Cant boot from usb or SD card

[mrdouble]

I have tried everything to boot from both USB Stick or SD card. First thing I did was to download the PDF for instructions on steps to program from FPGA on my Nexys4DDR. I followed the instructions but the busy light just slowly fades in and out, one of the PDF said this pattern indicates its waiting for media to be inserted.

ok, so everything i did (MANY times):

Moved jumpers to appropriate positions according to PDF and Nexys board print.

Pressed the program button, held the program button.

Loaded two different .bit files from working projects. On both SD card and USB stick (one at a time and the only file on newly partitioned media.)

Formatted SD card with exFAT which was the only option in windows 10. Busy LED still blinks.

Downloaded a old 3rd party formatter so i could format with FAT32. Busy LED still blinks.

Tested SD card and USB stick on different computer.

I thought Pic chip driver on might be dead so I downloaded  and successfully and ran a USB keyboard demo project  from Digilent.

 

I'm out of ideas, please help

Micheal

[D@n]

@mrdouble,

Can you program the device via JTAG and a direct connect to your computer?  While it's not required, it might help to eliminate the possibility that the design isn't doing what you are expecting it to do.

After that, let's start with USB first.  I understand you have a USB stick with a file in the root directory named something.bit, right?

Can you post a picture showing your USB stick inserted into your Nexys board, together with the jumper settings for the board?  The jumper settings are where I'd expect to look for problems of this type, but ... I've been wrong before.  If nothing else it'd be the place to start.

Thanks,

Dan

[Ana-Maria Balas]

 

Hi @mrdouble,

In addition to what @D@n said, could you try to format the SD or USB to FAT32 with the allocation unit size of 16K or 32K ?

[mrdouble]

Ok, I formated both SD and USB to 32k and busy is still slow blinking. I tried a name brand USB stick as well and formated to fat32 with 16k. Still no luck. Dan, I've included pics of jumper settings for both is and SD card. 

[D@n]

@mrdouble,

Looks like JP1 isn't quite set right.  It should be covering the last two pins if I read the reference manual properly.

Dan

[Ana-Maria Balas]

JP2 has to be set to SD when using Micro SD or set to USB when using USB. 

In the third picture I see that JP2 it's on SD, but it is inserted the USB thumb drive. Also do you use both SD and USB at the same time?

Another thing, when you generated the bitstream, did you configure to generate a compressed bitstream?

If the bitstream is large then it will take a while to program the board. How much time did you wait?

[mrdouble]

Dan, the jumper looks strange because I guess the angle of camera but it's set accordingly. 

The file is 4 Meg's. I thought compression was optional so I didn't attempt it. Will do that right now. 

[mrdouble]

So I compressed the file down to 400kb. As of right now its still slow blinking for over 15 mins. 

*************************************************

**Nexys A7 Reference Manual**

"*When steadily lit, the auxiliary microcontroller is either booting up or currently reading the configuration medium (microSD or pen drive) and downloading a bitstream to the FPGA.

A slow pulse means the microcontroller is waiting for a configuration medium to be plugged in.

In case of an error during configuration, the LED will blink rapidly*."

*********"*************************************

As for the question about the SD and USB at same time. I just left the SD card in because I'm in fear of losing the actual card in the couch cushions it so just easier to leave in. I am concentrating on the USB right now because it's easier to pull in and out. 

[Ana-Maria Balas]

I will try to make a simple demo, like blinking some LEDs, for you to test it and store on your SD card. Maybe there is something about how you configure the project, if it works on my Nexys 4DDR board, it should also work on yours.

I'll get back to you.

[mrdouble]

So I found the magical combination on a new USB stick and its working fine.  Whats weird is that I still cant get the original USB stick working.  I still cant figure out why the SD Card isn't working which is really the media I want to use.

Seriously, thanks to both of you.

Micheal from Michigan

[Ana-Maria Balas]

That's great!