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I'm confused on how to setup the 123 board for P2 testing — Parallax Forums

I'm confused on how to setup the 123 board for P2 testing

I can finally talk to it now. It was lonely. Now it's hungry!

Anyone have a dead simple, do x, y, z pointer or comment here to share?

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Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2015-10-14 15:20
    Did you get the P2 image loaded?

    Power it up and flip the switch next to power connector to "PGM"
    >px.exe /p /x Prop123_A7.........rbf

    where x is your com port #

    Switch to "RUN" and it should reset and reload FPGA. I usually power mine of just to make sure I load the latest. From here on, you just leave it in "RUN" and write PASM and load it with Ctl-F11 from PNUT.

    Are getting to it through PNUT?

    COM port less than 10 should work for that.

    Ctl-G will query the hardware version.

    If you have gotten here, start cranking out code!!!

    I can't think of any other steps.

    all_cogs_blink.spin should load and start light a blinkin'

    Code examples?? I got a couple, nothing fancy.

    What else you looking for??
  • Oh, I think you got it. My PX command was wrong. (goes off to try it)

  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2015-10-14 15:35
    All COGS blinky works now! It was my PX command.

    Now, what is the difference in the DAC output? My test frame program should work on both boards, and it doesn't.

    Sine DAC program doesn't work either.

  • Not that I know the answer but I assume your other board is the DE2 with the Parallax daughter board?

    I haven't done any video.

    There's a schematic somewhere in the 1-2-3 FPGA thread if that would help. Maybe in the .ZIP files Chip first shared with us 1-2-3 people?
  • Yes, it's a DE2 with the add on board.
  • rjo__rjo__ Posts: 2,114
    For anyone that comes across this thread. Easiest way... drop px.exe onto command prompt ... space... drop your .rbf file onto command prompt ... space ... enter what is between the following quotes "/P /" and then your port number.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    edited 2015-10-15 19:44
    Thanks for this. I just got mine today and thought I had to use the Quartus software to program it...

    I imagine now that the Quartus software won't work since it's using a P1 for programming...

    I just have to find a power supply now.. I wish they'd charged $10 more and included one...
  • rjo__rjo__ Posts: 2,114
    The spec is for 5A at 9-12v. Not cheap:)
    Others have had luck with far less.
  • rjo__ wrote: »
    The spec is for 5A at 9-12v. Not cheap:)
    Others have had luck with far less.
    I found one on Amazon for $8 including shipping.

  • rjo__rjo__ Posts: 2,114
    Mine should have been plated in gold:)
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    Please let me know of the Amazon one works.
    If it does, I'll have to get one too...
  • Also the Jameco ones I suggested and mindrobots evaluated
    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1338872/#Comment_1338872
  • Rayman wrote: »
    Please let me know of the Amazon one works.
    If it does, I'll have to get one too...
    This is the one I bought and it seems to work fine.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZZV6TA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    I just plugged my DE2-115 power supply into the P123 board and something looks very wrong...

    The power LED blinks off after a second or so. Sometimes the red and green LEDs with flash on right before power blinks off.

    I guess either 12V, 2A is not enough, or there's something wrong with the board...
  • 12V @ 2A is enough. I'm running mine on 1.5A, and it's fine.

    However, I still am unable to get DAC output on my 123. Right now, I'm using the DE2, and may come back to investigate more. For me personally, I can wait, and or upgrade to the A9 version, and my time is better spent writing PASM than it is digging through what might be wrong with the 123...

  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    Thanks. I just inspected the board to look for any shorts or something...

    Everything looked perfect, except for some white residue on where the USB pins connect to the board. I cleaned that with alcohol and now it seems better...

    Now, it stays on after all the LEDs light and it looks like LEDs GRN 15..12 are doing a binary count. Is that how it comes programmed?
  • Rayman wrote: »
    Thanks. I just inspected the board to look for any shorts or something...

    Everything looked perfect, except for some white residue on where the USB pins connect to the board. I cleaned that with alcohol and now it seems better...

    Now, it stays on after all the LEDs light and it looks like LEDs GRN 15..12 are doing a binary count. Is that how it comes programmed?
    Mine did something like that when I first powered it on. Flash Chip's FPGA image and you'll get a single red LED indicating that COG 0 iz running. Then you can start having fun!

  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    Thanks. I got COM8, so I guess I'm in good shape.

    I just PNut to "Get Hardware Version" and it tells me P1.

    Interestingly, doing that gives me similar behavior to my earlier issue, i.e., LEDs go out and then red LED on Prop hat lights up. Main difference is that the Power LED doesn't flicker when doing this.

    Anyway, I think it was the goop on the USB pins messing it up. Looked like it might have been solder flux, but don't know why that would be there...
  • Switch the jumper so you're talking to the FPGA instead of the onboard P1.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    Ok, I tried the 4 variations of Prog/Run switch and P8X32A PGM.
    It only finds something with switch set to Prog and the jumper on PGM.

    I'm guessing I need to flash the rbf file.
    I read from the top posts that the switch needs to be on PGM.
    What about the jumper?
    What position should it be in for using px on the rbf file?
  • Yes, you need to use PX to flash the FPGA image. You need the switch in PGM and the jumper set to the FPGA not the P1. Then just use the command:

    px /P /8 foo.rbf
  • I had problems getting px.exe load the p2 image to the 123 board with my windows 7 box, I then tired another computer with windows 10 and it loaded the image no problems, the interesting part is putn.exe works on both machines with no problems
  • Roadster wrote: »
    I had problems getting px.exe load the p2 image to the 123 board with my windows 7 box, I then tired another computer with windows 10 and it loaded the image no problems, the interesting part is putn.exe works on both machines with no problems
    That's interesting. I programmed my 1-2-3 board with a Win7 machine. I need to spend some time to get px ported to Mac / Linux.

  • I'm not sure how they came up with the power requirements of 12 @ 5A, I measured the actual current with my fluke true rms meter with the blink all demo running and it only draws 220 mA
  • Could someone at Parallax do a current summary of P2 , where it is, is the altera the only way to get one??? I'm getting lost in the thicket of threads. Or did I just miss something and the P2 is already in production???

    Thanks.
  • It's not in production. We are in testing right now, and that means an FPGA is required to run p2 code.

    We are in early testing too. The boot process is simplified for the purpose of running instructions, looking for bugs, etc... When this stage is complete, the boot process will flesh out, encryption added, boot methods, etc... Clock speed is 50Mhz, a fraction of what is planned for the real device.

    A few FPGA boards are supported. Altera DE2 and Nano, along with the Parallax A7 FPGA based 123 board. It's a partial emulation too, some of the COGS, and a few DAC outputs.

    There is also smart pin development to complete. That may come before we improve on the actual boot process. Chip will have to tell us that. The smart pins will have some small amount of computing power centered right on the pin! A general expectation is to move some tasks to the pins, which will communicate with the rest of the chip via some special instructions.

    Documentation is in progress. We've got a small subset documented, with more as we are testing and Chip works through the docs, which compete with bug fixes and or minor tweaks as they are found to make sense.

  • Thanks !!
    I've read/heard/dreamed that pins will have a/d capability....any idea on what the resolution will be?
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,640
    Darn it... I thought I had my power glitch issue all figured out.
    Then, it just happened again... Power light flickering like crazy...
    But then, after a few minutes and power cycles, it's all better.
    At least it sometimes works... Very strange...

    I now think it's something with the power supply. Happened to notice two twin looking switching supply units with big caps on the left side of the board. Touching the smts on bottom side of one of them makes power go crazy, but other one is not affected.
    Maybe if the problem comes back, I'll investigate more...
  • So far, 8 bits, fast stream from ram to dacs, gortzel, etc..
  • Check the plug fit. Mine is a bit loose.
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