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zhemao / zhemao.github.com

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Just pulled off the USB Blaster Port of my SocKit, are their other ways to interface? #7

Closed bangonkali closed 10 years ago

bangonkali commented 10 years ago

I just woke up and was about to start my day. Something really tragic happened. I pulled off the USB Port for the USB Blaster Cable. This is very bad.

I have decided to buy another one, but will this USB Blaster Cable do? It seems there is a JTAG port in the SocKit. Will this do as a replacement for the USB Blaster Port??? So that at least I can still use this board?

This so bad. I thought the USB Cable wasn't properly pressed so I put a little force on it. The whole damn USB Port just snapped. I hate myself now. Really stupid mistake. :(

zhemao commented 10 years ago

Oh man, that sucks. I actually did the same thing to my first board and had to get it replaced. If you bought your board recently from TerASIC, you can probably get it replaced for free as well (although you'll have to pay return shipping). This is apparently not an uncommon problem, since my replacement came with a panel around the microUSB ports for reinforcement. If you can't get it replaced, you can program the FPGA from the HPS. It doesn't require the USB blaster port, just the USB UART port connected to the HPS.

On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 7:10 PM, Bangon Kali notifications@github.comwrote:

I just woke up and was about to start my day. Something really tragic happened. I pulled off the USB Port for the USB Blaster Cable. This is very bad.

I have decided to buy another one, but will this USB Blaster Cable dohttp://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=&No=46? It seems there is a JTAG port in the SocKit. Will this do as a replacement for the USB Blaster Port??? So that at least I can still use this board?

This so bad. I thought the USB Cable wasn't properly pressed so I put a little force on it. The whole damn USB Port just snapped. I hate myself now. Really stupid mistake. :(

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/zhemao/zhemao.github.com/issues/7 .

bangonkali commented 10 years ago

This sucks real hard :( I dont have the warranties because i bought it from about 3 months ago from terasic. I have tested the USB HPS UART, and it seems it's still working when I have a valid image on my SD Card. Is it possible that I can still continue with my work without the USB Blaster? Still my intention remains to be developing hardware acceleration stuff which involves HPS-FPGA communication. I'm still beginning to understand stuff, and this is quite a hard low for me. Can you ascertain I can still continue work on this while only using the USB HPS UART?

zhemao commented 10 years ago

There are instructions for programming the FPGA from the HPS on rocketboards.org and also in Part 3 of my tutorials. I don't think you will have a problem if you just have the UART. You should still try reaching out to TerASIC. They will probably be understanding of the broken microUSB port, since it seems to be a common problem.

bangonkali commented 10 years ago

I have emailed Terasic regarding the issue and asked for help. I just felt it was very unfair, and was setup like a trap to unsuspecting users. After reviewing things it felt like it was a design flaw. For a kit with such potential I can't believe it has that very outrageous weakness.

I don't think I will be liking surface mounted micro-USB ports for a very long time. This is like learning a lesson the hard way.

Anyway, @zhemao, it might help others avoid this issue if you put a warning of some sort on your tutorial (in red). Hehehe. I'll just have to laugh out this issue and hope others don't make the same mistake. lol.

And regarding your suggestion, I think I will be focusing on them this time. Good thing I just finished the tutorials from Arrow, I can go back to your tutorial with sufficient understanding. I'm really hoping that very little components were damaged due to this incident.

zhemao commented 10 years ago

I hope you are able to work it out with TerASIC and get a replacement board. I've added a red warning to the programming section of Part I of the tutorials about the microUSB ports.