Hello in particular to the TI engineers,
we recently purchase a DRV8412-C2-KIT from Digikey and are facing for more than 3 engineer days a whole bunch of problems:
- First, the XDS100 drivers were not on the USB stick, we had to find out WHAT driver is required, WHY and from WHERE.
- Then, the new serial port still didn't appear. After rebooting and opening the Windows Device Manager, we finally were able to see the new comport.
- The stick contained drv8412guiv2.exe and drv8412guiv9.exe WITHOUT any information what to use. The brochure that came with the EZKit said to use drv8412guiv1.exe, but that version neither existed on the stick nor could be found in the net.
- After some more timetaking research, we came upon a blog that informed us to install the CSS trial version (90 days) and to additionally install DBGJTAG GUI. We were able to install the newest CSS v5.5, but DBGJTAG GUI wouldn't accept any of the subdirectories in the installation directory. Hence we deinstalled CSS v5.5.
- As DBGJTAG GUI suggested particular subdirections of older versions of CSS, in particular CSS v5.1, we attempted to DL the v5.1 from the T site with the effect, that the 1.2 GB transfer silently stopped downloading, although we use the IE for downloading (Firefox won't work due to some reason).
- Furthermore, there is information missing to what switch states the 3 switches on the CC2803X board should be put when programming. Also information was missing from TI what is exactly meant with "JTAG flashing" the board - there is no dedicated JTAG port on the CC2803X. We can only suppose that the USB port might be the JTAG port - so far unconfirmed.
- We have not seen such a mess from ANY semiconductor company yet. Almost everything seems to have gone wrong with the EZKit - missing drivers, lacking information about everything, evaulation kit not ready-to-use, wrongly programmed firmware, timetaking researches in blogs, mutually incompatible versions (DBGJTAG GUI), downloading problems, not even the actual schematics of the RevG board revision was ready to find on the stick...
- And more than that: We exchaned almost 10 eMails with a support person from TI who was confused same as we were - at least we were able to communicate board names, as obviously writing about DRV8412EVM did not let associate that motherboard is a dedicated part of the DRV8412-C2-KIT.
- Competitors like Analog Devices deliver their evaluation kits with a full compiler & source codes, the compiler being restricted in memory size only, but not in time. As customers may face heavy problems with kits as we did, it would have wiser to let the user have at least ONE opportunity to get the kit running!
We would be glad, if someone at TI could
- Tell us how to get CSS v5.1 without a stuck DL
- Tell us why DBGJTAG GUI is incompatible with the newest CSS v5.5
- If the USB port (application port) is the same than the JTAG port (system port)
- To what exact positions (up/down) the 3 swiches of the CC2803 board shall be put when JTAG flashing
- From where we can get drv8412guiv1.exe, and if there is a chance to get the demo board (with the "wrong firmware") running using that EXE
- Why the XDS100 drivers were missing on the stick
- How it could happen nobody at TI ever tested the kit before delivery