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ARM Newbie: AT91SAM9260-EK getting started problems
http://www.at91.com/samphpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19410		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  GDV [ Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:37 pm ]
Post subject:  ARM Newbie: AT91SAM9260-EK getting started problems
Hi there,
I am a newbie as far as the ARM uC is concerned. I'm presently a student doing a masters thesis, need to get this eval board going but seem to be doing something obviously wrong because I'm getting nowhere fast!

Any assistance or clues would be appreciated.

I've looked through the postings on the forum, but haven't found just the right something to help me.

The problem:
I cannot get the Getting Started Project binary, obtained from the Atmel AT91SAM9260-EK.zip package, running on the eval kit.

Setup:
- PC with Windows XP.
- Atmel AT91 ISP v1.13 package downloaded from Atmel, which installed SAM-BA 2.9 on my PC.
- AT91SAM9260-EK connected to the PC via direct USB and/or UART serial link.
- installed lithium battery into clip on ek

Documents and literature consulted:
-doc6234 AT91SAM9260-EK user guide
- doc6297 Getting Started with the AT91SAM9260 Microcontroller
- AT91 ISP/SAM-BA

Observations:
- Connected the EK to the PC via serial link, ran HyperTerminal and got the RomBOOT> message on the display after the reset button is pressed.
- Connected USB cable between to PC. Drivers loaded, USB enumerated.
- Start SAM-BA v2.9, connected to the board and got the SAM-BA v2.9 screen showing the memory of the AT91SAM9260 processor on the ek.
- Click SDRAM tab, and execute Enable SDRAM.
- In Download/upload file box, send file getting-started-project-at91sam9260-ek-at91sam9260-sdram.bin
- Click Send File.
- Click compare Sent file with memory - exact match found.

Now what?? There're no run buttons, no flashing LEDs, nothing happening. If I hit the reset button, still, nothing happens!

What am I missing here? The appnotes all imply that this simple procedure should work.

Thanks for any advice!
Author:  dfridley [ Thu Jul 22, 2010 5:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ARM Newbie: AT91SAM9260-EK getting started problems
See the usage information in the main.c file

Code:
/// !!!Usage
///
/// -# Build the program and download it inside the evaluation board. Please
///    refer to the <a href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc6224.pdf">SAM-BA User Guide</a>,
///    the <a href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc6310.pdf">GNU-Based Software Development</a>
///    application note or to the <a href="ftp://ftp.iar.se/WWWfiles/arm/Guides/EWARM_UserGuide.ENU.pdf">IAR EWARM User Guide</a>,
///    depending on your chosen solution.
/// -# On the computer, open and configure a terminal application
///    (e.g. HyperTerminal on Microsoft Windows) with these settings:
///   - 115200 bauds
///   - 8 bits of data
///   - No parity
///   - 1 stop bit
///   - No flow control
/// -# Start the application.
/// -# Two LEDs should start blinking on the board. In the terminal window, the
///    following text should appear (values depend on the board and chip used):
///    \code
///     -- Getting Started Project xxx --
///     -- AT91xxxxxx-xx
///     -- Compiled: xxx xx xxxx xx:xx:xx --
///    \endcode
/// -# Pressing button 1 should make the first LED stop & restart blinking; same
///    for button 2 with the second LED.


Good luck.
Author:  GDV [ Fri Jul 23, 2010 12:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ARM Newbie: AT91SAM9260-EK getting started problems
Thanks for the response. :D

Unfortunately, this information does not assist me in anyway at all. :? I have consulted the listed app notes and tried to follow the instructions therein, without success.

I already have a binary file (getting-started-project-at91sam9260-ek-at91sam9260-sdram.bin) compiled presumably by someone at Atmel that should work.

My focus is to get this binary onto the board to see the leds flashing, which they're not at the moment.

Refer to original problem statement:

I cannot get the Getting Started Project binary, obtained from the Atmel AT91SAM9260-EK.zip package, running on the eval kit.

Once I have this binary running, I will start worrying about the toolchain and compiling source code. There is little point in creating one's own binary file, which may not work, when I cannot verify a supposedly working one.

Refer to original observations:

Observations:
- Connected the EK to the PC via serial link, ran HyperTerminal and got the RomBOOT> message on the display after the reset button is pressed.
- Connected USB cable between to PC. Drivers loaded, USB enumerated.
- Start SAM-BA v2.9, connected to the board and got the SAM-BA v2.9 screen showing the memory of the AT91SAM9260 processor on the ek.
- Click SDRAM tab, and execute Enable SDRAM.
- In Download/upload file box, send file getting-started-project-at91sam9260-ek-at91sam9260-sdram.bin
- Click Send File.
- Click compare Sent file with memory - exact match found.

Now what?? There're no run buttons, no flashing LEDs, nothing happening. If I hit the reset button, still, nothing happens!

What am I missing here? The appnotes all imply that this simple procedure should just work.

Is the above mentioned procedure to load the binary file onto the board correct?

Thanks again! 8)
Author:  dfridley [ Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ARM Newbie: AT91SAM9260-EK getting started problems
Quote:
Now what?? There're no run buttons, no flashing LEDs, nothing happening. If I hit the reset button, still, nothing happens!

What am I missing here? The appnotes all imply that this simple procedure should work.


You need to perform the following two steps after loading the code. Please read the comments section in the main.c file (in the project) as I referenced.

Code:
/// -# On the computer, open and configure a terminal application
///    (e.g. HyperTerminal on Microsoft Windows) with these settings:
///   - 115200 bauds
///   - 8 bits of data
///   - No parity
///   - 1 stop bit
///   - No flow control
/// -# Start the application.


It sounds like you have hyperterm connected... you need to "start the application" via hyperterm (I don't recall the command but it is probably something like "go [address]" or "g [address]", you might try getting help at the hyperterm prompt to see what commands are available)

BTW: With the program loaded into RAM if you hit the reset button your program most likely will be wiped out.
Author:  GDV [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: ARM Newbie: AT91SAM9260-EK getting started problems
I decided to try something different to get going. I downloaded and installed the AT91 bootloader and u-boot onto the EK board. U-boot started up and I was able to access various commands at the promot. Happiness is.... the board works!

Then I got to thinking about what happens in the process of starting uboot on the EK board.

After getting the code for the AT91 bootloader and doing some hacking on it, I thought about how I could use this code to launch the Getting Started LED flasher from Atmel.

I made some modifications to the code as well as to the way that the sample code is linked. After downloading it to the Flash memory, at an address pointed to it by the AT91 bootloader, it worked!

So, I have two LEDs flashing on the board with serial debug info being spat out onto my terminal.

I don't believe that this is the way it should have gone to get the code example application working, but I've learned a lot in between!

Also, RomBOOT does not accept commands from the terminal via the debug unit. It only communicates with SAM-BA after RomBOOT has looked in several locations to find a valid programme.

I guess this topic is closed for now....

:)
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