Mesaflash - PeterMue/ZX45-LinuxCNC GitHub Wiki
Synopsis
Mesaflash is the configuration and diagnostics command line tool for many Mesa boards. It's capabale of reading the current configuration but also writing a new configuration file onto the board.
There's a short info at https://mesaus.com/info/mesaflash.html
On a standard Debian LinuxCNC the tool should already be installed.
Otherwise it can be installed with
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mesaflash
Read board configuration info
To read the current boards configuration issue the following command mesaflash --device <YOUR DEVICE> --readhmid.
For my 5i25 with stock configuration this looks like:
peter@LinuxCNCNaN:~$ sudo mesaflash --device 6i25 --readhmid
[sudo] password for peter:
Configuration Name: HOSTMOT2
General configuration information:
BoardName : MESA5I25
FPGA Size: 9 KGates
FPGA Pins: 144
Number of IO Ports: 2
Width of one I/O port: 17
Clock Low frequency: 33.3333 MHz
Clock High frequency: 200.0000 MHz
IDROM Type: 3
Instance Stride 0: 4
Instance Stride 1: 64
Register Stride 0: 256
Register Stride 1: 256
Modules in configuration:
Module: WatchDog
There are 1 of WatchDog in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 3
BaseAddress: 0C00
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz
Register Stride: 258 bytes
Instance Stride: 4 bytes
Module: IOPort
There are 2 of IOPort in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 5
BaseAddress: 1000
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz
Register Stride: 256 bytes
Instance Stride: 4 bytes
Module: QCount
There are 2 of QCount in configuration
Version: 2
Registers: 5
BaseAddress: 3000
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz
Register Stride: 256 bytes
Instance Stride: 4 bytes
Module: SSerial
There are 1 of SSerial in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 6
BaseAddress: 5B00
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz
Register Stride: 256 bytes
Instance Stride: 64 bytes
Module: StepGen
There are 10 of StepGen in configuration
Version: 2
Registers: 10
BaseAddress: 2000
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz
Register Stride: 256 bytes
Instance Stride: 4 bytes
Module: LED
There are 1 of LED in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 1
BaseAddress: 0200
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz
Register Stride: 256 bytes
Instance Stride: 4 bytes
Configuration pin-out:
IO Connections for P3
Pin# I/O Pri. func Sec. func Chan Pin func Pin Dir
1 0 IOPort StepGen 0 Dir/Table2 (Out)
14 1 IOPort StepGen 0 Step/Table1 (Out)
2 2 IOPort StepGen 1 Dir/Table2 (Out)
15 3 IOPort StepGen 1 Step/Table1 (Out)
3 4 IOPort StepGen 2 Dir/Table2 (Out)
16 5 IOPort StepGen 2 Step/Table1 (Out)
4 6 IOPort StepGen 3 Dir/Table2 (Out)
17 7 IOPort StepGen 3 Step/Table1 (Out)
5 8 IOPort StepGen 4 Dir/Table2 (Out)
6 9 IOPort StepGen 4 Step/Table1 (Out)
7 10 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData1 (Out)
8 11 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData1 (In)
9 12 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData2 (Out)
10 13 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData2 (In)
11 14 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-IDX (In)
12 15 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-B (In)
13 16 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-A (In)
IO Connections for P2
Pin# I/O Pri. func Sec. func Chan Pin func Pin Dir
1 17 IOPort StepGen 5 Dir/Table2 (Out)
14 18 IOPort StepGen 5 Step/Table1 (Out)
2 19 IOPort StepGen 6 Dir/Table2 (Out)
15 20 IOPort StepGen 6 Step/Table1 (Out)
3 21 IOPort StepGen 7 Dir/Table2 (Out)
16 22 IOPort StepGen 7 Step/Table1 (Out)
4 23 IOPort StepGen 8 Dir/Table2 (Out)
17 24 IOPort StepGen 8 Step/Table1 (Out)
5 25 IOPort StepGen 9 Dir/Table2 (Out)
6 26 IOPort StepGen 9 Step/Table1 (Out)
7 27 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData3 (Out)
8 28 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData3 (In)
9 29 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData4 (Out)
10 30 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData4 (In)
11 31 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-IDX (In)
12 32 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-B (In)
13 33 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-A (In)
https://gist.github.com/PeterMue/c390a4d01559a251862511f920f12717
Write new bitfile
For my setup it's required to write a new bitfile to the 5i25. The setup consists of one 5i25 in combination with a 7i76 on P3 and a 7i85s on P2.
There are already some pre-compiled bitfiles for the 5i25 from mesa which can be found here: (Mesa Support Software)[http://www.mesanet.com/software/parallel/5i25.zip]
The zip contains also the source for the bitfiles which can be opend with Xilinx ISE.
We use the pre-built configuration named 5i25_7i76_7i85s.bit.
The 5i25 has two spaces for configurations: The userspace for the normal bitfile and a scond fallback space where a fallback bitfile resides. Everytime the userspace bitfile does not work properly, the card loads the fallback configuration and stays intact. This is important because the PCI implementation is part of this FPGA bitfile and if the one is broken it's impossible to communicate with the board (has to be re-programmed via the JTAG).
When we try to flash a new bitfile onto the board we first try it in the fallback region.
Let's flash the new 5i25_7i76_7i85s.bit bitfile and try if it works.
peter@LinuxCNC-ZX45:~/linuxcnc/mesa/5i25/configs/hostmot2$ sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --fallback --write 5i25_7i76_7i85s.bit
Checking file... OK
File type: BIT file
Boot sector OK
EEPROM sectors to write: 6, max sectors in area: 16
Erasing EEPROM sectors starting from 0x100000...
|EEEEEE
Programming EEPROM sectors starting from 0x100000...
|WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Board configuration updated successfully.
Checking file... OK
File type: BIT file
Boot sector OK
Verifying EEPROM sectors starting from 0x100000...
|VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Board configuration verified successfully.
You must power cycle the hardware or use the --reload command to load a new firmware.
To load the new configuration from the fallback region we use the following command:
peter@LinuxCNC-ZX45:~/linuxcnc/mesa/5i25/configs/hostmot2$ sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --fallback --reload
Waiting for FPGA configuration...OK
If everything works the output should look like above.
Now we can verify the configuration by running mesaflash --device 5i25 --readhmid. This should give us the new pinout configuration.
If the configuration works as expected we can flash the same file to the primary region. This is basically done the same way as before but without the --fallback parameter:
peter@LinuxCNC-ZX45:~/linuxcnc/mesa/5i25/configs/hostmot2$ sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --write 5i25_7i76_7i85s.bit
We can then reload the configuration by powering the card off and on or with mesaflash --device 5i25 --reload.
That's it!