". DNA is 0xf9386714786988ff
Done.
Programming time 664.0 ms
 
Programming External Flash Memory with "D:\Papilio\gf-papiliopro-s6lx9-zpuino-2.0.0.bit".
Found Macronix Flash (Pages=32768, Page Size=256 bytes, 67108864 bits).
Erasing    :
Doing Partial Erase
......Ok
Verifying  :
......Pass
Programming :
......Ok
Verifying  :
Using devlist.txt
......Pass
Done.
SPI execution time 19498.1 ms
USB transactions: Write 6855 read 6686 retries 0
JTAG chainpos: 0 Device IDCODE = 0x24001093 Desc: XC6SLX9
Using devlist.txt
 
ISC_Done       = 0
ISC_Enabled    = 0
House Cleaning = 1
DONE           = 0
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David,

 

The output you provided looks correct. I made a little video of what the process is supposed to look like:

http://gadgetfactory.net/learn/2014/03/06/papilio-designlab-software-common-problems/#ZPUino_8211_8220Cannot_get_programmer_version_aborting8221

 

Alvie might be right, it could be a problem with memory. Lets try to load the Papilio Pro test plan and see if it passes the memory test. The Papilio Pro test plan is located here:

http://www.gadgetfactory.net/opmanuals/index.php?n=Main.PapilioPro

 

I include the link to the Test Plan for reference but it might be a little more then you want to get into. Attached is a copy of the bit file that is used in the Test Plan, it is a modified version of the QuickStart sketch that includes a memory and IO test. If you load the bit file to SPI Flash and then connect a terminal program to it at 9600 8N1 you should see the following:

 

Starting memory test from 0x2000 and beyond

check value is 0x0b0b0b98
Found tag at 00800000
Testing up to that. Filling...
Checking...
All OK!

 

If you are seeing the ASCII table then press the reset switch on the Papilio Pro and you should see the memory test.

QuickStart-Zpuino-1.0-PapilioPro-S6LX9-RetroCade-1.04.bit

 

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Oh, one more thing. There is a new version of the ZAP IDE that you might want to download and try out:

http://www.gadgetfactory.net/download/zap/zap-2.3.0-windows.zip

 

It's version 2.3 and this is not in the download section yet. (I'm having some weird problem with the forum host and have a ticket in to get it fixed, in the meantime I cannot upload any new files, lame!)

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Jack and Alvie,

 

Thank you for the quick responses!  I tried the bit file above using both the loader and the test script process but I get no response from the board across port b.  Version 2.3 of the IDE produced the same results as 2.2...sorry.

 

I looked across the pads of the sdram and the fpga and they all appear clean but it also became very clear that, even with help from a macro lens, my eye sight is leaving me.  :-)

 

Sorry to hear about your hosting problems.  I hope they clear up soon.

 

Thanks,

David

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  • 2 weeks later...

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