DDC264EVM, troubleshooting

John Ladasky

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: DDC264EVM, DDC264, DDC232

I've just received my DDC264EVM. I am trying to connect it to a 64-bit Windows 7 computer. I believe that I have succeeded in following the directions found at https://e2e.ti.com/support/applications/high_reliability/f/30/t/285994

I want to power the board entirely from USB. When I first plugged the board into the USB port, only LED D1 turned on.

I checked the manual, and saw that I might need to reconfigure some jumpers. I unplugged the board. As recommended in Section 3.1, I opened J19, and shorted J12.

When I turned on the board again, D2, D4, D5, D7, D8 and D14 also lit up. That looks promising.

I followed the driver installation directions in the link mentioned above. Upon completion, my Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers page shows an EZ-USB device.

I installed the DDC264 Evaluation software. The initial window looks like Figure 13 in the manual, but with "Fast Data" grayed out. When I click the "Refresh All" button, I get the following sequence of messages on the status line: "Hard reset of DDC done", "Wrote FPGA registers (C)", "USB read bus empty", "Reading back CFG register", "Error writing/reading config register". "Fast Data" remains grayed out.

Clicking the "Hard Reset DDC" or "Write CFG / Verify CFG buttons" appear to just perform half of the above tasks each.

Pressing the RESET_USB switch on the board changes the behavior, but not for the better. After I press it, an attempt to "Refresh All" from the software immediately returns the message "Error writing FPGA registers (C)".

over 8 years ago

0 Adam Sidelsky over 8 years ago

TI__Guru 63220 points

John,

Thanks for contacting us. I am Adam Sidelsky, the applications support for the DDC line of products.

All the LEDs in the User's Guide Table 2 should be lighted once the board is configured correctly. You have a missed power supply connection or two.
The board was not intended to be powered from USB alone. USB can only reliably provide up to 500mA which is not enough to power the whole board. Are you able to use a barrel jack connection to J18? As you mentioned your LED D13 is not lit-up. This makes sense because VSPA was not meant to be powered by USB as seen by the two option connection on J19. Why are you shorting J12? Is this a Typo?

For the drivers of the DDC264 I have updated Win7 versions. Please send me a private message on this forum and I will get you the files.

Regards,

-Adam

0 John Ladasky over 8 years ago in reply to Adam Sidelsky

Prodigy 225 points

Dear Adam, thanks for your reply.

Before I try to answer your post point by pointl, I want to report that TI's message board somehow mangled my original post! Several words, and indeed entire sentences, of what I wrote are simply missing here. I have posted several times on the forums before without any trouble. I may attempt to repost before we proceed.

In the mean time, I see that you're telling me it's impossible to obtain all the power I need for the DDC264EVM from one USB port. I overlooked this, as I was thinking about the power requirements of the single DDC232 IC that I expect to use in my final application. I will obtain a secondary power supply and proceed form there. Thanks.

0 Adam Sidelsky over 8 years ago in reply to John Ladasky

TI__Guru 63220 points

John,

Thanks, please let me know if you need more help.

Regards,

-Adam

0 John Ladasky over 8 years ago in reply to Adam Sidelsky

Prodigy 225 points

I hope that this post appears exactly as I have written it. I am keeping a copy just in case.

I have now connected a bench-top power supply to the DDC264EVM through VSPA and AGND. I set the voltage limit to 9.00 V. My output is limited to 1.00 A.

I connected the USB to the board, and applied power from the bench-top power supply. All the LED's listed on Table 2 of the User's Guide are now lit, including D13, which was not lit before.

Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to have fixed my communication problems with the board. Nothing that I try has switched on the Fast Data button in the software. I will repeat what I wrote in my first post, with some additional details.

When I first connect the board to power, the ammeter on my bench-top power supply indicates a steady, but rather high, and apparently somewhat random current draw. I have seen start-up currents ranging from 625 mA to 850 mA.

When I start the eval software and press the Refresh All button, current drops to about 300 mA while messages appear on the status bar. Then it comes back up to 550 mA.

The last three paragraphs of my initial post still stand. When I press Refresh All, the sequence of messages on the status line is the same, ending with “error writing/reading config register”. I noticed one last thing: when I try pressing the RESET_USB switch on the board, the EZ-USB device disappears from the Windows Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers page, and does not return unless I reboot my computer.

I may try connecting the board to another Win7 computer to see whether I can duplicate the behavior.

At least I can see that the analog side of the board is, in fact, responding to messages being sent over USB. It starts the job, but doesn't seem to finish it.

Thanks for any further advice you can provide. I will PM you for a driver update.