Can't get the first simple project working in Windows or Ubuntu.


cbeezy

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I've tried to do the first project in the Intro to Spartan FPGA book everyway I can think of and nothing seems to work. I'm out of ideas. Here's the details. 

 

Set up: 

--Papilio Pro Spartan 6 board

--LogicStart Megawing on top of the board. 

--Xilnix ISE Webpack free license

--Windows 7 (at first, then I tried ubuntu...same result). 

 

 

Anyways, I've followed the book and this youtube video: 

 

 

 

 

and I have yet to be able to throw the switches and see the LEDs light up. 

 

At first I thought it was the whole windows 7 driver thing..so I spent a few hours hashing that out..uninstalled the FTDI drivers using their uninstaller, etc...I think it's working alright, but I'm not sure. Anyways see attached for screen grab of my Device Manager with the board plugged in. 

 

After a few hours, I figured screw it. If it's a Windows 7 error thing, I'll just use my Ubuntu machine. I copy/pasted the bitstream file I made on my PC, to my Ubuntu machine...got Papilio Loader working..uploaded the simple program to the FPGA annddddd: ...same result. Nothing.  

 

I can load the QuickStart Bit file for the LX9 board and it does indeed work and flash the LEDs. It works the same on Windows or Linux. The LEDs blink. 

 

I've also followed this tutorial which taught a different pinout for the Megawing, as I thought perhaps I messed up the pinouts..still nothing.  

 

At this point I think three things: 

 

1) I should have bought the Papilio one maybe. 

2) I think the Megawing may be a bad unit (but on the other hand the Quickstart "hello world" bit file for the LX9 loads fine). 

3) I may be an idiot. 

 

Any help would be appreciated. I'm out of ideas. 

post-37226-0-73401600-1405225518_thumb.p

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Thanks Jack, going through them again just in case I missed something. 

 

Is there a reserve of biststream files somewhere that I can test out for the Spartan-6/LogicStart Megawing combo? I want to make sure I dont have a faulty megawing. 

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Contrasting your image above, the UCF file in dropbox and the pinout picture at https://github.com/GadgetFactory/papilio_pins/raw/master/Papilio-Pro-Pins.png looks wrong.

 

The pins you are using are at the other end of the wing connectors, or you should be using P120 and P121 in the CL wing with P133 and P134 in the CH wing in your UCF files.

 

The other way to tell is when you hit reset the LEDs should light but very dull for a second or so while the config happens. This is because all the pins are pulled high while the configuration is loaded.

 

You should also look at projects pinout report, just to make sure that it is using the expected pins.

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Thank you Hamster! You're a gent and a scholar. Got it working. Your compiled project worked, so I know my board was okay...and that the drivers are okay. Which allowed me to troubleshoot elsewhere. 

 

In the end, I think I installed the wrong program...I installed Vivado. I uninstalled it, then was sure to select the ISE Design Download on the Xilinx page, installed it..and everything now works fine. 

 

HUGE relief. 

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