AWR1642: Programming a blank QSPI Flash Part on AWR1642BOOST

Hi John,

The bootloader is in ROM and should be able to detect the COM ports without flash, and regardless of SOP settings. According to Figure 4 of SWRA551, the bootloader goes directly to UART when in SOP5 mode.

In the "Settings & Utilities" page of Uniflash, there is a "Format SFLASH" button, which erases the flash. I took one of my 1642 EVMs, put it in SOP 5 mode and erased the flash with this function. I then power cycled the board and restarted Uniflash, and it is still able to detect the EVM's COM ports, as is Device Manager and TeraTerm. My guess (in your case) is that perhaps the COM port numbers have changed, or another program has "stolen" the ports, or perhaps there's an issue with your flash - is it a supported flash? See Figure 6 of document SWRA551.

If all of the above checks out, perhaps there's a difference between a "blank" and a "formatted" sflash. I would need to check on that.

-dave

Hi Dave,

Thank you for the reply.  Yes, I am wondering about blank vs. formatted SPI Flash.

When I try to Format, I still get the COM port error.  I have done this countless times and I was initially suspicious that something had taken over the COM port, as you suggested.

I wonder if a formatted flash has a boot block with a bootloader program, whereas a blank flash does not?

During all of this I have been able to duplicate the problem by replacing the quad flash chip on the AWR1642BOOST and certainly the problem seems to follow a completely blank flash part.

I am not 100% certain that the flash parts are supported, it is said in this forum that they are - however, I have had scope probes on the TX and RX signals between the XDS110 and AWR1642 and see no activity, although now that I understand the "UART BREAK" prototol is simply the AWR1642 pulling the line low for one character slot, I was looking for actual TX/RX activity.

I never thought of using Tera Term to send traffic over the USB UART and see if it is coming out of the other side of the XDS110 to the AWR1642.

John,

I just spoke with another team member, and the only reasons we think this could happen are a) the sflash is not compatible, or b) it is damaged.  Have you tried taking the working sflash from the 1642 EVM and installing it on your board?  Here is part of Figure 6 from the bootloader doc that shows the supported flash types: