Mesa 7i90 in SPI mode

Hello,

I have Mesa 7i90HD card and I want to connect it to ODROID-C1 computer running LinuxCNC. The ODROID-C1 has 3,3V compatible l/O, therefore I connected the 7i90HD card directly on ODROID's SPI interface without voltage translator.
I supposed it must working instantly, because it is almost exactly same system as there: github.com/jepler/u3-7i90/blob/master/eagle/oddspi-sch.pdf

But I have problem with SPI communication with Mesa card, the card does not response to input SPI data. If I load the hm2_spi driver by these commands:
loadrt hostmot2
loadrt hm2_spi spidev_path="/dev/spidev0.0" spidev_rate=500

I got the invalid cookie error, which is obviously related to the fact that mesa card does not respond anything on input data. How can I make the mesa card talking on SPI. Do I need to switch a communication mode on a new card by some procedure?

I attach several oscilloscope images:

Blue line shows data from odroid (Connected to PIN 13 of MESA P4 connector) and yellow line is SPICLK signal at PIN11 of P4 connector.


Here blue line is a SPIOUT at PIN 15 and yellow line SPICLK again.


Here is overall look at the test setup:

Do you have a bitfile with a SPI host interface loaded in the FPGA?

Also you are very likely to suffer from signal integrity issues unless you use a flat cable
from the 7I90s host interface connector and terminate _all_ the ground pins in that cable
at the ODROID

PCW wrote: Do you have a bitfile with a SPI host interface loaded in the FPGA?

Presumably no. I am using a bitfile shipped in the card's EEPROM memory.. I have read the manual www.mesanet.com/pdf/parallel/7i90hdman.pdf and I do not know what bitfile is flashed in to the new board..

Should I use mesaflash to load some another bitfile in to the 7I90 board? It seems I should obtain a RS-422 adapter or a computer with LPT interface which I could connect to mesa's LBP16/EPP interface...

PCW wrote: Also you are very likely to suffer from signal integrity issues unless you use a flat cable
from the 7I90s host interface connector and terminate _all_ the ground pins in that cable
at the ODROID

Yes, I have this in mind, I verified the signal integrity by oscilloscope and it seems to be adequate for current configured speed. I will modify the test setup for higher SPI speeds after I get some data from the mesa board.

7I90s are shipped with EPP configurations in both EEPROMS,
You would need to flash a card with a SPI configuration to test SPI operation

Note that as far as I know, only EPP is know to work with mesaflash,
so make sure you leave a EPP configuration on one EEPROM

In 2014 I contributed spi support to mesaflash. At least at the time, it did work, I reported in the commit message that it successfully programs and verifies my 7i90 on SPI. But of course you can't use this for initial programming, when the board is shipped with an EPP firmware.

Within the last 6 months I have used odroid u3 + 7i90 over spi to move a motor, so I think the code in linuxcnc is still working properly.

Ok, I will try to upload a SPI based configuration to the FPGA. I downloaded the software support package: www.mesanet.com/software/parallel/7i90.zip , but there are many bitfiles which have 'spi' keyword in name..

Have you some recommended one? (for future programming through SPI )

I thinking about possibility of programming a SPI configuration bitfile through JTAG interface, because using of EPP interface with LPT port is little strange for me. I bought the 7I90HD because I do not want to revive any computer with LPT port.. Therefore, If I could use JTAG interface, as is described here for Xilinx: wiki.mlab.cz/doku.php?id=en:XVC_FT220X I will be happy.