Custom JTAG debugger for Xilinx FPGAs based on FT22x chips - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2022, 09:17:08 pm
content: Xilinx quietly released an utility which allows to program EEPROM for FTDI's FT22x chips such that they will be recognized by their toolchain:https://docs.xilinx.com/r/en-US/ug908-vivado-programming-debugging/Programming-FTDI-Devices-for-Vivado-Hardware-Manager-SupportOne no longer needs to buy overpriced JTAG modules from Digilent (or resort to illegal methods) if he/she wants to have a USB JTAG debugger on a board. That's a great move by Xilinx, even though I will still probably use my HS3 cable with TagConnect to save money and space for all of that programming stuff.

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 08:39:40 am
content: I have designed a PCB based on FT2232H, and I can use it with Gowin and Xilinx tools,If I program the EEPROM with Digilent HS2 content it can be recognized by xilinx tools (ISE and viavdo), for Gowin devices I should erase the EEPROM, so it can be recognized by their tool.I have emailed Gowin to add the support for Digilent HS2, and they said the tools already should work! But it’s not working, and Every time I need to switch tools, I just reprogram the EEPROM for now, if someone suggest any workaround this, it would be very nice.I wonder if the FT2232H can be used for ARM (keil) tools to act like a JTAG/SWD debugger, then I just need to carry one universal tool for programing and debugging.Companies should give up making money on debugging tools, because it’s a small margin compared to selling chips and it just makes the customer work harder.

author: NorthGuy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 03:07:01 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on October 24, 2022, 09:17:08 pmGood decision. If only you could buy something you can program with it.The EEPROM programming wasn't strictly necessary for configuring FPGA. It was only needed for Vivado and tools, not for FPGA. I wrote my own program to configure the FPGA with a given bitstream and could do it without any keys in EEPROM.Quote from: ali_asadzadeh on October 25, 2022, 08:39:40 amNo doubts about this.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 03:39:25 pm
content: Quote from: ali_asadzadeh on October 25, 2022, 08:39:40 amif gowin just expects an empty eeprom, a series resistor and a jumper to short DOUT on the eeprom ?

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 06:23:10 pm
content: Quote from: NorthGuy on October 25, 2022, 03:07:01 pmWhat do you mean?

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 06:27:04 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on October 25, 2022, 06:23:10 pmI suspect he's hinting at Xilinx IC being made from an extra rare kind of unobtanium

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 06:49:02 pm
content: Quote from: langwadt on October 25, 2022, 06:27:04 pmAh, they are not alone in this, and I wonder if it ever gets back to any semblance of normalcy. At least I was able to find some scraps of them on the Aliexpress for cheap, which were good enough for prototyping/devboards.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 08:49:50 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on October 25, 2022, 06:49:02 pmlook this guy, 1260 spartn6 for "only" $90K from possibly sketchy sourcehttps://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/ycywk3/hello_early_retirement/

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2022, 09:25:51 pm
content: Quote from: langwadt on October 25, 2022, 08:49:50 pmNo, I'm not crazy enough to risk that kind of money, and besides I use 7 series devices in my projects. I meant more like buying 3-4-5 devices for under $100 per device on Aliexpress, which stays under my threshold of the amount of money I'm willing to risk, and it's enough for a couple of iterations of a prototype or a devboard. For example, I've managed to snag five Zynq-030's for like $90 a year or so ago, but still can't settle on what I want to do with them.

author: laugensalm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 26, 2022, 06:06:02 pm
content: The various forks of `xc3sprog` had support for most ISE-supported chips (including a few of the 7 series) for the last 15 years for FT2232* adapters and used to be way faster than its counterpart `Impact` or the flaky digilent equivalent `Adept`. Some folks (including me) had also hacked around on cable servers that worked with Impact. I believe this is now called virtual cable and has obviously some open source support, too.So: They're a bit late, but maybe not for the Windows/Vivado user domain.