I’m currently working on a few changes to the FPGA image, but I ran into
some strange issues that I want to bring up here.
It seems that txrx_edk10.1_3.3git-645-gb811e87.bin from the binary
builds in http://gnuradio.org/releases/usrp2-bin/trunk/ is not properly
working with both the latest provided u2_rev3.bin as well as a custom
build one from the latest git version of the gnuradio firmware. The
hardware boots up, the LEDs flash correctly, and the find_usrp2 also
works, but the usrp2_fft.py seems to work at first, but the samples
provided seem like noise, although in normal operation signals are
visible. Additionally, switching the channel seems to work as well, but
there is just different levels of noise everywhere. When changing the
decimation value from 16 to 4, the fft (and probably the hardware)
hangs. Revision txrx_edk10.1_3.3git-594-g02616cf8.bin seems to work
correctly.
Either I’m doing it wrong, or there are some issues with the firmware. I
tried this with the XCVR2450 board.
The Xilinx tools in version 11.1 are without patches not able to
generate the bitstream, even make proj failed. The build also fails
because it needs more RAM than available with a self-made project. With
the latest service pack (sp 5) the software is able to produce a .bin
file, but not even the LEDs flash with this version. There are a lot of
warnings, so I cannot tell what the problem is, but it seems that
successful compilation is not enough to make it work. I made an .ise
file with make proj and imported it into ISE, so maybe some vital
information got lost in the process, but since the logic is given i cant
understand how something could go wrong here. 10.1 sp3 works correctly
as expected.
I’m willing to play around with 11.1 a bit more, so if you have some
ideas on how to debug this, I can invest some time into this.
The Xilinx tools in version 11.1 are without patches not able to generate the bitstream, even make proj failed. The build also fails because it needs more RAM than available with a self-made project. With the latest service pack (sp 5) the software is able to produce a .bin file, but not even the LEDs flash with this version. There are a lot of warnings, so I cannot tell what the problem is, but it seems that successful compilation is not enough to make it work. I made an .ise file with make proj and imported it into ISE, so maybe some vital information got lost in the process, but since the logic is given i cant understand how something could go wrong here. 10.1 sp3 works correctly as expected.
I’m willing to play around with 11.1 a bit more, so if you have some ideas on how to debug this, I can invest some time into this.
To my knowledge, Xilinx 11.x is “not supported”, I think that version
10.x is the version to use. I haven’t done anything with the FPGA
myself, but there has been a few messages on the list regarding the
version to use.
find_usrp2 also works, but the usrp2_fft.py seems to work at first,
but the samples provided seem like noise, although in normal
operation signals are visible. Additionally, switching the channel
seems to work as well, but there is just different levels of noise
everywhere. When changing the decimation value from 16 to 4, the fft
(and probably the hardware) hangs. Revision
txrx_edk10.1_3.3git-594-g02616cf8.bin seems to work correctly. Either
I’m doing it wrong, or there are some issues with the firmware. I
tried this with the XCVR2450 board.
The latest version splits out the XCVR2450 support into a separate file,
so you need txrx_xcvr2450.bin
given i cant understand how something could go wrong here. 10.1 sp3
works correctly as expected. I’m willing to play around with 11.1 a
bit more, so if you have some ideas on how to debug this, I can
invest some time into this.
There are significant bugs in ISE 11.x which prevent proper compilation
of our designs. We can run the 10.x and 11.x builds side by side on our
logic analyzer and show where it goes wrong in 11.x. We have had Xilinx
applications engineers looking into this and they have not been able to
figure out the problem. So for now we unfortunately need to stick with
10.1.03. Maybe the upcoming 12.x version will work better.
Matt
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