EBAZ4205 (Zynq-7000 based development board) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 18, 2020, 03:51:29 pm
content: Hi,there's a large number of these boards currently popping up on ebay and aliexpress, word is they're control boards from decommissioned bitcoin miners.Anyone around here already familiar with those? Artix-7 FPGA with a dual ARM Cortex-A9 cluster strapped on its back.

author: Khaveer
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2020, 07:37:15 pm
content: I've ordered one of those about a week ago. I'm still waiting for it to be shipped. There's a github repository with schematics and additional information:https://github.com/xjtuecho/EBAZ4205

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2020, 09:42:44 pm
content: https://hackaday.com/2020/11/18/hacking-the-fpga-control-board-from-a-bitcoin-miner/https://hackaday.com/2020/12/10/a-xilinx-zynq-linux-fpga-board-for-under-20-the-windfall-of-decommissioned-crypto-mining/

author: Dave
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2020, 04:25:27 am
content: I've ordered mine in early November, been playing with it for around 2 weeks now. I ordered it just out of curiosity, because I couldn't believe anyone would be selling ZYNQs with all of the required surrounding circuitry for that little. It didn't make sense, but I bought it anyway. Only when I found out later, that this was a repurposed board from an ASIC Bitcoin miner, did everything suddenly click into place.There are plenty of resources for this board online, but most of it is in Chinese (Google Translate has been rather helpful). Would be rather nice if we had more people working with it here.

author: Neekeetos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 06:19:11 am
content: For this money it is very good. Even better if you solder in some parts like PL clock... Im currently making a frequency meter out of this. Having raw time resolution of less than 10ps and ability to capture every edge of input signal I can store this data to DDR (up to 256MB) and process/analyze using dual core arm and then pass processed data via ethernet, and all this on a single board...

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 11:34:04 am
content: Been looking at these too, for the price, they look excellent value so I've ordered a couple.What toolchain are people using?

author: FlyingDutch
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 02:17:55 pm
content: Most likely Xilinx Vivado (together with Xilinx SDK for programming ARM hard CPU). Petalinux can also be taken into account.Regards

author: FenTiger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 04:25:26 pm
content: Quote from: Neekeetos on December 22, 2020, 06:19:11 amHow do you manage this?

author: Neekeetos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 04:42:13 pm
content: Quote from: FenTiger on December 22, 2020, 04:25:26 pmсarry chain delay line with latches. For this board ( slowest speed grade artix ) , single carry4 gives 70ps total delay. This is around 17ps delay per tap, if you are using 4 of them. After calibration rms error is ~ half of the tap delay.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 08:09:15 pm
content: You compare the signal to taps with increasing delay, to find the taps between which the edge is. The tap order tells you the temporal location of the edge.

author: FenTiger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2020, 03:52:18 am
content: Interesting.I have a breadboard/prototype of a "continuous timestamping" frequency counter on my bench which uses an XC7Z010 FPGA talking to TDC7200 ICs to actually sample the input edges.It's somewhat disappointing to think that I could have achieved ~5x better resolution by omitting the TDC7200s and just doing it all in the FPGA. Doh!Perhaps I'll give this a go when I get back to the project. Thanks!

author: Neekeetos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2020, 05:49:30 am
content: Quote from: thinkfat on December 22, 2020, 08:09:15 pmIt is rather complicated way of describing things. Delay line contents is captured every clock cycle of fpga, in my case it's 400Mhz. This creates say 100+ pointsof input signal , each of different delay . After calibration this is just equivalent of capture of signal with sampling rate 1/tau = 1/70ps/4 ~ 57GHzthis is the basic structuredelay line with decoder after implementation, marked yellow and greencapture of 125MHz external signal , slowly drifting about own fpga clock..Quote from: FenTiger on December 23, 2020, 03:52:18 amI could only guess that with TDC7200 you are having hard time counting actual edges. It has large dead time because of GRO . I once tried to implement GRO type TDC , but this was on spartan6 and result was rather noisy.

author: FenTiger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2020, 06:55:23 am
content: I'm not sure what you mean by GRO - can you explain? - but I'm not having any problems counting edges with it. The design works fine - it's just limited to the 55ps precision of the TDC7200. I haven't observed any "dead time" with it.

author: Neekeetos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2020, 07:03:30 am
content: Quote from: FenTiger on December 23, 2020, 06:55:23 amGRO = Gated Ring Oscillator. The method itself based on free running oscillator which is started with input start signal. After that, phase of input signal relative to ref clock is deduced via counting of ring oscillator cycles to phase match condition. Thus, while counting gro cycles you can not register a new event = dead time.

author: FenTiger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2020, 07:14:03 am
content: OK. I see what you mean. Yes, that's how the TDC7200 works.I wouldn't call that "dead time" in my counter because it doesn't delay the next measurement; the TDC7200 only counts for a couple of hundred nanoseconds, then there's some time spent pulling the measurement out of it via SPI, but none of this is "dead time" as such because the coarse counter is still running and it's still possible to measure the delta between the next edge and the reference clock without losing any time.I don't try to measure every edge. I can measure about 100,000 edges per second. With a 20MHz input signal that still lets a good few slip by.Anyway this is probably getting way off topic for this thread

author: mawildoer
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 07, 2021, 09:13:00 pm
content: Just ordered mine with the intention of building a basic ethernet-based oscilloscope/DAQ/something which resembles the red pitaya. Let's bet I'll be back with questions 😁

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2021, 08:48:49 am
content: Mine just arrived, I specified with SD card slot and the seller sent it with the slots installed, the resistor moved to boot from card and the headers for JTAG and UART populated.Weirdly didn't send it with D24 installed so it wouldn't power up.I stole the diode from one of the IO ports temporarily so it powers up and works perfectly but to a very limited Busybox.Next step is to download Vivado (It's *huge*) then work out some way to switch between NAND or SD and begin to experiment.Impressive little board and really good price.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2021, 11:14:05 am
content: Mine should be in the mailbox any day now. I also ordered with SD card slot installed. Let's see what I got when it's finally here.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2021, 12:42:21 pm
content: Quote from: mawildoer on January 07, 2021, 09:13:00 pmOh now *that's* an interesting idea, it hadn't occurred to me it's the same chip.Might have to order another couple

author: Khaveer
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2021, 02:15:17 pm
content: My board also recently arrived. I ordered the board without the SD card slot but they included one anyway along with .1 inch headers for JTAG and UART. For some reason I also got one male to male jumper cable all packed in an ESD shielding bag. The board itself was packed in one of those pink bubble-wrap bags.There was a ton of dust all ofer the board but after a quick IPA bath and some scrubbing it was good as new. Same as CJay I had to steal a diode from one of the other connectors.The Molex power connector is the same as those used in PC power supplies, so I was able to steal one from a scrap unit. From my initial experiments it would appear that the board can be powered using voltages lower than the specified 12V. I was able to go down to 5V and it was still running fine however I didn't yet test it under full load.Also I had to solder an adapter to connect my Digilent HS-3 JTAG adapter due to a different pin pitch.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2021, 05:45:08 pm
content: Very tempting price to order yet another toy, but I already have a box full of all kinds of unused devboards.Can anybody list a few more projects good for this board, so to lower the buying guilt, please?

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2021, 06:22:47 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 10, 2021, 05:45:08 pm

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2021, 06:31:53 pm
content: "How to build a picture frame" - Home Depot

author: tchicago
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2021, 09:53:47 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on January 10, 2021, 06:31:53 pmElectronic LCD picture frame that is *actually* usable and useful? Hmm, interesting project and FPGA can find a good use in there

author: agehall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 09:52:58 am
content: Damn you EEVBlog - I had promised myself that I wouldn't buy new toys in January. Now there are 5 boards on the way from China..I'm not sure what I'll do with them, just like the other 3 Zynq boards I have here already, but I really like the Zynq concept and I have a few ideas I'd like to try at some point in time.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 09:57:58 am
content: Quote from: agehall on January 11, 2021, 09:52:58 am*muwahahahaha* I've got another few on the way, they're too damn cheap and potentially useful for what you get.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 11:30:29 am
content: About using it for a photo frame, the FPGA part would be a waste in a project to display pics, thought. Other non FPGA SBCs (Single Board Computer) can display photos even better.Then, if it were to use the Zynq for A/V, there is a $20 Zynq 7010 with onboard SD card slot, USB, HDMI, sound (over HDMI), 1Gbit LAN and 512MB RAM, designed as a devboard. No tinkering, resoldering or reverse engineer required. Has proper software for either Linux or non Linux applications, and does not require a Xilinx programmer/debugger (Digilent compatible - not sure about the no programmer required yet, need to read the docs first).This QMTECH Bajie Board, for an extra $5, looks more tempting to me than a $15 EBAZ2405 and no USB, only 100Mbit LAN and only 256MB RAM. Or, maybe for yet another $5 extra get 2 EBAZ4205 boards for $25, but without SD card slot? IDK, hard choice!Without video out, there is even a 3rd option, a former Antminer board with Zynq 7010, also with 1Gbit LAN and 512MB RAM.Any of these 3 models of Zynq boards, all in $15-20 range, would be great for learning FPGA and/or Zynq. Some of them will need a little bit of reverse engineering, and the more reverse engineer required, the more learning acquired.But then I have a PlutoSDR for a few years now, which has a Zynq 7010 inside, and never bothered using it with Vivado.Either embedded Linux or FPGAs are not trivial to use in a project. Unless the project has a particular need for any of these, then it would all turn into a waste of time caused by overengineering the whole thing, or at best into a learning exercise.That might be the true reason for why the list of project examples here was so short.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 11:39:11 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 11, 2021, 11:30:29 amyou do not need a programmer for a Zynq, the ARM boots off the SD card and the bootloader or a linux application can configure the programmable logic

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 12:21:51 pm
content: Quote from: agehall on January 11, 2021, 09:52:58 amIt's going to be a while until the current generation (Zynq UltraScale+) hits ebay. Those are massively interesting. I'd save up shelf space until then

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 04:05:49 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 11, 2021, 11:30:29 amYou did not get the punThe post was about a Do It Yourself picture frame project to make an actual wooden frame for the board to hang it on the wall. Home Depot ( a home improvement store in North America) was a hint

author: Khaveer
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 04:39:51 pm
content: Does anyone recognize what's the model of the connectors used on those boards?

author: Neekeetos
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 04:43:01 pm
content: Quote from: Khaveer on January 11, 2021, 04:39:51 pmPHB 2.0mm 10x2 pins

author: abyrvalg
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 08:39:36 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 11, 2021, 11:30:29 amCould you please share a link? AliExpress sells those 7010 Bajie boards for $49.9

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 11, 2021, 11:35:01 pm
content: Found it in 2 places, but they are in generic stores, you know, like Home Depot.$11.84 no HDMI, $15.55 w HDMI + another $5.11 shipping to Romania (EU).https://www.homedepot.cn/item/1005001999656199.html$12.41 no HDMI, $16.30 w HDMI + another $4.77 shipping to Romania (EU).https://www.homedepot.cn/item/1005002006884404.htmlThought, there are zero orders so far. Not sure if this is a fake listing, a liquidation sale, or maybe just a wrong listing.I didn't order mainly because I already have a Zynq 7010 in a PlutoSDR, a too long bucket list of projects, and no justification for yet another board to just sit unused in a box. Already have too many unused parts bought because the price was too good. They were cheap for the times, but overall payed good money and never used them. Now, after years or decades later, all those are just electronic scrap cluttering the lab.Anyway, if you buy one, please tell if all went OK. Good luck with it!

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2021, 10:00:49 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 11, 2021, 11:35:01 pmprice on the official QMTech store is ~$50 + shipping so it sound a bit iffy

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2021, 11:36:32 am
content: "price on the official QMTech store is ~$50 + shipping so it sound a bit iffy"I fired an order, let's see what happens

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 13, 2021, 08:31:28 am
content: I've received the board yesterday. I installed D24 and powered it up and it draws about 50mA at 12V. Didn't get to connect a serial port yet, that will come next. Interestingly, the optocouplers are missing on my board and the bypass resistors are installed. Also, I'm missing the 25MHz crystal of the ethernet phy. But I guess the clock will come from somewhere else instead. Very excited to finally have the board on my desk.

author: Dave
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2021, 02:12:25 pm
content: If you're missing the 25 MHz crystal for the PHY, you will find that the resistor that connects the XTAL_IN to the PL is installed. You just need to configure the Zynq to output a 25 MHz clock on that pin.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 13, 2021, 05:13:48 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 13, 2021, 08:31:28 amNothing on the serial port at first and I was starting to worry, but then I realized that if I ordered a version with the SD card slot installed they'd also move the boot select resistor and that was indeed the case. I moved it back to the original position to boot from the NAND flash and it booted right up.I disabled the miner program and the system now seems to be working fine.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 08:35:59 am
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 13, 2021, 05:13:48 pmExactly how mine was, that resistor is tiny, if I move it again I might have to dig out my SMD tools and put the Weller Iron to one side for a bitInterested to know the version numbers (not that it's very useful as is, I think it'd be better served by the SD card and a Linux customised for my needs rather than a mining rig)

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 09:04:16 am
content: Quote from: CJay on January 14, 2021, 08:35:59 amI'll not move it again. I'm completely fine with it booting from NAND. I can always run a u-boot script to boot from SD card.The resistor is 0402 size if I'm not mistaken. That's still doable with pliers (misery starts with 0201). Just the solder alloy they used is awful and the boards have a lot of thermal mass. Best to clean the pads and then use good old 60/40.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2021, 09:56:38 am
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 14, 2021, 09:04:16 amHeh, yes, it is doable with tweezers.I should have known it was possible to boot from SD even after.

author: codebje
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 20, 2021, 02:04:07 am
content: I got a board with SD, UART, JTAG. Like others, the boot resistor has been moved for me - I'll move it back, I think. My 25MHz ETH crystal is also missing, with R1485 populated to provide a clock signal from the FPGA.My board also doesn't have the optocouplers for J3 and J5 (U67-70), but the power paths are all there (except of course D24).

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2021, 03:55:23 pm
content: After I spent half of the day downloading the Vivado design suite, can anyone provide a pointer to a good template project to start from? Looking for something that involves Petalinux, no baremetal. Ideally, a template that configures PL suitable for running Petalinux and spits out the necessary bitstream to get the board peripherals going.EDIT: meanwhile I found this:https://github.com/nightseas/ebit_z7010looks quite promising. But I think it's missing the secret sauce to output 25MHz the U18 pin (XOUT.0 in the schematic) to make ethernet work. If anyone has an idea how to configure this...

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2021, 05:26:06 pm
content: Quote from: ebclr on January 12, 2021, 11:36:32 amJust curious, did they ship you that order already? Does the order has a valid tracking number?Asking because those links I found 10 days ago are now showing EBAZ4205 boards instead of the 3 times more expensive QMTECH Bajie Board.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2021, 09:27:23 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 20, 2021, 03:55:23 pmAlright, here's what I found out so far:What some people do with earlier versions of the board is using the 25MHz clock from the ethernet phy as PL clock (clk_pl). This is rather simple to do, just configure pin U18 to LVCMOS33 and connect it to the "clk_pl" signal, then the ethernet phy can drive the PL clk. However, as I don't have the 25MHz crystal installed, I think what I need to do is route one of the FCLKs to that pin.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2021, 10:24:50 pm
content: Quote from: Dave on January 13, 2021, 02:12:25 pmI think I figured that out:- In the block design, open the Zynq Processing System block and enable the FCLK_CLK1 configured to 25MHz- Create an "External port", setting it to "output" and "clock", name it e.g. "enet0_phy_clk", then link it to the FCLK_CLK1 signal of the processing system- In the constraints, I added the following lines:Code:set_property PACKAGE_PIN U18 [get_ports enet0_phy_clk]set_property IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33 [get_ports enet0_phy_clk]Now, what's not so nice is that the default PLL setup doesn't allow for a 25MHz clock from the IO PLL. It's actually 25.142859 MHz. I think the phy won't like that a lot.

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2021, 11:19:18 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 20, 2021, 10:24:50 pmwhat are the PLL settings? generating 25MHz with a 33.333MHz input shouldn't be problem

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 21, 2021, 10:48:21 am
content: It looks like the problem is mainly Vivado itself. It doesn't quite cope with the fractional input frequency, you can input 33.333333 MHz as PS clock, but it will make all internal calculations without the fractional part (i.e. 33.0 MHz). That leads to incorrectly configured dividers for the PLLs.Example:With 6:2:1 clocking scheme, the IO PLL is given a 48 multiplier, which should be really close to 1.6GHz (1599.99998 MHz actually). But Vivado calculates the PLL clock to be 1584MHz (33MHz * 48).The FCLK1 clock setting of 25MHz leads to a calculated divider of 63, which is 25.142857 MHz (calculated) vs. 25.396825 MHz (actual). That's even worse. The correct divider would be 64, which would lead to a frequency of 24.999999... MHz.I wonder why? I found a Xilinx forum article about Vivado being sensitive to locale settings. That might be the case. I cannot believe such a bug would go otherwise unnoticed.EDIT: Indeed, it was a locale problem. If I start it with LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8" the calculations are all correct. So it didn't get the decimal point correctly and stopped parsing after "33.".

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2021, 11:04:46 am
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 21, 2021, 10:48:21 ampoint vs. comma ?with a 33.333333MHz input I get 30x for the IO pll = 1000MHz, and a /8 /5 to get a 25.0000MHz PL clock

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 21, 2021, 02:07:23 pm
content: Quote from: langwadt on January 21, 2021, 11:04:46 amYup, that was the reason in the end. Launching Vivado with an all-English locale did the trick. I had LC_NUMERIC set to "de_DE.UTF-8" and that made it disregard the decimal point.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 22, 2021, 04:48:23 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 21, 2021, 02:07:23 pmAnd the bitstream actually seems to work! I uploaded it via y-modem as I don't have any other interfaces connected yet and the used the "fpga loadb" to load the PL, and I get a 25MHz clock at the phy input. Just to double-check I then loaded the pre-built bitstream from the ebit_z7010 project and the 25MHz clock was missing. So my fumbling around in Vivado actually did something! That is really encouraging!

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2021, 05:59:17 pm
content: Good to know, I've got a week off work and a list of projects toplaywork on, installing and getting started with Vivado is on the list.

author: Jope
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2021, 03:42:07 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 11, 2021, 11:30:29 amWhere do you get the QMTECH Bajie Board for $20? In the QMTECH store on Aliexpress it costs $50.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2021, 04:44:48 pm
content: Quote from: Jope on January 23, 2021, 03:42:07 pmIt was a wrong listed article, now the content of those links I posted for the QMTECH board was changed to show EBAZ4205 boards instead of QMTECH.ebclrplaced an order for QMTECH before the content of the page was corrected, no idea what it was shipped, if anything:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/fpga/ebaz4205-(zynq-7000-based-development-board)/msg3411322/#msg3411322

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2021, 10:18:56 pm
content: The seller refused to sell and give money back

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 24, 2021, 09:37:21 am
content: I'm playing around with Vivado and adding stuff to the PL. I notice in the original devicetree there are just two IP instances in the PL, one is a BRAM controller, the other one is a Uartlite core. However, I don't see in the schematic any external connection for the Uartlite. Does anyone have a clue? I thought I could just use on of the fan control sockets, but unfortunately they are connected only to PS pins, not to PL pins.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 26, 2021, 07:48:29 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 24, 2021, 09:37:21 amI made a big step forward and fell into a hellhole. The big step was building my own linux kernel and devicetree and running it on the board. The hellhole was completely trashing the NAND flash with careless use of "nand write"I'm now clawing my way back up, but it involves doing things that I'd rather have avoided. Among these are:- using "Vitis" to create a FSBL that disregards the bootmode resistors and boots straight into JTAG mode- compiling a working u-boot for the board- loading the FSBL into on-chip memory via JTAG- actually modifying the JTAG (extending the CPLD buffer of a DP Busblaster V4) to have a UART on the second FTDI channel (this involves installing an ancient version of the Xilinx ISE toolchain to reprogram a Coolrunnner II CPLD and some VHDL hacking)- loading u-boot into DDR via JTAG and debugging it with gdb to find out why it doesn't start- finally getting u-boot to run, using the UART channel of the JTAG to talk to it- creating a working fsbl-uboot binary, uploading it via serial (y-modem) and flashing it into NAND <-- I AM HEREObviously, I had a lot of fun

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2021, 11:23:42 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on January 26, 2021, 07:48:29 pmno SD card socket?

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 07:34:31 am
content: Quote from: langwadt on January 26, 2021, 11:23:42 pmYes, a socket. But no card :-( and no chance to get one over the weekend.PS: back in business. I had a problem with the NAND timing, I had it set way too aggressive and so the FSBL was reading garbage during boot. I have now a FSBL+bitstream+u-boot image in flash again and can start recovering the rest of the system. I'll make some modifications to the partition layout as I go further, I want the uboot environment in a flash partition so that I can make persistent modifications to the boot process.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 30, 2021, 12:01:04 am
content: The board is now fully restored. Of course the original flash content (and whatever was in the PL before) is lost. But I managed to piece together a petalinux system that is at least as good as what was previously on the board. Ethernet works, so my modification of the PL to provide a phy clock through one of the PS-PL clocks was successful.Originally I had a second FCLK generating the 25MHz, meanwhile I've added a "clock wizard" IP block to the PL to generate the 25MHz from the 100MHz AXI clock. But I wonder what is more valuable, the FCLK output or the PL fabric allocated to the clock wizard, which seems to be quite an elaborate thing.Maybe it's now time to find out how to write my own VHDL code and integrate a simple clock divider instead of the clock wizard. That sounds like a nice first project.

author: mgal
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 04:37:23 am
content: I got the same crystal-less board and built Petalinux and PYNQ from scratch. Now I can program the logic with the ARM core, and I got a python interface along the way. Excellent purchase.https://webuiltawallwebuiltthepyramids.blogspot.com/

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 09:00:47 am
content: Quote from: mgal on January 31, 2021, 04:37:23 amOh now those blogposts look like they answer a few of my questions.

author: dtodorov
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2021, 09:41:39 pm
content: Just received my order of EBAZ4205 after of more than a month of patience.As I hear commonly a common symptom, it was missing the D24 and after a donor schottky transplant the board became alive, giving it's output on over the UART. The seller was kind enough to provide a TF slot in the plastic bag along with a few 2.54mm headers for JTAG.Still not sure where to go with this board though. At this moment in life I am not a huge fan of embedded linux, so I plan going bare metal on the board in the coming weeks.

author: crossroad
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2021, 11:52:48 pm
content: You can find these boards going for $5 shipped if you find the right sellers. Would there be any sense to reflow off the Zynq chip for use in an actual design?

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 01:34:21 am
content: Quote from: crossroad on March 21, 2021, 11:52:48 pmWhere did you found them for $5? Have a link, please?

author: crossroad
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 03:08:55 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on March 22, 2021, 01:34:21 amI picked up 21 of them for 34 CNY each through Taobao iOS app. (Yes I love hoarding stuff)If you really want a link I can try to get you something but I don't think it'll be easy, I think you need to register with mainland China phone number and stuff.You should be able just to search for these on Taobao and go through the 30 or so listings for the cheap & legit ones. I'd imagine that these sellers are pretty close to the source of the surplusAlso they came pretty dusty and two had chipped inductors, had to fill bathtub to clean them all. They all worked thoughNow the question is if there'd be any sense to reflow off the Zynq chip for use in an actual design

author: dtodorov
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 06:38:41 am
content: On aliexpress they cost as little as $15 including shipping. I am also interested in potential $5 options

author: crossroad
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 07:55:04 am
content: Quote from: dtodorov on March 22, 2021, 06:38:41 amI think aliexpress is just an english facing front for taobao, with a pretty hefty markup. I was originally planning to get it from aliexpress but luckily one of my family orders from taobao every few months.Are there any good resources on getting started with using the FPGA with Vivado? I booted up the software a few days ago and have totally no idea what is going on

author: dtodorov
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 08:03:05 am
content: There are some github repos, if you follow the links there eventually you can reach some chinese tutorials (google translate kinda does the work)https://github.com/xjtuecho/EBAZ4205https://github.com/Elrori/EBAZ4205

author: crossroad
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 08:09:14 am
content: Quote from: dtodorov on March 22, 2021, 08:03:05 amFortunately I can read chinese! I looked through some of them but it's still hard to make sense of what to do. I've only really had experience with hardware and embedded stuff.I shelved this little project for now, last time I tried I couldn't get past the "generate bitstream" part in vivado

author: dtodorov
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 08:48:45 am
content: TBH, I am also new to embedded PL+PS systems. This is my first zynq board, but the concept is quite appealing for what I intend to do in future projects.I kicked-off reading random online docs and youtube videos. These series are kinda good for starters (I recommend x1.5 watch speed)

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 03:13:41 pm
content: Quote from: crossroad on March 22, 2021, 03:08:55 amI wouldn't use them for commercial designs, but for hobby and maybe prototypes - why not, if you don't mind reballing them and dealing with a chance that they will fail after three thermal cycles (desoldering, reballing and soldering onto a new board).That said, I'm pretty sure you can find actual chips for a similar price in China if you look really hard, though of course there will be no guarantee that they will actually work either.

author: crossroad
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 05:43:57 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on March 22, 2021, 03:13:41 pmPart of the reason that I trust these xilinx chips more is because they're on these bitcoin boards. I don't think I've came across a single genuine seller from various sample buys - I've gotten fakes of everything from IRFP260, IRFB7730, IRLB8721, to STM32 with extra dimples and logic chips with steel legs.The thermal cycle thing is a very good point - is the datasheet pretty generous about this like they're just being conservative or do chips really start failing within 3 reflow cycles?

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2021, 06:42:08 pm
content: Quote from: crossroad on March 22, 2021, 05:43:57 pmI'm yet to encounter a single Xilinx FPGA I bought on Aliexpress that was a dud, but there is always a chance for that, and in any case long-term reliability might be questionable because who knows where these chips came from - it could be an "old new stock", or they could be removed from a board and reballed.Quote from: crossroad on March 22, 2021, 05:43:57 pmWell in actuality it means at least 4 cycles, as one more cycle was to mount them on a board in the first place.The only info I was able to find regarding official Xilinx position on remounting:https://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/7830.htmlThere is also an appnote for flip-chip packages:https://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/application_notes/xapp426.pdfbut I think Z010 devices are all wirebond packages so that appnote does not apply. Basically they are saying - "do it if you have to/want to, but we do not guarantee anything and so you assume all the risk".