Xilinx USB programming cable.

J

jack

Guest
Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,
 
You could try ebay I picked one up for about $30 a while back. Anothe
alternative is to build your own as I think Xilinx provide the schematic
now. I believe some people on the net have done this. Enterpoint also sel
a programmer for ÂŁ50 which works with the Xilinx software.

Jon

---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com
 
On Feb 14, 2:28 pm, jack <postbox4j...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,
Click to expand...
You could use the $39 USB JTAG cable from Digilent, I'm thinking of
getting one. It isn't supported by Impact, but Digilent supplies their
own Adept software for it.

Leon
 
Am 14.02.2011 15:28, schrieb jack:

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?
Click to expand...
You can get low-cost parallel ports for PCI OR PCI-E in your
local mall and stay with the cable that works.
OK, it consumes a slot in your desktop.

regards, Gerhard
 
On Feb 14, 2:28 pm, jack <postbox4j...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,
Click to expand...
I use one of these:

http://www.absolute-data-services.co.uk/xilinx_platform_usb_cable.htm
 
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:28:45 -0800 (PST), jack <postbox4jack@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,
Click to expand...
I got one of these recently - not used it yet but build quality looks good - possibly not made by
Xilinx....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xilinx-FPGA-CPLD-USB-download-Cable-JTAG-/150560914094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e213aae
 
On 02/14/2011 06:08 PM, Mike Harrison wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:28:45 -0800 (PST), jack<postbox4jack@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,

I got one of these recently - not used it yet but build quality looks good - possibly not made by
Xilinx....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xilinx-FPGA-CPLD-USB-download-Cable-JTAG-/150560914094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e213aae
Click to expand...
Heh. That looks like a knock-off. Not sure about other countries, but it's
possible one could have Customs issues coming into the US.
 
On 2/14/2011 8:05 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
On 02/14/2011 06:08 PM, Mike Harrison wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:28:45 -0800 (PST), jack<postbox4jack@gmail.com
wrote:

Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,

I got one of these recently - not used it yet but build quality looks
good - possibly not made by
Xilinx....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xilinx-FPGA-CPLD-USB-download-Cable-JTAG-/150560914094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e213aae


Heh. That looks like a knock-off. Not sure about other countries, but
it's possible one could have Customs issues coming into the US.
Click to expand...
I got one of those (from the same source) a few months ago. It took
longer to get to me than it would from inside the country (I'm in the
USA), but there were no customs issues and it has worked fine for me.
Impact recognizes it as a standard cable.
 
On Feb 15, 2:05 am, Chris Abele <ccab...@yahoo.com> wrote:
On 2/14/2011 8:05 PM, Steven Hirsch wrote:



On 02/14/2011 06:08 PM, Mike Harrison wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:28:45 -0800 (PST), jack<postbox4j...@gmail.com
wrote:

Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,

I got one of these recently - not used it yet but build quality looks
good - possibly not made by
Xilinx....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xilinx-FPGA-CPLD-USB-download-Cable-JTAG-/15056....

Heh. That looks like a knock-off. Not sure about other countries, but
it's possible one could have Customs issues coming into the US.

I got one of those (from the same source) a few months ago.  It took
longer to get to me than it would from inside the country (I'm in the
USA), but there were no customs issues and it has worked fine for me.
Impact recognizes it as a standard cable.
Click to expand...
I just ordered one, instead of the Digilent unit I mentioned. It's
obviously a clone of the Xilinx unit. I paid extra for express
delivery so I should have it in a few days, I'll report back on how it
works.
 
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:05:23 -0500, Steven Hirsch <snhirsch@gmail.com> wrote:

On 02/14/2011 06:08 PM, Mike Harrison wrote:
On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:28:45 -0800 (PST), jack<postbox4jack@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

Regards,

I got one of these recently - not used it yet but build quality looks good - possibly not made by
Xilinx....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xilinx-FPGA-CPLD-USB-download-Cable-JTAG-/150560914094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e213aae

Heh. That looks like a knock-off. Not sure about other countries, but it's
possible one could have Customs issues coming into the US.
Click to expand...
But what's the realistic likelihood of them bothering opening low-value items like this amongst the
millions of items in the post?
 
"jack" <postbox4jack@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:41144cb8-5026-41ff-8745-c9b3ad8c7dfe@m27g2000prj.googlegroups.com...
Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?
Click to expand...
What bothers me with current programming cables is that there are too many
lying around not being used. I have a bunch of xilinx originals, some altera
clones and a colleague has a lot of damaged ones.
In an earlier topic I asked for one that had ESD protection on and got
meself one. I don't know if xilinx originals has, but I assume they did
(they never broke).

I just wanted to advice : make sure you get one with basic protection on the
io's. There is a lot of crap out there.

And for the parallel port guys:NO! Don't use parallel port if you can avoid
it. The parallel port is most likely not there on new pc's and most of the
ones I have seen is very bad electronics that can damage both your fpga,
interface itself and your pc by a walk on the carpet. It can even be just
slightly damaged so that lifetime gets reduced.
 
I just checked on Ebay for other suppliers of those Chinese-made
units, there are several of them:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=xilinx+platform+cable&_sacat=See-All-Categories

There is probably one company making them all.
 
On Feb 14, 7:55 pm, Gerhard Hoffmann <dk...@arcor.de> wrote:
Am 14.02.2011 15:28, schrieb jack:

I have a 4 yr old xilinx spartan-3 starter kit which came with a
parallel port JTAG programming cable. My desktop with the parallel
port died recently. As desktops/laptops no longer ship with parallel
port so i am looking for a USB programming cable. However the one
available from Xilinx is for 225$ which is pretty steep for me.

Any suggestions for alternative cheaper USB JTAG programming cable for
xilinx boards ?

You can get low-cost parallel ports for PCI OR PCI-E in your
local mall and stay with the cable that works.
OK, it consumes a slot in your desktop.

regards, Gerhard
Click to expand...
I've done this with no problem.
XILINX have a proper driver which can use a memory mapped plug and
play parallel port, it just works. Surprisingly the ALTERA equivalent
insists on a legacy parallel port, IO mapped where Intel put it 20
years ago.
 
On Feb 15, 3:12 pm, "Morten Leikvoll" <mleik...@yahoo.nospam> wrote:

And for the parallel port guys:NO! Don't use parallel port if you can avoid
it. The parallel port is most likely not there on new pc's and most of the
ones I have seen is very bad electronics that can damage both your fpga,
interface itself and your pc by a walk on the carpet. It can even be just
slightly damaged so that lifetime gets reduced.
Click to expand...
I've used lots of parallel port JTAG interfaces (Xilinx, Altera, ARM,
etc.) and have never had any problems with them.

Leon
 
You could use the $39 USB JTAG cable from Digilent, I'm thinking of
getting one. It isn't supported by Impact, but Digilent supplies their
own Adept software for it.
Click to expand...
The Digilent Cables can, in fact, support iMPACT, ChipScope, and SDK
Debugging using a 3rd-party cable plug-in that Digilent provides.
There are a few extra steps involved to get it set up, but it does
work. Since the $39 cable is USB Full-speed, you might want to
consider the $47.95 High-Speed version.

Also, it looks like Digilent has a Xilinx-authorized replica of the
Platform Cable USB-II since Digilent participates in the Xilinx
University Program. The non-Academic price is $129.

Bryan
 
"Leon" <leon355@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:ab9ed953-b8bc-4ce2-bf9c-f064e91bff24@k7g2000yqj.googlegroups.com...
I've used lots of parallel port JTAG interfaces (Xilinx, Altera, ARM,
etc.) and have never had any problems with them.
Click to expand...
You could be lucky with your test environment, but my experience with
parallel ports is that they work, as long as you dont't change your pc and
if you have very kind power supply environments and connections to your
board(s). But I have several hours behind me scratching my head because of
parallel port interfaces/interfacing and I don't want to see them ever
again. Printers left the parallel "printer" port [computer-]ages ago :)
 
Bryan <bryan.fletcher@avnet.com> wrote:
You could use the $39 USB JTAG cable from Digilent, I'm thinking of
getting one. It isn't supported by Impact, but Digilent supplies their
own Adept software for it.

The Digilent Cables can, in fact, support iMPACT, ChipScope, and SDK
Debugging using a 3rd-party cable plug-in that Digilent provides.
There are a few extra steps involved to get it set up, but it does
work. Since the $39 cable is USB Full-speed, you might want to
consider the $47.95 High-Speed version.

Also, it looks like Digilent has a Xilinx-authorized replica of the
Platform Cable USB-II since Digilent participates in the Xilinx
University Program. The non-Academic price is $129.

Bryan
Click to expand...
I've been using the XUP cable for a few months now, and I have no
complaints. A bit pricy, but I wanted a cable that works with impact under
Linux. I got the academic price, though.
 
On Feb 16, 9:49 pm, Jay <jpt03...@engr.uconn.edu> wrote:
Bryan <bryan.fletc...@avnet.com> wrote:
You could use the $39 USB JTAG cable from Digilent, I'm thinking of
getting one. It isn't supported by Impact, but Digilent supplies their
own Adept software for it.

The Digilent Cables can, in fact, support iMPACT, ChipScope, and SDK
Debugging using a 3rd-party cable plug-in that Digilent provides.
There are a few extra steps involved to get it set up, but it does
work.  Since the $39 cable is USB Full-speed, you might want to
consider the $47.95 High-Speed version.

Also, it looks like Digilent has a Xilinx-authorized replica of the
Platform Cable USB-II since Digilent participates in the Xilinx
University Program.  The non-Academic price is $129.

Bryan

I've been using the XUP cable for a few months now, and I have no
complaints. A bit pricy, but I wanted a cable that works with impact under
Linux. I got the academic price, though.
Click to expand...
Thanks all for your suggestions. Am considering ordering one for
Digilent.
 
I would like to clarify that it was IBM that defined the legacy parallel port addresses. It was they that designed the first PCs and laid down the original standards as to what has become known to be PC legacy stuff. It was not Intel and it was more like 30 years ago!

--
mkaras
 
On Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:08:17 -0800 (PST), jack
<postbox4jack@gmail.com> wrote:

On Feb 16, 9:49 pm, Jay <jpt03...@engr.uconn.edu> wrote:
Bryan <bryan.fletc...@avnet.com> wrote:
You could use the $39 USB JTAG cable from Digilent, I'm thinking of
getting one. It isn't supported by Impact, but Digilent supplies their
own Adept software for it.

The Digilent Cables can, in fact, support iMPACT, ChipScope, and SDK
Debugging using a 3rd-party cable plug-in that Digilent provides.
There are a few extra steps involved to get it set up, but it does
work.  Since the $39 cable is USB Full-speed, you might want to
consider the $47.95 High-Speed version.

Also, it looks like Digilent has a Xilinx-authorized replica of the
Platform Cable USB-II since Digilent participates in the Xilinx
University Program.  The non-Academic price is $129.

Bryan
Click to expand...

I tried to order the Digilent cable and they told me that since I
wasn't a student, they could not sell me one. Period. That was about
a year ago.

I'm in the US if that makes any difference.

boB







I've been using the XUP cable for a few months now, and I have no
complaints. A bit pricy, but I wanted a cable that works with impact under
Linux. I got the academic price, though.

Thanks all for your suggestions. Am considering ordering one for
Digilent.
Click to expand...
 
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