Welcome back NGW100!

March 9, 2010

[Warning: This post is a backup recovery from my previous Wordpress blog. All content was automatically converted accessing a MySQL database using a Python script (details). Mostly are in Portuguese but if you are interest I can translate to English. If you found any problem dont’t hesitate to contact me in comments.]

A some time ago I've bricked my NGW100 board by overwritten the U-boot from flash. To fix it was necessary using a JTAG interface, so I check some alternatives.

Considering that NGW100 itself costs about US$ 89.00 could be more cheaper get another board than buying a JTAG device. Note that I looking for way to allow a programming Interface to flash and not other features available in a JTAG like source level debugging.

The bootloader for the NGW is stored in the parallell flash

Searching for a inexpensive solution I found this AVR Freaks thread teaching how to use cable wiggler or byteblaster to flash NGW. Everyone that used Altera FPGA at least one time know about Byteblaster cable, was easy found one at university and try (thanks Prof. Robson Moreno)

I'm using Byteblaser I

I've compiled a new u-boot binary from BSP code and used a too called avr32prog (it's windows-only) to record.

avr32prog.exe -c byteblaster -p LPT1 -f u-boot.img prog

The process is extremely slow, about 35 minutes to flash a 100kbyte binary (~ 50bps)

I have not had success the first time due some kind of "writing error". I noted that if I use the computer (i.e.: browsing) when avr32prog is running the error happens faster, so I started the program a let flash the board "alone". After finished just turn off the board, unplug JTAG connector and turn on the board again. It's nice to see serial working again :-)

U-Boot 1.1.4-at0 (Mar 9 2010 - 01:55:04) U-Boot code: 00000000 -> 000149cf data: 24000000 -> 24002d80 SDRAM: 32 MB at address 0x10000000 Testing SDRAM...OK malloc: Using memory from 0x11fc0000 to 0x12000000 Flash: 8 MB at address 0x00000000 DRAM Configuration: Bank #0: 10000000 32 MB In: serial Out: serial Err: serial Net: macb0, macb1 Press SPACE to abort autoboot in 1 seconds Uboot>