Xilinx VCU-118 And Digilent USB-2-JTAG IC failure

[David_hale]

Hi everyone, 

I've experienced some issues using the Xilinx VCU-118 FPGA, along with Digilent USB-2-JTAG IC . (the USB 2 JTAG is embedded onto the FPGA board.)

Basically, this issue occurs on two of the 5 boards we use, and it seems like the board isn't being recognized by vivado Lab (ver. 2018.1) upon USB connection to my PC.

To be more specific, the problem is that upon connecting my VCU118 FPGA board to my PC (WIN7, using USB cable to the board JTAG port) and launching vivado's hw server, it doesn't recognize the board. I get the following error message:

[Labtoolstcl 44-27] No hardware targets exist on the server [localhost:3121] Check to make sure the cable targets connected to this machine are properly connected and powered up, then use the refresh_hw_server command to re-register the hardware targets.

 

Iv'e opened a thread over at Xilinx support forums at first, https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Evaluation-Boards/VCU118-FPGA-is-not-recognized-by-vivado-hw-server/m-p/949578#M21119

thinking the board might be acting up,  However, by programming the FPGA board using Xilinx platform cable (Connected directly to JTAG, bypassing the Digilent USB 2 JTAG IC) we were able to show that it's probably a failure of the USB to JTAG IC. 

Upon further investigation, we figured that something might be wrong with the FTDI chip on the USB-2-JTAG IC. So we read the FTDI chip's content using FTprog utility. This is a comparison between the boards that does work, to the faulty one:

[good - show Manufacturer , details, etc. ]

[ Bad one - seems blank ] 

 

Is this really whats wrong? Is there a way to "program" the FTDI chip with valid data? 

I tried to install the latest drivers provided with vivado. Perhaps a newer version exists?

Thanks for the help,

David.

Spoiler

 

 

[GT_ahm]

Hi @JColvin,

for us also

we accidently remove the configuration of FT2232 in Arty A7 board, now we want to revert back those changes back. please help

[JColvin]

Hi @Kiran_h,

From your post, it seems that the JTAG SMT2 device present on the VCU118 is detected by Vivado correctly, otherwise the Vivado Hardware Manager would not be able to see the Digilent device and detect the associated serial number at all; it would instead say something to the effect of "no device detected on localhost" or similar.

Instead, it appears to be the downstream FPGA present on the VCU118 that is not being detected.

What I would probably attempt to do in your situation is check the following Xilinx/AMD document, https://adaptivesupport.amd.com/s/article/69737?language=en_US, probably steps 4 and 5.

@GT_ahm I believe you were helped from one of your other posts.

Thanks,
JColvin

[JColvin]

Hello,

For those reading this thread, I have sent a PM with instructions on how to reprogram the JTAG SMT2's.

Thanks,
JColvin

 

[David_hale]

Hi everyone,

The good folks here at Digilent sent my a PM containing instructions on how to re-flash the JTAG IC.

It worked and solved my issue.

 

Thanks again,

David.

[AThomas]

Would you mind posting the instructions to re-flash the JTAG IC?

[JColvin]

Hi @AThomas,

Which JTAG IC are you using? We at Digilent also like to keep track of the usage of the JTAG reprogramming application (and as the application re-flashes the chip, it's easy to ruin a number of devices unitentionally, much like how our JTAG devices become unrecognized in the first place).

Thanks,
JColvin

[Madhusudhan]

Hi everyone,

I am facing the same problem with my VC U118 board. I did contact xilinx people for solution and they redirected me here for solution.

 @JColvin would you mind to PM the instructions to reprogram the flash.

I have tried using the FT_PROG utility with all settings to the default values. Image2 is for working board and it detected the FTDI device and the image1 is for non working board which doesn't detect the FTDI device. Thanks in advance for helping.

 

NOTE: the FT232H device type is set manually while working with fault board and that's why device type is visible in image1.

 Thanks,

Madhusudhan.

[JColvin]

Hi @Madhusudhan,

I have sent you a PM with the instructions.

Thanks,
JColvin

[JColvin]

Hi @YaniKS,

I have sent you a PM as well based on your email to Digilent Sales.

Thanks,
JColvin

[clarkm2]

@JColvin I'm experiencing a similar issue with my VCU118 board. Kindly PM me with instructions to get this resolved. Thanks!

[Renat]

Good day!

@JColvin, I am facing the same problem with my VCU118 board. 

I'm using ft232h JTAG IC (JTAG-SMT2-NC).

Сould you please send the instructions to reprogram the flash.

 Thanks!

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Renat

[JColvin]

Hi @Renat,

I have sent you a PM with some instructions.

Thanks,
JColvin

[gnarco]

Hi everyone,

I have had the same problem with my VCU118 board equipped with the same Digilent USB JTAG 2 NC FT232H module.

@JColvin could you please send me a PM with instructions on how to reprogram the JTAG IC?

Thanks in advance.

[JColvin]

Hi @gnarco,

I have sent you a PM.

Thanks,
JColvin

[DanielPerez]

Greetings.

I am having the same problem with my VCU118 board. I'd appreciate if you could also provide me with the instructions to reprogram the JTAG IC @JColvin

Thank you,

Daniel

[JColvin]

Hi @DanielPerez,

I have sent you a PM.

Thanks,
JColvin

[Kiran_h]

Hi @JColvin,

We are facing a similar issue with a VCU118 board, where we are unable to detect the chain (tried every method as mentioned in https://support.xilinx.com/s/question/0D52E00006iHpSGSA0/vcu118-no-device-detected-on-target?language=en_US but no luck), this is the error we are getting in Vivado (tried with other versions of Vivado as well like 2022.1)

 

Is this the same issue discussed in this thread? We observed exact same error when we tried to detect the FPGA device through Micro USB, Xilinx PLATFORM CABLE USB II and Digilent Platform cable (jtag hs2). I couldn't find any solution in Xilinx Forum, appreciate any suggestions/support. Thanks in advance.

 

Kiran 

Edited August 29 by Kiran_h

[Kiran_h]

Hi Again, 

@JColvin, this is the FT Prog snapshot for reference : 

 

Thanks,

Kiran

 

 

[Kiran_h]

Hi @David_hale @DanielPerez @gnarco@Renat @Madhusudhan,

 Sorry for tagging you all, as we are not getting any response from Digilent & Xilinx at their respective forums, we are totally clueless 😑 ☹️

Is this the issue you were facing? was the signature of the problem similar ?

Please provide your Valuable comments... Any comments/suggestions would be really really helpful and appreciated 🙏 🙏.

Thanks,

Kiran

 

Edited September 3 by Kiran_h