how to configure proploader for different clkmode

Comments

• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-12 14:05

  There are three different baud rate variables. I think you want "fast-loader-baudrate". However, you'll have to set the "fast-loader-clkmode" and "fast-loader-clkfreq" variables as well if you use a non-standard clock.
• Bean Posts: 8,129

  2019-07-12 21:32 edited 2019-07-12 21:41

  I use SimpleIDE and I have the same problem. Can you tell me how to change "fast-loader-clkmode" and "fast-loader-clkfreq" ?
  
  I use it to compile .spin files and the only board available is "Generic" and I don't see a generic.cfg file.
  
  I guess my question then is "How do I pick a different board when using .spin ?".
  
  Or is there a way to tell SimpleIDE to not use the fast loader and just load the normal way ?
  
  Thanks,
  Bean
  
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 05:26

  Bean wrote: »

  I use SimpleIDE and I have the same problem. Can you tell me how to change "fast-loader-clkmode" and "fast-loader-clkfreq" ?
  
  I use it to compile .spin files and the only board available is "Generic" and I don't see a generic.cfg file.
  
  I guess my question then is "How do I pick a different board when using .spin ?".
  
  Or is there a way to tell SimpleIDE to not use the fast loader and just load the normal way ?
  
  Thanks,
  Bean

  Sorry, I don't know anything about SimpleIDE. Check with Jeff Martin at Parallax for SimpleIDE questions.
  
  
• RalfSt Posts: 19

  2019-07-13 09:01

  I now have the following setup, but is still does not work:
  

  proploader -D "fast-loader-baudrate=115200" -D "fast-loader-clkmode=xtal1" -D "fast-loader-clkfreq=5000000" -p $DEVICE -r $BINRAY
  

  
  I get the exact same output
• RalfSt Posts: 19

  2019-07-13 09:06 edited 2019-07-13 09:09

  Sorry, I just copied your varaible names. In the help-output they are shown different. After fixing the names they get appied. Sadly there is no uniform naming. (I'll write a bug-report for this)
  

  proploader -D "fast-loader-baud-rate=115200" -D "fastloader-clkmode=xtal1" -D "fast-loader-clkfreq=5000000" -p $DEVICE -r $BINARY
  

  
  I still have the situation that the binary gets downloaded twice:
  

   Downloading file to port /dev/ttyUSB0
   Using single-stage download      
   Downloading file to port /dev/ttyUSB0
   1456 bytes sent                  
   Verifying RAM
   Download successful!
  

  
  Is there a way to avoid this?
  At least the process is fast again, thank you
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 09:17

  Hmm... You're right about the names not being consistent. I'll look into changing that. Also, you don't need the -clkfreq or -clkmode settings if you're using the standard ones. I misread your original post and thought you were saying that you were using non-standard settings.
  
  I'll have to look but it might not really be downloading the file twice. It might just be that the message is displayed twice. That's a bug of course but not as serious a bug as if the download really is done twice. Thanks for reporting this.
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 09:24

  FYI, this is the default configuration if you don't have a .cfg file:

  baudrate: 115200
  loader-baud-rate: 115200
  fast-loader-baud-rate: 921600
  rxpin: 31
  txpin: 30
  sdspi-do: 22
  sdspi-clk": 23
  sdspi-di: 24
  sdspi-cs: 25
  

  The rxpin and txpin variables really aren't needed. They are there for historical reasons and should probably be removed. Also, note that it is really "fast-loader-clkmode" not "fastloader-clkmode". That's that difference is just a help text bug.
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 09:52

  In looking at this more it seems what you really need to do is to add this to the command line and forget the other variables:

  -D loader=rom
  

  That may get rid of your duplicate load messages.
• RalfSt Posts: 19

  2019-07-13 09:52

  I just made an observation:
  
  I had some jitter issues with the UART so I had to increase the clock speed to 10MHz. (-D "fastloader-clkmode=xtal1+pll2x")
  In this situation proploader directly comes with the "Using single-stage download" instead of first downloading the binary using another method.
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 09:54

  RalfSt wrote: »

  I just made an observation:
  
  I had some jitter issues with the UART so I had to increase the clock speed to 10MHz. (-D "fastloader-clkmode=xtal1+pll2x")
  In this situation proploader directly comes with the "Using single-stage download" instead of first downloading the binary using another method.

  As I mentioned above, your command line should really be:

  -D "fast-loader-clkmode=xtal1+pll2x"
  

  Also, I don't think the quotes are really necessary.
  
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 10:07

  Really, the fast loader is a lot faster for large programs. It's based on Jeff Martin's loader protocol and Parallax wanted to use it for all loads. That's why it's kind of awkward to disable it.
• RalfSt Posts: 19

  2019-07-13 12:02

  What does "loader = rom" do different?
  
  Is there any documentation for proploader beside the --help option?
  
  ps.: I use "" around the parameter to make it more obvious that this is an argument to a program and not an equation that gets evaluated by the shell (like $((1+1)) ). It's syntactic sugar to improve the readability of my script files
• David Betz Posts: 14,519

  2019-07-13 12:19

  RalfSt wrote: »

  What does "loader = rom" do different?
  
  Is there any documentation for proploader beside the --help option?
  
  ps.: I use "" around the parameter to make it more obvious that this is an argument to a program and not an equation that gets evaluated by the shell (like $((1+1)) ). It's syntactic sugar to improve the readability of my script files

  loader=rom just means to use the ROM loader that is built into the Propeller rather than the fast loader. In fact, the ROM loader is always used even when using the fast loader because the fast loader loads a helper program using the ROM loader before it starts loading your program. Most of the configuration parameters are needed for this helper program so it knows what the clock settings are for the board you are using. The ROM loader doesn't need to know the clock settings since it always runs in RCFAST mode.