DP83869EVM: USB interface to MDIO on EVM will not load

After spending MANY MANY hours searching the web it looks like I need an inf file which contains the descriptors which have been programmed into the MSP430 on the EVM. Does this exist? Can I get it somewhere?

Alternatively there seems to be a tool called the "USB Descriptor Tool", which will presumably generate this inf file. If the inf file is not available where can I get this tool and documentation on how to generate the needed inf file?

Thanks,

John S.

Looking further into this what I see needs to happen is primarily in the USB_2_MDIO court. There should be an inf file for this package. This inf file contains a list of all boards that will run the USB_2_MDIO code, which includes the DP83869EVM. It should probably be distributed with the USB_2_MDIO package. It could be a separate download.

The big issue is documentation. The current USB_2_MDIO documentation completely ignores the issue all together, if you try and run this under windows you cannot get it to work without dealing with this. The USB_2_MDIO documentation NEEDS to contain a section on this issue, ie how to get the driver to load under windows. This IS well documented in the MSP430 development environment documentation, so nobody has to reinvent the wheel, just grab the section on how to load the driver under windows.

Right now the only way to get an inf file for the DP83869EVM is to install the entire MSP430 development environment (a huge installation), this includes inf files for several USB classes including CDC, which is what is used for USB_2_MDIO. Unfortunately this will not work as is for the EVM, which has different IDs than are on the MSP430 boards the development environment is designed for. So you have to take the existing CDC inf file, connect the EVM USB port, find the USB IDs (which can be done from the device manager, or the TI USB Descriptor tool), then modify the inf file adding the IDs of the EVM. THEN you can run the procedure to properly load the driver.

This is ridiculous that a customer has to go through all this just to use the built in MDIO inderface on the EVM. This even seems like it is being deliberately swept under the rug.

Somebody at TI needs to take the bull by the horns and make it work right for customers. This is probably not that big a deal to do as part of USB_2_MDIO, Create an inf file for just the boards that USB_2_MDIO runs on, and copy the existing documentation on how to use this to load the existing driver under windows. That should be it.

I'm trying to be civil about this, but the truth is I was awake most of the night seething about this, that TI would force customers to try and find information about this themselves and go through massive hoops to get it to work. This doesn't seem like this is the way TI normally works.

John S.

Hi John,

First of all, I am sorry that you had to go through all of these hurdles to get the EVM working. This is not the experience that we want our customers to go through when they are trying to get our EVMs started. Before releasing a EVM, we do perform a dry run to make sure that the instructions mentioned in the User's Guide are sufficient to get a board up and running. I have started looking into this and will cycle back when I have a update.

-Regards,
Aniruddha

At this point I've given up on getting the on board MDIO controller to work and hooked up the Adafruit trinket M0. I did have a bit of a problem, when I first hooked it up the reading registers just gave all 0s, then I realized the MSP430 was still connected to the MDC and MDIO, I had to take out the zero ohm resistors so the external MDIO would work. Now the external MDIO is working very well.

John S.