BQ27350: Communication with BQ23750 using EV2400

Hello Scott, 

Are you seeing this same behavior with other ICs? Are you able to communicate with the device at all? Are there any error messages being reported? 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Hi Jonny

No, i had no error appear when connecting to the bq27350.

I have used other devices like the bq20z65 and bq40z65 on the same setup and they worked fine.

I have attached an image showing what i get with the bq27350. Note, it keeps scanning and no data appears. the other commands in Data Flash and I2C Pro do nothing as well. It feels like the EV2400 does detect the device because normally if there is no device present it comes up with an option to which device you want to talk to. In this case it doesnt come up and recognises the bq27350 but no data 

Scott

Hello Scott, 

When you connect the gauge/EV2400 and load EVSW, is the gauge being auto detected? Would it be possible for you to reset the gauge or try reloading the FW onto the gauge? 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Hi Jonny,

I have reset the gauge and tried to reprogram the FG and still the same result. nothing is being read from the device.

One thing I have noticed is that at the bottom it says No Acknowledge: VB_T2H_NACK, is this a hint to whats going on?

Scott

Hello Scott, 

It looks like the device is not auto detecting, can you please send me a picture of the screen you get when you first run EVSW so I can see what is being detected?

Regards, 

Jonny.  

Jonny, T

he first image I sent is the screen I get when running the EVSW. It is auto detecting because it doesn't come up with a box to choose the device you want to talk to. it goes straight to the DataRAM page

Scott

Hello Scott, 

This is odd behavior, can you try to refresh it manually. Additionally, can you make sure that the battery voltage or power supply voltage is 3.5V to ensure that the gauge is properly powered?

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Jonny

I have tried both of them. the supply voltage is at 3.55V, and i have tried manually refreshing the tool.

Scott

Jonny, i Just tried something else and its confirming alot of things. By accident i opened up the b2084 tool which i use for other gauges as its SMbus protocol.

This time the device has been detected as before, but is now throwing a lot of data around. I expect that this data is the device returning register addresses that were meant for SMbus but as its an I2C device its returning nonsense. So this proves that the Device is Ok, and the setup is OK. There's something wrong with the bq27350 tool that's meant to be pulling the info.

image of the bq27350 on the bq2084

Hello Scott, 

This is strange behavior. Is there any way you can use a logic analyzer to capture the communication that occurs when you try to run the bqEVSWSetup00.09.59_bq27350v1.00 tool? Additionally, could you try using the EV2300 instead of the EV2400? I suspect this could be causing the issue. 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Jonny

I will look into capturing the data with an analyzer. I cant use an EV2300 though, its not supported on windows 10. I have tried but the drivers dont install correctly

Hello Scott, 

Please update me when you capture the data using a logic analyzer. 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Jonny,

Here is a snap shot of the analyser data.

I also did an experiment with the bq2084 too and this is the data on the analyser using that tool.

As I expected, the bq2084 is seemingly communicating ok, it just decodes the data differently.

The other gauge tool doesnt though

Hello Scott, 

Have you downloaded the support software for the EV2400 to enable it to work with bqSVSW? This software is found here. 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Hi Jonny

I have just tried to install the support software but its not made a difference. Is this support software meant for this particular issue? what does the support software do?

Do my trace logs provide any info?

Scott

Hello Scott, 

It is my understanding that this install is used so the EV2400 can be supported with bqEVSW. It looks like this is an issue with the tool itself for the gauge. Unfortunately, this is a tool for legacy gauges and the engineer who supported this is no longer at TI. The support for this tool is limited. I suggest you trying to reinstall the tool from ti.com and trying this. Additionally, trying to run this from another computer could solve the issue. 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Hi Jonny

Thanks for the response again. What do the traces show the issue is? Is it not sending the correct messages or something? it seems like a simple fix if we know what the issue is. Who is taking over from the engineer that has left TI?

I have tried reinstalling the tool and trying it on another PC. Like you said, the tool itself doesn't work, or at least the support software doesn't fix the issue it was intended for.

Scott

Hello Scott, 

If the tool itself is broken, there is limited support we can offer for this issue. I will take another look at the analyzer data you sent me to see if there was something overlooked that could explain this issue you are seeing. 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Hi Jonny

Thanks for looking at the trace data again. What do you mean there isn't anything you can do if the tool itself is broken? If it is I cant work with the fuel gauge at all. Surely you must have someone who can look into fixing the tool

Scott

Hi Scott,

Jonny is out of office. He will be back on Monday.

Regards,
Jose Couso

Hello Scott, 

This tool has limited support since it is not designed to run on newer operating systems, and we cannot make updates to it. As a result of this, it is very difficult to determine what may be causing the tool to fail. A possible work around for this could be to use the EVSW tool intended for a different I2C gauge and see if you are able to communicate to the gauge using a tool for another gauge. 

Regards, 

Jonny. 

Hi Jonny

Thanks again for the response. Can you see my frustration with this issue? we have a product that is being sold to us that was designed to be developed on older operating systems and now wont work on new operating systems. If we cant develop or maintain the fuel gauge then it should be discontinued and not be sold to customers.

I cant rely on "using another fuel gauge" to see if that works because it wont align the fuel gague registers correctly and areas of memory will be written to that will affect the operation of the gauge. 

 Can I get the contact details of someone responsible for the gauge please. A business development manager or similar,

Thanks

Scott

Hi Scott,  

My name is Gautham, Business Lead for the Gauge Business and I will be reaching out to you shortly.( I have your information)

Regards,

Gautham

Hello Scott, 

I have attached a different version of the BQ27350 tool (version "b") to this thread. 

Regards, 

Jonny.bqEVSWSetup00.09.59_bq27350v1.00b.zip