Fault on GUI from DRV8412 board

Hi Bruce,

Can you provide more information?

Are all the LEDs illuminated indicating that the EVM is operating properly?
Which version of the DRV8412 EVM do you have (rev F or rev G)?
Which version of the GUI are you using? (rev F or rev G)?
Once the GUI appears, what is the DC bus voltage reported at the bottom of the GUI?
Have you attempted to re-flash the card?
What steps have you performed to date to connect to the board?

Thank you.

All LEDs (6) are on. Red is flashing on Control Card.

Using DVR8412EVM Rev G

GUI Rev G (I think).

DC Bus voltage 19.2

Not sure how to re-flash.

Bruce (I may call ti today 8/28)

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

To re-flash you will need code composer studio. It will also be helpful to have the How to Run giude in control suite. It can be found under English>Development Tools>Motors>DRV8412-C2-Kit Brushed and Stepper Motor Control>Documentation>How to Run guide.

You can look through hardware configuration and motor control setup just to double check everything is correct, especially on the control card that SW3 is in the down position, and SW2 is in the up position as shown in figure 1.

Follow the instructions provided under software setup for DRV8412-EVM projects through step 10 ( the rest of the steps are not relavent for just flashing the code). Then click on the apropriate project file and then click on the build button, looks like a hammer, in the tool bar. Now hit the debug botton next to the build button and this should go into css debug perspective. If after hitting debug the red led stops flashing, you will likely need to power cycle the control card by unplugging and then replugging the usb cable. Then just hit the run button in the debug tab that looks like a play button symbol. That should re-flash the control card.

Sincerely,

John 

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the info. Now that we know the version of the EVM is rev G, we can confirm that the GUI is also rev G. When the GUI is started, it should indicate that DRV8412GUIv9 is starting. The v9 GUI is designed to run with the revG EVM.

Are you using the 24V power supplied with the kit? If so, there appears to be a problem with your bus voltage. The GUI is reporting 19.2, but should be 24V. What voltage do you have at the DC Bus connection? Do you have 12V connected to the +12V Control Power? Is JP1 connected to VR1 or +12V? What is the voltage at JP1,pin 2 (the jumper should be in place)?

Once we get all the board information confirmed, then we can determine if re-flashing is required.

John has already provided the procedure to re-flash the card if necessary. The v9 GUI code can be found in ControlSUITE. The path is English>Development Tools>Motors>DRV8412-C2-Kit Brushed and Stepper Motor Control>Example Projects>View all examples>~GUI. At this location, there is a readme providing details on how to flash the card. Please ignore the v6 reference, it is now v9.

Hi Bruce,

Just to confirm, is everything working properly with the board and the GUI? The fault is now gone, correct?

No! Not at all. Everything is just as useless as it was two days ago.

I still cannot control the motors, I still have a Fault indication and I am

not happy with a product that was supposed to be P&P right out of the

box.

Hi Bruce,

Sorry you are having so much trouble. The v9 GUI is intended to work with the rev G EVM.

In other posts, it has been explained that the GUI communicates to the code on the C2000 card by memory address.  In order for all to work the GUI, the code on the C2000 card, and the EVM rev must match.

What is the problem with the v9 GUI? Does it launch? Do you get an error message? Once we get past this, I hope all will work.

v9 won't launch. It says "Crosshairs [Interface Designer] has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for this problem."

v2 loads ok but gives me a Red Fault light on the GUI screen.

I wonder if I got ahold of a bad version. Can I get a download?

Bruce,

v9 is available through ControlSUITE. This is a free download that provides documentation on many EVMs. Please search for it on the web or the TI website. Once downloaded, you can navigate to the directories English>Development Tools>Motors>DRV8412-C2-Kit Brushed and Stepper Motor Control>

At this point look around for "launch Rev G GUI". I don't recall exactly where it is. I can update the location tomorrow if you have not found it. The download will take some time so that is the next step.

Hi Bruce,

You can find the controlSUITE download  at this link: http://www.ti.com/tool/controlsuite

Once controlsuite is downloaded you can find the example Rev G GUI at

English>Developmenools>Motors>DRV8412-C2-Kit Brushed and Stepper Motor Control>Example Projects>Example GUI (rev G)

Also here is the controlsuite location for the v9 GUI.(These are the same GUI but for my computer this one downloads faster)

English>Developmenools>Motors>DRV8412-C2-Kit Brushed and Stepper Motor Control>Example Projects>View all example projects>~GUI>DRV8412GUIv9.exe

Sincerely,

John

Hi John,

I managed to get a little farther. I downloaded the control suite and navigated thru to Example GUI(Rev G) and

I launched it.

It started to load but now it is Frozen as it unpacks. No errors, it just stops with green dots about 1/2 way across bar. Computer Freezes, had to shut Windows down.

Bruce,

I had a similar issue when I used that location, but it turned out it was not actually frozen rather it was just taking an extremely long time to launch. The Rev G GUI is the same as the v9 GUI in the second location I provided,

English>Developmenools>Motors>DRV8412-C2-Kit Brushed and Stepper Motor Control>Example Projects>View all example projects>~GUI>DRV8412GUIv9.exe

But this one should go much faster and not freeze up.

Sincerely,

John

you must insure that

C:\ti\controlSUITE\development_kits\DRV8412-C2-KIT_v131\~GUI\DRV8412GUIv9.out

is the binary loaded onto the controlCARD.  You can use CCS, UNIFLASH, or CodeSkin to re-flash the controlCARD to insure it has v9.out

Then you can follow QSG-DRV8412-C2-KIT-GUI.pdf to power and launch the GUI

C:\ti\controlSUITE\development_kits\DRV8412-C2-KIT_v131\~GUI\DRV8412GUIv9.exe

I don't have the hardware in front of me to connect, but GUIv9.exe started right up for me.

There have been no issues reported with this GUI not launching or launching incorrectly.

I am going to have to give up for now. I'll be back at it next week (Tues). I still am not making much progress. I downloaded and ran UNIFLASH but I didn't really know what I was doing. I never did see how to use the *.out file for v9. There was a feature for testing the connection and I ran that and all seemed well. The blinking red light on the Control Board even stopped blinking. I am not sure I reflashed anything.

I still cannot get DRV8412GUIv9.exe to run. I can get v2 to run but when I try to connect my computer freezes after the authentication (now it never gets to the target window. When I try to execute the GUI it now says that the engine is already running. I can't figure how to turn it off. I even shut down Windows and my computer but when I bring it up again, I get the same warning...The engine is already running. Exiting the app doesn't turn it off. How do I stop the engine???

BTW I am running on a Windows Virtual Machine on an iMac with Parallels. Maybe that's the problem?

Bruce

It's really strange that v2.exe runs and v9.exe doesn't

Even with the wrong .out flashed the .exe should open and connect, it would just have variables in the wrong place.

For UniFlash

File - New Target Config

Texas Instruments XDS100v1, TMS320F28035

Power the board and connect USB

Program - Load Program - select the v9.out

power cycle

Launch GUI v9.exe

Well, for some reason the engine shut down and I was able to restart the GUI and made a successful connection to the control card (GUI said 'connected' at the bottom left). So now I am back to where I was 3 days ago. I can only get v2 to run, not v9.

There is a Red Fault Button on the GUI, the Bus Voltage is 19.2 and the High/Low Voltage Button is GRAY (not Yellow or Green or Red). The Red LED on the control board is flashing again (When it was not flashing, the engine could not connect to the board).

One last note...The Quick Users Guide says, in the Hardware Setup, SW3 should be in the UP(off) position. One of the TI dudes says that SW3 should be in the DOWN (on) position. I now have set it to Down but nothing seems to have changed.

I still don't see how UNIFLASH is supposed to work:(

Bruce

Cris, I didn't see your last post until I wrote the above. I'll give your directions a try.

Bruce

I flashed the v9 data, the blinking red LED on the control board went off. But v9.exe still won't execute.

Bruce

Oh the sweet sound of a stepper. Finally:)

I still cannot get GUIv9 to work on my machine but v2 Does Work!! So, using your last set of instructions I UNIFLASHed for v2. That seems to have done the trick. Thank you all for helping me through this. You guys are great.

Now for the next problem. I need the motor to go +/- in a sinusoidal fashion. The Quick start guide shows some sinusoidal activity but I don't see how they did that. I'll play around some more and maybe figure it out.

Thanks again,

Bruce