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Mimas V2 Configuration Speed Over USB

Discussion in 'FPGA Boards' started by Ivan Peikov, Apr 23, 2016.

  1. Ivan Peikov

    Ivan Peikov New Member

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    Hi,

    I just received my new Mimas V2 board and started configuring it with a USB cable both on Windows XP and Ubuntu 15.10.
    One thing that bothers me is that it takes a lot of time to reprogram the board flash memory. On both platforms it takes around 4:30 min to configure the board with the example MimasV2TopModuleLX9.bin firmware which is 214K (this is if I skip the verification step, it takes even more with it). The time grows linear with the size of the firmware (it takes ~7min with a custom-built firmware 340K large)

    Is there a way to speed up the configuration process? For instance I noticed that it uses 19200 baud rate to transfer the firmware .bin file. Is it possible to increase the baud rate and will this help speed up the reconfiguration process.

    Thanks!
    Ivan
     
    Ivan Peikov, Apr 23, 2016
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  2. mistery

    mistery Member

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    There is 115200 firmware for Mimas, check FPGArduino posts and you will find it, you will just need to change baud rate in python uploader on linux
     
    mistery, Apr 28, 2016
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  3. Ivan Peikov

    Ivan Peikov New Member

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    Thanks for the tip!

    I found the post and the firmware but does anyone know if it's stable? It's a bit scary that there is no going back to the original firmware once the updated version is installed..

    Thanks!
     
    Ivan Peikov, May 5, 2016
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  4. mistery

    mistery Member

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    Well I use it all the time, and it is ok.
    Sometimes I get message SPI error or something like this but after reconnecting numato all works.
    And for now there is no way back :(
    So if you really do not need it do not do it.
    We needed that firmware so we can use FPGArduino with less problems....
     
    mistery, May 5, 2016
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  5. Ivan Peikov

    Ivan Peikov New Member

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    I see, that makes sense. I'll probably wait until a bit more then.
    I was hoping to get better configuration speed just because I'm a FPGA newbie and I'm experimenting a lot which can be painful at the current speed.
    Eventually it all got a bit more tolerable by compressing the firmware before uploading it.

    Anyway, thanks for the advice! I'll looking forward to a stable firmware release (or at least a release of the original firmware so we can downgrade if needed).
     
    Ivan Peikov, May 5, 2016
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  6. mistery

    mistery Member

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    np.
    You can use some JTAG uploader that could be fast ...
     
    mistery, May 5, 2016
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  7. girish chaple

    girish chaple New Member

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    I wanted to know.. how you configured the mimas FPGA board on windows xp, because on my pc drivers installation giving error "service installation section in this inf is invalid". please help
     
    girish chaple, Oct 1, 2016
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  8. Ivan Peikov

    Ivan Peikov New Member

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    Hi,

    On Windows XP I used the configuration tool provided by Numato on the DOWNLOADS tab of the MimasV2 page (http://numato.com/mimas-v2-spartan-6-fpga-development-board-with-ddr-sdram/)
    It worked quite reliably as far as I remember.

    It sounds though, that you have a more general issue with the UART driver itself, rather than the Numato software.
    I can't remember whether MimasV2 is using a generic FTDI FT232 for the USB UART but one thing you may try is reinstall its driver and try again.

    Hope this helps.
     
    Ivan Peikov, Oct 3, 2016
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