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Stellaris EKS-LM4F232 Evaluation Kit with CCS5 lost ability to connect debugger through USB ICDI

Jon Y
Prodigy 195 points

Hello,

I have been using the stellaris EKS-LM4F232 for a few months now with CCSv5, and have had no problems and began developing an application that uses the USB as a generic bulk device, and communicates on the 8 UARTs.

Recently our company purchased a second eval kit and connected the UARTs to an external device to continue with my development which has also been productive for a few weeks with no problems.  Last week I began to have connection issues in code composer and was unable to connect the debugger and the error was "Frequency out of range".  In searching the TI forums I was able to see that this was an indication that there may be a problem with the ICDI drivers.  In device manager these drivers no longer displayed at all.  The generic bulk device driver was fine, but the FTDI and ICDI did not appear at all.  Also, there was an unknown device appearing in the Universal Serial Bus controllers list.

I spent a great deal of time trying to update the CCS software as well as the stellaris downloads available on the website.  The current version of software that I have been using comes from EKS-LM4F232-DVD-733, which includes CCS 5.2.1.00018.  I have also attempted using a download from your website of CCS5.3.0.00090 with no improvement.  My system is a Windows7 64 bit.  After many installs and uninstalls I was able to get the drivers to re-appear by uninstalling everything from my system, all drivers, CCS, etc...  I also had to uninstall from device manager the unknown device for each board.  After doing this, rebooting the PC and plugging in the EVAL board I was able to get the drivers to re-appear in device manager.  I then proceeded to re-install CCSv5 but after doing that when I attempt to connect to the debugger for any of the sample programs CCS hangs and must be aborted from task manager.

I have also had no success connecting with LM Flash programmer either.  When that loads and I attempt to use any of the flash utilities, most of the text boxes show non-standard ASCII characters and none of the buttons work, the error being Unable to find a target.

On both of the boards the last program to successfully be programmed to flash remains, and the USB generic bulk capability functions correctly, as does the communication on the UARTs.  On one of the boards I also attempted to use the "Unlock" utility which did nothing, and the ICDI firmware update briefly connected but then failed.

I do not know if the boards are damaged or if my computer has become corrupted.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Also, a co-worker has a third eval board that has never loaded anything other than the default qs-logger program that comes with the eval board.

 

 

  • 0
    Guru 86755 points

    Hi Jon,

    1. When you tried the LM Flash Programmer "Unlock' Utility with your problem board, did you select "Blizzard Class"? (Use the latest LM Flash Programmer)
    2. Try loading example programs at your co-worker's third eval board using LM Flash Programmer and CCS and, see if there are any problems.
    -kel
  • 0 in reply to Markel Robregado
    Prodigy 195 points

    Markel,

    Thank you for your response.

     

    1. The unlock utility does not work.  The error is **ERROR**: Failed to unlock the connected device!, Blizzard class was selected.

    2. I had no problems running the example programs, including my own development using CCS and LM Flash programmer before this problem occurred.  The third board has not been used yet so there is no reason to believe there is anything wrong with that board when used on another computer.

    The LM Flash programmer and CCS have completely lost the ability to communicate in any way with the connected board. 

  • 0
    Guru 86755 points

    Hi Jon,

    Jon Yutkowitz said:
    I have also had no success connecting with LM Flash programmer either.  When that loads and I attempt to use any of the flash utilities, most of the text boxes show non-standard ASCII characters

    I recently had the same experience with LM Flash Programmer. The text boxes also show non-standard ASCII characters. I was unable to unlock my Stellaris Evaluation Kit, using that version of LM Flash Programmmer. But, when I used the most recent version of LM Flash Programmer, I was able to unlock my Stellaris Evaluation Kit.

    With regards to your board problem. Try again, possibly using other PC. Use the READMEFirst document as guide. Perform a visual inspection of your evaluation kit, for anything unusual. Touch your board components, to check if any component is overheating.

    -kel

  • 0 in reply to Markel Robregado
    Prodigy 195 points

    After much frustration and with no success, I broke down and purchased a Blackhawk USB100v2 JTAG emulator and I am back up and running.

    I am fairly certain the problem is either with corrupted drivers on the PC, or a failure in the ICDI on the eval board.  I would think most likely the problem is on the PC and there does not appear to be anything I can do to repair the problem at the PC level.  The fact that this happened on 2 boards further suggests it is the PC.  At this point it no longer matters as I am able to debug once again, but I still would like to know what happened.

    Has anyone else ever experienced this type of problem?

    -Jon

  • 0 in reply to Jon Y
    Guru 86755 points

    After "frustration and with no success" has passed, some thoughts to think about below.

    1. If you are still unable to debug the two problem boards using your new setup, then either the two boards are locked or damaged.
    2. If the two boards are damaged, need to do determine root cause of the probem(faulty component, broken pcb lines etc...).
    3. If you are able to debug the two problem boards already, then it is just a PC problem(setup etc...).
    4. If this is just a PC problem(setup etc...), then your new problem is explaining to your boss, why you purchased a Blackhawk USB100v2 JTAG emulator.

    But as long as you can already do your work, just put this in the past.

    -kel

  • 0 in reply to Markel Robregado
    Prodigy 195 points

    Kel,

    1. Using the Blackhawk USB 100v2 JTAG emulator I can debug either board from the same PC with no issues
    2. I assume two possibilities:
        a) Neither board is damaged and the issue is related to corrupted drivers on the PC - no explanation as to how this happened or why uninstalling/re-installing does not work
        b) Both boards are damaged, but the damage is limited to the on board ICDI. - I find this explanation to be highly unlikely

    I need the emulator regardless for debugging when we switch from the eval board to our product, and the cost was minimal.  While I am no longer prevented from working, I still have not been given an adequate explanation as to what happened, and why it cannot be resolved on the PC I am using.  I am certain that there is nothing physically wrong with the PC, but I am not convinced that there isn't something physically wrong with at least one of the eval boards.  They still do not behave exactly the same.

    Jon