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MCF8316AEVM: No communication between microcontroller and MCF8316A

David Gustavson1
Prodigy 150 points
Part Number: MCF8316AEVM
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MCF8316A

I have the eval board and the latest version of the GUI installed.  I open the GUI, close the first dialog box, as instructed, and the hardware connects, at the bottom of the GUI, it says "com6:9600 Hardware Connected".  I apply motor power to the EVM.  The 2 green leds come on, D1 and D4.  From the left, I click the icon just below the "home" icon.  I select "connecting to the gui".  Step 3 says to click the "read all registers" button.  I do that, nothing happens.  I get neither a confirmation dialog box or an error dialog box.  I have a scope connected to the i2c clk and data.  They are both at 3.3V.  If I set the scope to single trigger before I press the "read all registers" button, I verify nothing is happening.  The scope doesn't trigger, the processor is not even trying to talk to the MCF8316A.

Now what?

  • 0
    TI__Expert 5542 points

    Hi David,

    Thanks for your question on the Motor Drives E2E Forum. 

    When you connect the GUI to the EVM, is there a slow flashing LED showing you that the device is connected? When you read all registers, that LED should be rapidly flashing to show data transfer. Please let me know if you are experiencing this. If not you may need to reconnect to the GUI by clicking the link icon at the bottom of the GUI:

    Let me know if that resolves.

    Best,

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to Robert Wedan
    Prodigy 150 points

    After I launch the GUI and close the first dialog box, the GUI says "hardware connected" and the red LED flashes slowly.  When I "read all registers", the red flashes quickly a few times, and I get a connectivity error:

    A scope capture of the i2c clock and data shows the MCF8316 is not ACKing the i2c address 0x01:

    This is different behavior than a couple days ago when I would see no activity on the i2c bus.  I don't know what changes the behavior.  At one point I was able to read the registers.  I then programmed the parameters into the MCF8316 EEPROM.  After that, I started getting these connectivity errors.

  • 0 in reply to David Gustavson1
    TI__Expert 5542 points

    Hi David,

    Thank you for the detailed explanation, this narrows it down quite a bit.

    When you programmed the parameters into the EEPROM, you may have changed the I2C target address of the device EEPROM. Try clicking the "Find Address" button next to the I2C target address:

    Once found, try reading all registers again. Make sure your EVM is powered up during this process.

    Let me know if this resolves your issue.

    Best,

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to Robert Wedan
    Prodigy 150 points

    Yes, that's it!  Thank you.  Wow, that can be a booby trap.  I did not purposefully change the i2c address.  So, the GUI must default to 0x00.  I was wondering why the "find address" button was there.  I thought it was because the same EVM is used for the MCF and MCT, and they have the 0x01 and 0x00 addresses.

  • 0 in reply to David Gustavson1
    TI__Expert 5542 points

    Hey David,

    Glad that worked, its a neat little button right? If you have any further questions, free free to use the motor drives forum again!

    Best,

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to Robert Wedan
    Prodigy 150 points

    Hi Robert,

    2 suggestions.  You can save hundreds if not thousands of hours of cumulative wasted time and frustration:

    1.  On the next release of the GUI, when you press the "write to EEPROM" button, the software should check if you about to change the i2c address and a warning dialog box should pop up.

    2.  The datasheet makes no mention of the fact you can change the i2c address.  The description of the bits in the DEVICE_CONFIG1 register is there, but there needs to be something in the section that describes the i2c protocol.  Especially where it states the i2c address is 0x01, full stop.

    I have no idea how many design wins you guys have lost.  My boss is still about 1 millimeter away from pulling the plug if I can't get this working ASAP.

    Thanks,

    Dave 

  • 0 in reply to David Gustavson1
    TI__Expert 5542 points

    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for the feedback and I understand your concerns here. We will see what we can do in the next GUI revisions.

    Let us know of any other struggles you encounter so we can work through it with you.

    Best,

    Robert