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Basys3 nor CMOD A7 connect in hardware manager


David Marion

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Hello,

I have two FPGA boards from Digilent, both with Xilinx Arty A7; Basys3 and CMOD A7 15T. Neither one will connect through the hardware manager on Vivado. I am able to use the Basys3 by generating a raw bit file and saving it to a USB memory stick and inserting it into the Basys3, but the CMOD A7 does not have a USB port for raw bit files. How frustrating that the hardware manager does not connect to any board I plug into my computer. I have seen a few forums that outline the same issue, with NO ANSWERS. This is unsatisfactory! How can I have two different boards and neither will connect? How can I utilize this awesome technology for engineering, if it doesn't work, and I cannot find the answer to fix the problem. I have asked on this forum before, a while back for help on connecting the Basys3, with no help. 

Two boards, neither will connect for JTAG programming through mini-usb port. Has to be an issue with Vivado or what?

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HELP???!!!

 

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Caveat to my own post. 

I have followed the connection guide provided by Digilent, to no avail. Also, the guide is severely outdated as all the Vivado screenshots are from older versions. I am using Vivado 2019.2. 

Is anyone else having this issue?

Has anyone else that has had this issue resolved it? How?

And, can someone at Digilent please update the connection guide to reflect the newer version of Vivado? Please?!!!! OMG, how frustrating, because it should work! 

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Let's see if we can solve this.
What OS is Vivado running on?
Have you queried the OS tools to see if any USB devices get enumerated when you plug in the USB cables ( and for the Basys3 have the board powered on? ). For Windows this would be Device Manager ( usbview.exe is more helpful ) and for Linux it would be :

  • dmesg | grep usb
  • lsusb

lsusb has command line options for more verbose replies.

Vivado 2019.2 isn't the best version to use as it was the first time Xilinx abandoned the SDK tools and forced everyone to use Vitis. I still use Vivado 2019.1 for normal FPGA development. For FPGA boards using older devices there's no good reason to download 40+ GBs of buggy** tools. You might find Vivado 2018.x a better fit. Though lately both Intel and Xilinx have made finding the older versions of the tools hard to acquire. Basic Vivado Hardware Manager to FPGA board connection should work regardless of the Vivado version.

** I really want to embark on a rant thinking about how companies release software that they they've lost that ability to control due to its size... but I'll be good today...

Edited by zygot
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, for answering, and not only answering but providing some very plausible solutions that I shall begin to undertake right after this reply. 

I suppose I did a mini rant there, but I see you might be a ranter, as well. 

To answer you questions:

Windows 10

A device shows up on COM4, but I am not certain that is it.

I am just doing FPGA, so I don't use Vitis. I will try an earlier version of Vivado.

Thanks again for your insight and helpfulness in my mini crisis.

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2 hours ago, David Marion said:

A device shows up on COM4, but I am not certain that is it.

Most of Digilent's FPGA boards use an FTDI USB bridge device that can have 2 or more endpoints, all using one cable. One is used for JTAG and one as a UART. Vivado Hardware Manager communicates through the JTAG endpoint, so COM4 isn't what you are looking for. If you look under Universal Serial Bus Controllers in Deevice Manager you should see a USB Serial Converter show up when you plug in a cable attached to your board.

The CMOD-A7 uses the same cable for programming and UART communications so a COMxx device will also show up. So how do you know what device goes with your cable? Look at the OS tools that list USB devices before you plug in the cable and then after; you should be able to identify the device associated with the cable.

Win10 likes to control device drivers and this isn't always in the users best interests. I do a lot of work with FPGA development and USB devices so I wrest control from Win10 for certain device drivers.

usbview is a utility that (I think) you can get from FTDI and it is a lot more informative about USB devices enumerated by Windows.

 

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I love happy resolutions to frustrating problems.

Digilent could be more proactively helpful for basic customer issues. Perhaps a FAQ section or topical list of problem resolutions that customers could sift through on the web site? We all know that trying to update all documentation to keep up with problems caused by Xilinx tools version releases isn't feasible. But there has to be a better way, right?

 

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