Other Parts Discussed in Thread: TMS320C6657
Tool/software: Code Composer Studio
Hello team,
Hope you are doing well. When you get a chance please see below customer question and share some feedback.
The experience is a dev board that appears out of date and with materials that are either out of date or not clearly documented or both. With some similarity to these threads, here is another statement of our issues –
- The DVD that came with the board (yes we have DVD player in the back), has these contents https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlrGdqtu7rglitE1JqDQYU519qUx4w?e=ordx13 As can be seen by the file dates, this stuff is really old by technology standards. The CCS version here did install on a test computer, but was bit rough under Windows 10, and we really haven’t had much luck with that setup either. I am not sure of the present relevancy or the documentation or the code on this DVD.
- I did not see a baseline code composer project of some kind, though I am still looking – there are some binary images for restoring a board. This board boots something – and it does work per the ‘quick start guide’ – but where is the source code?
- Under CCS 10 (and it seems under the included CCS 5), this EVM (TMDSEVM6657LS) does not appear in any list of development boards that could be connected, so it seems it doesn’t really have support built into CCS like some of the other EVMs even for this series. The XDS200 mezzanine does connect CCS to a TMS320C6657 when asked, but so far attempting to load anything, such as null image from CCS causes complaints about outdated emulator firmware and failure in attempts follow the directions to update it – the output was something like this –
IcePick_D: Warning: A firmware update is recommended for the XDS200 debug probe. Click the "Update" button to update the firmware. Click the "Continue" button to continue without updating. (Emulation package 9.2.0.00002)
IcePick_D: Error initializing emulator: The XDS200 update script could not find the XDS200. Click "Retry" to retry without doing the update. (Emulation package 9.2.0.00002)
So that is where we are for now. I am continuing to dig into the tech manual from the DVD in hopes something becomes more clear. However, I am wondering first if there is a new version of the DVD referencing CCS 10, and some kind of baseline source code for the application on the board or some ‘hello world’ thing that can be loaded. This would go a long way to getting oriented with the part, which I think is the general intent.
The present status is slightly better –
- I am able to load code to the board and run it, and operate hardware at a primitive level that makes me believe it – although there is of course still a learning curve to come, at least it’s not a black hole. The biggest problem I had/have is that there just are not a lot of references to C6657 hardware in CCS 10, so for example the project generator doesn’t automatically reference linker data for the part just by telling it that is the part in use, but I had to manually specify a default .cmd file, which also had some name that was not as simple as C6657.cmd I am still concerned that there are so few references to the part and none to EVM. So for example, I can’t even find register definition header files. Almost every time I do a search for some question like that, I find an E2E topic where someone else is at a loss to find primitive information like this, usually while working with this EVM.
- The XDS100 connection on the board itself works pretty much as defined. The XDS200 mezzanine still has the problem below, but it does let me load code if I tell it not to bother with the update.
- I get the impression from the DVD information that the EVM is running Linux at some level – which is far beyond where we need to be – though I can’t really tell. I still can’t find the code that is loaded from EEPROM on first boot, which I think is a secondary boot loader. The roadmap for this stuff is also sort of breadcrumb trail of clues. Yet even the boot code would be very useful in obtaining all the bare metal references at least. Something that references anything newer than CCS5 would help. Working form the eInfoChips site for the EVM, the reference back to TI about software still doesn’t make sense to me.
So a step ahead, but still wishing this was a cleaner and more up to date EVM kit and tool chain.
Regards,
Randhir
