JSpar

March 1, 2022

Dear J. Colvin or anyone out there willing to help.

     Hello. This is Josh Sparber. I am a retired System Engineer, with an MSEE who is rerouting his career into  Embedded Tech. A fellow researcher and I are forming a business and we both intend to incorporate Embedded Tech into our research.

Working with the Artix-7 100T Nexsys board I have many questions.

There has been some discrepancy in the literature, and although I have both a USB dual ended cable and a converter with a phone-style input for power, and I seem to get 5 volts on the board as needed for power, I am wondering if the power inputs I have are correct. I have the onboard jumper for USB set. Some current problems are making me wonder about this. I keep seeing a 7 to 12 volt converter is needed; although this may not be a problem, it may be. In addition I have a JTAG cable for which I have soldered a plug onto the board, if JTAG is needed. 

On both the available introductory programs, the Hardware Only and the Software Only I have had problems generating a Bitstream for both of these programs. I was seriously wondering if this related to the power input. In addition, the book I had obtained on the Artix 7 Nexsys was either so out of date that Mr. Colvin didn’t recognize it, or it is a rogue imitation of the book that is needed. or since everything now seems to be on line, the other, younger  techies don’t recognize it. This brings up other questions—maybe the board itself is a rogue imitation. That is why the Bitstream doesn’t work? I am taking a picture of the board itself so this can be verified.

Software Only program: my question is this—is there onboard GPIO on the Artix 7 100T Nexsys board itself? I know there are inputs and outputs and so on, buttons and LEDs. Are these the GPIO that the Software Only program refers to, or is an external connection needed? The Software Only program is swimming in nice to know and go backs; however, wading through these is not helpful.
Is there a Zynq processor on board? If there is can I go on without Zync at this stage?  It seems like pulling teeth to get answers to these questions. I am including a photo of the board I have, the power inputs, and the cables to verify my current situation with the development set up.

Software Only—I do not recognize the Vitis application as it is described. The format is completely different from is described in the program and I have not been able to implement the C Language example program in it. Not sure why this is happening.

I should not have taken me over a year and a half to solve simple problems on this setup. Response has been agonizingly slow, disgusting really. Is there another service out there that can help quicker or another forum that can help more responsively? I would be willing to pay someone to come to my residence to help out. We live in a fairly isolated community, and both my wife and I are Covid free, proving both negative for it so far and having taken both our yearly flu and pneumonia shots. I may need ongoing help from what I see here, until I can successfully load enough demos or eventually find enough tutorials to get going.

The recent news on February 14 this year of AMD acquiring Xilinx has me worried about further help.
Apparently, the stock has been wavering the past 5 years, somewhere between $100 and $125 per share. This may mean it is overvalued and the company needs to do a stock split. Also, are there any plans to protect Taiwanese assets, which may be at risk this year?

I have included photos that hopefully, fully describe my setup and some of my available accessories.
Please advice as needed

RSVP.

Josh Sparber
jsparbear5@gmail.com

my converter box cable for power.pdf my JTAG cable.pdf My reference literature.pdf My setup.pdf my USB to USB cable for power.pdf setup powered on with converter.pdf setup powered on with USB to local computer.pdf

                                                                  Feb. 6, 2022

Hi,

This is Josh again.

I was able to load the program for the Hardware Only, file, blinky.v.

It goes through to the Implementation.

Then the Bitstream fails.

Currently:
1) I am working off my home (local) computer, a Dell.
2) I have the Arty 7 board.
    a) I have attached a USB cable from the Dell to the board.
    b) I have a JTAG cable prepared and have a plug for the JTAG soldered to the board.
    c) I turned on the red light for power.
3) I open up the Hardware Manager.
4) Nothing is happening.

What have I overlooked?

See attached file for application response.

YT, 
Joshua H. Sparber

Bitstream Failed 2_6_2022.pdf

                                                                            Jan. 17, 2022

Hello again, this Is Josh Sparber.

I have gone back to recoding the Hardware Only file demo.

Currently I am getting the same two messages over and over again, and
I can't find any reasonable answer anywhere on this.

This simple program runs the synthesis, and goes into implementation, but I get
these errors. I have tried all kinds of formats and followed the Hardware Only
file letter for letter for letter. 

Please see the enclosed file. 

Coding Messages 1 to Community Help 1_17_2022.pdf

                                                                             Nov. 30, 2021

Hello again,

    I was able to install the 2021.2 software for Vivado for my Digilent Artix-7 board.

    I am starting Vivado to get my first project going and it will not conclude the 
    initialization process for my files.  I am following Appendix A in the Digital Design
    book by Haskell and Hanna. For some reason I get to the last step and it just 
    hangs and hangs in the initialization process. Is there something I need to do? 
    I believe .2 is new, are there additional files to add--how do I fix this?

Josh Sparber

jsparbear5@gmail.com