Xilinx ML605 Demo Qusstion

I just took delivery of an ML605, and tried out
the demo to make sure the board was OK.
The pre-built demo is supposed to allow you to
load images, and view them on the DVI or VGA
output, while optionally filtering the images.

Both printed documents that ship with the system
(Hardware and Demo Setup Guide, and Getting Started)
say that the monitor should display a Xilinx splash
screen initially. It doesn't. I've tried both the
VGA out and DVI out, and gone over settings
carefully (there are a couple of minor
inconsistencies in the documentation, but I've
tried a few variations.) I never got any video.

Any suggestions? Do I just have a bad board,
or am I overlooking something obvious?

Thanks

Pete

On Apr 22, 7:30=A0am, Pete Fraser <pfra...@covad.net> wrote:
> I just took delivery of an ML605, and tried out
> the demo to make sure the board was OK.
> The pre-built demo is supposed to allow you to
> load images, and view them on the DVI or VGA
> output, while optionally filtering the images.
>
> Both printed documents that ship with the system
> (Hardware and Demo Setup Guide, and Getting Started)
> say that the monitor should display a Xilinx splash
> screen initially. It doesn't. I've tried both the
> VGA out and DVI out, and gone over settings
> carefully (there are a couple of minor
> inconsistencies in the documentation, but I've
> tried a few variations.) I never got any video.
>
> Any suggestions? Do I just have a bad board,
> or am I overlooking something obvious?
>
> Thanks
>
> Pete

Having just an overview of the problem, if I have to debug, I would
see if there is an RTL given with the demo example. If so, you will
find the display controller in the RTL. The display controller would
basically have a data bus going into the display which is driven with
data read out from the NAND flash or SPI Flash on the board with the
documents that you talked about or the Xilinx Splash screen). I
suggest disconnecting that data bus and tying it to RGB0,0,0 and
RGB255,255,255 and check if you see white screen and the black screen
which mean the display interfaces would be fine and only the data
being read out may be an issue.

If the display controller itself is an issue, then it might be the
issue with the VGA DVI driver chips or the digital display controller
in the RTL.

Am 22.04.2011 04:30, schrieb Pete Fraser:
>
> Both printed documents that ship with the system
> (Hardware and Demo Setup Guide, and Getting Started)
> say that the monitor should display a Xilinx splash
> screen initially. It doesn't. I've tried both the
> VGA out and DVI out, and gone over settings
> carefully (there are a couple of minor
> inconsistencies in the documentation, but I've
> tried a few variations.) I never got any video.
>
> Any suggestions? Do I just have a bad board,
> or am I overlooking something obvious?

I had something similar with a SP605 demo board.
(only green & purple stripes on the screen)
It turned out that the content of the flash card
was broken.
Really the flash was ok, but the embedded software
could only deal with _one_ file in a certain directory
or sth. like that.

Erasing the flash & reprogramming it with the
version from the USB stick made it work.

Such a thing MUST NOT HAPPEN on a demo system

regards,

Gerhard

who still doesn't have the USB download working
under Linux :-(

shyam wrote:
> On Apr 22, 7:30 am, Pete Fraser<pfra...@covad.net>  wrote:
>> I just took delivery of an ML605, and tried out
>> the demo to make sure the board was OK.
>> [...]
>> Any suggestions? Do I just have a bad board,
>> or am I overlooking something obvious?
>
> Having just an overview of the problem, if I have to debug, I would
> see if there is an RTL given with the demo example. If so, you will
> find the display controller in the RTL.

I might have to do that, but my intent was just to do
a quick functional check using the supplied demo.
I just wanted to see that the board was working
before I threw out the packing. I don't want to
spend too long debugging if the board is dead.

Pete

On Apr 22, 5:51=A0am, Pete Fraser <pfra...@covad.net> wrote:
> shyam wrote:
> > On Apr 22, 7:30 am, Pete Fraser<pfra...@covad.net> =A0wrote:
> >> I just took delivery of an ML605, and tried out
> >> the demo to make sure the board was OK.
> >> [...]
> >> Any suggestions? Do I just have a bad board,
> >> or am I overlooking something obvious?
>
> > Having just an overview of the problem, if I have to debug, I would
> > see if there is an RTL given with the demo example. If so, you will
> > find the display controller in the RTL.
>
> I might have to do that, but my intent was just to do
> a quick functional check using the supplied demo.
> I just wanted to see that the board was working
> before I threw out the packing. I don't want to
> spend too long debugging if the board is dead.
>
> Pete

This page: <http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards/ml605/
reference_designs_12.4_archive.htm> has the instructions and data for
re-imaging the CF module (they call it the Compact Flash Flash).

I would start with that.

NeedCleverHandle wrote:

>
> This page:<http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards/ml605/
> reference_designs_12.4_archive.htm>  has the instructions and data for
> re-imaging the CF module (they call it the Compact Flash Flash).
>
> I would start with that.

That was the problem. Thanks.

When I looked at the CF card, the demo there was
something called "CDMA Benchmark Graphing".

It seems to run a small web server, and graphs
something when I point my browser at the
(hardcoded) ip address of the board.

The demo seems to work OK, but is not designed
to output anything from the board's video spigots.

It's a mystery to my why Xilinx ships nicely
printed color "getting started" guides with
detailed instructions on running the supplied demo,
then quietly substitute a _very_ different demo.

Pete

On Apr 23, 6:01=A0am, Pete Fraser <pfra...@covad.net> wrote:
> NeedCleverHandle wrote:
>
> > This page:<http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards/ml605/
> > reference_designs_12.4_archive.htm> =A0has the instructions and data fo=
r
> > re-imaging the CF module (they call it the Compact Flash Flash).
>
> > I would start with that.
>
> That was the problem. Thanks.
>
> When I looked at the CF card, the demo there was
> something called "CDMA Benchmark Graphing".
>
> It seems to run a small web server, and graphs
> something when I point my browser at the
> (hardcoded) ip address of the board.
>
> The demo seems to work OK, but is not designed
> to output anything from the board's video spigots.
>
> It's a mystery to my why Xilinx ships nicely
> printed color "getting started" guides with
> detailed instructions on running the supplied demo,
> then quietly substitute a _very_ different demo.
>
> Pete

Going through comp.arch.fpga gets oneself a lot of information. Now I
know Xilinx has thing thing of quietly substituting a different
demo :-)

On Apr 22, 6:01=A0pm, Pete Fraser <pfra...@covad.net> wrote:
> NeedCleverHandle wrote:
>
> > This page:<http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards/ml605/
> > reference_designs_12.4_archive.htm> =A0has the instructions and data fo=
r
> > re-imaging the CF module (they call it the Compact Flash Flash).
>
> > I would start with that.
>
> That was the problem. Thanks.
>
> When I looked at the CF card, the demo there was
> something called "CDMA Benchmark Graphing".
>
> It seems to run a small web server, and graphs
> something when I point my browser at the
> (hardcoded) ip address of the board.
>
> The demo seems to work OK, but is not designed
> to output anything from the board's video spigots.
>
> It's a mystery to my why Xilinx ships nicely
> printed color "getting started" guides with
> detailed instructions on running the supplied demo,
> then quietly substitute a _very_ different demo.
>
> Pete

There have been a couple of times were the wrong compact flash card
was included with the kit as part of the final assembly step.

Can you please confirm the full kit name that you ordered (should
start with EK- or DK-) and the part # (should begin with 108) on the
bag that the CF card came in so that I can try to figure out what
happened?

Thanks,

Ed McGettigan
--
Xilinx Inc.

Ed McGettigan wrote:

>
> There have been a couple of times were the wrong compact flash card
> was included with the kit as part of the final assembly step.
>
> Can you please confirm the full kit name that you ordered (should
> start with EK- or DK-) and the part # (should begin with 108) on the
> bag that the CF card came in so that I can try to figure out what
> happened?

Unfortunately I threw the packing away.
I think it was the right CF though.
The memory stick that came with the system contains
UG668 (v3.0), which is consistent with the CF.

The printed documentation is UG730 (v1.1) and discusses
the video demo. It also mentions software version 12.1.
Perhaps they enclosed the wrong printed material.

Strangely enough UG668 and UG730 both have the title:
"Getting Started with the Virtex-6 FPGA ML605
Embedded Kit".

The video demo would be of more interest to me,
but perhaps it's not compatible with 13.1?
I went back through the archives, but couldn't find
it with the 12.1 release. I'm not sure where it is.

Is there anywhere on the web site that gives a
summary of the various demos that run on the ML605
platform, and where to find them?

I'm really looking forward to the video demo that
I saw at x-tech, but I understand that won't be
available for a month or so.

Thanks

Pete

On Apr 25, 10:24=A0am, Pete Fraser <pfra...@covad.net> wrote:
> Ed McGettigan wrote:
>
> > There have been a couple of times were the wrong compact flash card
> > was included with the kit as part of the final assembly step.
>
> > Can you please confirm the full kit name that you ordered (should
> > start with EK- or DK-) and the part # (should begin with 108) on the
> > bag that the CF card came in so that I can try to figure out what
> > happened?
>
> Unfortunately I threw the packing away.
> I think it was the right CF though.
> The memory stick that came with the system contains
> UG668 (v3.0), which is consistent with the CF.
>
> The printed documentation is UG730 (v1.1) and discusses
> the video demo. It also mentions software version 12.1.
> Perhaps they enclosed the wrong printed material.
>
> Strangely enough UG668 and UG730 both have the title:
> "Getting Started with the Virtex-6 FPGA ML605
> Embedded Kit".
>
> The video demo would be of more interest to me,
> but perhaps it's not compatible with 13.1?
> I went back through the archives, but couldn't find
> it with the 12.1 release. I'm not sure where it is.
>
> Is there anywhere on the web site that gives a
> summary of the various demos that run on the ML605
> platform, and where to find them?
>
> I'm really looking forward to the video demo that
> I saw at x-tech, but I understand that won't be
> available for a month or so.
>
> Thanks
>
> Pete

Did you buy the EK-V6-ML605-G (base) or the DK-V6-EMBD-G-XP1 (embedded
processing) kit?

Most of the reference designs can be found at:
http://www.xilinx.com/ml605

Ed McGettigan
--
Xilinx Inc.