7i95t firmware brick because i flashed a 7i95 bitfile in the fallback

hello LinuxCnc Community,

i recently bought a 7i95t with a trion fpga from the company efinix on it, luckily i flashed a 7i95 bitfile to the fallback and now i bricked the firmware so im not able to get a connection to the mesa card over ethernet(CR16 is steady on after powering up the mesa card, which indicates there is something wrong with the fpga config), what makes sense...

After reading the 7i95t datsheet, chapter"Host Interfaces" it says "DO NOT write 7I95 bitfiles to the 7I95T", yeah shit happens...
now i have some questions how to get the 7i95t working again?!

So theres a connector "P2 JTAG" on the 7i95t where you can flash the correct bitfile to the fpga using a hardware interface and the efinity software (there is a free license aviable on their website)
 what kind of interface do i need? do i need a development kit from efinty or can i use other brands jtag interfaces like  410-299 | Digilent JTAG-HS3, Xilinx-Werkzeug | RS

what bitfile i have to flash? 7i95td.bin?
how to flash the bitfile to the fpga with the jtag interface adapter using the efinity software?

i hope theres someone out there, whos so deep into this topic, who can help me
thanks in advance!

best regards Marco

 

Yeah, JTAG is the only easy way out if you flashed the fallback area of a  7I95T
with incorrect firmware. (Really,  you should never update the fallback area)

I use a FT4232H USB --> JTAG adapter for programming

The way it's done when manufacturing is to program the FPGA (not the flash)
With the Efinity tool and then use mesaflash to re-write the fallback and user
flash areas.

(This is about 30X faster than writing the flash via JTAG)

I can upload or make available the (linux/bash) initialization scripts/directories
used later today. You may need to edit the paths in the script to match your Efinity
installation.

freeby.mesanet.com/95tinit.tgz

Not sure about the executables (might be too old a libc version),
but you can get by by just programming the FPGA via JTAG
and running the two mesaflash commands.

Here is the FTDI4232 --> 10 pin header connection:

freeby.mesanet.com/pdf/parallel/4232efin.pdf
 

I was going to suggest an FT2232 (for more reliable I've found than the USB Blaster clones, and faster under Linux than the Genuine Xilinx PP porgrammer), as that what I use, along with openFPGALoader, but seeing that it doesn't support JTAG for the Efinity FPGAs I decided to let it slide. Plus I was sure if the SPI programming method was usable with the Mesa boards.

thanks for the fast response PCW!

for my understanding!?
1)flashing the firmware to the fpga using the infinty software and the ftdi4232 jtag interface.
am i flashing to the fpga ram (Volatile Memory)? after power loss, the firmware is gone right?

2)write the firmware to the fallback and the eeprom (is it a part of the fpga? or is it an external eeprom on the 7i95t?)

mesaflash --device 7I95T --fallback --write FPGAFILE.BIN
mesaflash --device 7I95T --write FPGAFILE.BIN

after writing the .bin file it should be permanently saved to the storage and the 7i95t should work porperly again after power loss?

the ftdi4232 mini should be deliverd on friday, i'll give it some trail and error then

Yes, you first write firmware to the FPGA RAM which gives you Ethernet access to the card.

Then you write the user and fallback firmware to the user and fallback areas of the EEPROM
with mesaflash.

(Your example shows the same file written to both, this will not work, you must write a fallback
file to the fallback area and a user file to the user area)

The init95t script in the .tgz file does all this but you can remove all the MAC/Netmask/IP address
writing stuff as these have already been done and are not affected by what you write to the flash memory.
 

Hi PCW,

I managed to brick the firmware as well while following your instructions above.

I downloaded the Efinity software, along with the flashing utility from the link you provided. When I attempted to compile the project, I received the error:

“Project contains some invalid configuration. Please see details in console.”

It appears that some files may be missing.

I then tried using files from Mesa and was able to compile successfully. However, when I attempted to flash the board, I encountered the following error:

“ERROR: The FPGA given in the bitstream file does not match the FPGA you are trying to program. Check that you are using the correct bitstream file.”

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,

What program  printed the error message?

Are you using the latest mesaflash?

Could you JTAG program the FPGA chip and get Ethernet access?

If so what does

mesaflash --device Ethernet --addr [card_ip_addr] --verbose

print?



 

Efinity software reported an error. After reviewing my wiring, I was able to make progress.

I can now connect via JTAG using the Efinity Programmer tool. When I click Start Program, it appears to detect the board, and I receive the message “Device is in user mode.”

At this point, I’m not sure what the next step should be.

I have jumpers W15 and W16 set to UP,UP position so I can attempt an Ethernet connection to 192.168.1.121 However, when I run the following command:

mesaflash --device Ethernet --addr 192.168.1.121 --verbose

No ETHERNET board found

Did you manage to program the FPGA via JTAG?

This would be shown by the green LEDs flashing in sequence
and the link and speed LEDs lighting up on the 7I95T's RJ-45
jack.