MOD5441X Boot

[roland.ames]

I am having a problem with a couple of MOD5441X boards.

These boards intermittently fail to boot up correctly (from MOD-DEV-100 v1.09).

When they fail, the following is sent to out COM0.

Code: Select all

Boot record INVALID Csum:F544

Reset Jumper Detected
nb>Welcome to the Netburner Alternate Boot Monitor  Command Program


Netburner MCF5441x Alternate Image Monitor V1.02 Feb 18 2014 19:15:02
HELP for help
nb>

the Csum value is not always F544
When it fails, the board is visible to IPSetup and shows that it is running Alternate Image Monitor, but the ipaddress, MAC address and other configuration parameters shown by IPSetup are wrong (random?), the MAC address shown on the 'SETUP' menu of the Boot Monitor is setup
all zeros

But it also sometimes boots up correctly and runs my application, everything works normally.

These boards were programmed while in our own carrier board, but we have used this carrier board to successfully program hundreds of MOD5441X with no problem.

My guess is that sometimes on startup, the 32MB parallel flash is not read correctly, (invalid app and bad system parameters).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[dciliske]

The number one question asked in situations like this is: do you have anything connected to the FlexBus (data bus)? If so, that's your problem. The flash must have full, unmolested access to the
FlexBus on powerup.

The reason why it would run the alternate monitor fine, but with scrambled MACs and other settings, is the base monitor, and alternate app image, are stored in an onboard serial flash, unaffected by the FlexBus.

[tod]

Since I just had a boot problem that turned out to be power supply related I would just chime in my software guy $.02 worth and ask if you have anything that can draw a lot of power during the boot process?

[rnixon]

The best test for this is to put the module in the netburner dev board. If it always works there the first two issues to look at are (as was mentioned):

1. Is anything connected to the address or data bus?
2. Do you have 3.3V @ 500mA for just the module's consumption?
3. Does your application write to the Config Param or User Param areas of flash? If so, it could be doing it incorrectly and corrupting flash.

[roland.ames]

Thanks for the comments.

The damaged(?) MOD54415 Rev 1.9 boards intermittently fail to load application and system config correctly when powered up in the NetBurner MOD-DEV-100 V1.09 carrier board.

They were previously programmed (using autoupdate) while running in my carrier board, but now they do not reliably power up from the NetBurner dev board.

The boards sometimes power-up correctly in the MOD-DEV-100, and run my application and have correct system config, which shows that the application has been programmed into the parallel flash. I think the flash has the correct contents but is sometimes not read correctly.


I am guessing there are two possibilities:
1) the boards were already faulty when I received them
2) something happened while they were being programmed in my carrier that has physically damaged the boards making the read from parallel flash unreliable (even when powered up in the NB dev board)

Obviously if option 2 is a possibility, I need to find out what is damaging the boards.

[rnixon]

Mine came with a mod-dev-70, not a mod-dev-100. Not sure if there are any issues there.

When running in the nb dev board, what are you using for power? USB or external adapter? If USB, are you using a laptop? Maybe not enough USB power?

[roland.ames]

I used MOD-DEV-100 because I had one handy, I have a number of development kits for different modules, I will try using the MOD-DEV-70 Rev 1.7 that I have. But I have not had a problem running MOD54415 in the MOD-DEV-100 before.

The power supply I'm using is the AC adapter provided with the dev kit.

[gavinm]

I was told 2 days ago (by NB) that there might be a problem using the MOD54415 with a DEV 100 board because of the power requirements of the LED drivers?

As I'm just deciding whether to use these relatively new 54415 modules (instead of a 5270) on a new project, did using the DEv 70 board fix your problem? Or do you still have a problem with the modules at boot?