MCF8316AEVM: I2C Communication problem and dead chip

Hi Jostein,

Apologies for the delay, we have recently released a new GUI for this EVM called MOTORSTUDIO: https://www.ti.com/tool/MOTORSTUDIO

To check your GUI's compatibility with this GUI, please check this E2E FAQ: https://e2e.ti.com/support/motor-drivers-group/motor-drivers/f/motor-drivers-forum/1281363/faq-motor-studio-gui---evm-firmware-compatibility/4857879?tisearch=e2e-quicksearch&keymatch=FAQ%20motor%20parameters#4857879

Lastly, there is an errata on MCF8316A where if you read or write to the registers while running the motor, it runs into an issue where I2C communication fails. Please see this page here for full list of issues: https://e2e.ti.com/support/motor-drivers-group/motor-drivers/f/motor-drivers-forum/1066777/faq-production-device-information?tisearch=e2e-sitesearch&keymatch=MCF8316A#

There is a latest firmware revision MCF8316C-Q1 (https://www.ti.com/product/MCF8316C-Q1) which resolves this issue. We are working on replacing all the devices on EVMs so we can latest revision on the EVMs. 

Can you please detail specifically your issue so we can find the root cause?

Best,

Robert

Hi!

As described in the FAQ, LED D7 lights up immediately after plugging in USB, so the EVM has the new MSP430 firmware.

We do not have a MSP430 LaunchPad available, and cannot use check or flash firmware onto the MCF8316AEVM.

On launching the MOTORSTUDIO software, MOTORSTUDIO cannot detect the EVM board (see image). 

However, the FTDI chip does appear as a port (COM4) on Windows

We have attached a scope to the MSP430 on the EVM and confirmed that the MSP430 does not send or recieve any I2C communication to/from the MCF8316A

Is it possible to be shipped a functioning EVM with the latest firmware revisions? The lack of a functioning EVM is severely slowing down our development process right now.

Hoping for a swift reply!

Hi Jostein,

Just to confirm, when plugging in the device to the computer can you follow the steps below:

1. Provide power to VM or VBAT on the EVM, please not that using VBAT will result in a 0.7V drop due to the reverse polarity protection and PI filter
2. Connect a USB cable between the EVM and a PC
3. Check that the voltages at the AVDD and DVDD test points equal ~3.3V and ~1.55V respectively.
   1. If the voltages are not as expected then apply a 3.3V signal to the speed pin of the device and re-measure the voltages
4. Start the Motor Studio GUI

These steps tend to get the device to connect to/be detected by the Motor Studio GUI.

Regards,

Joshua