[DSP-10] HEY !! Bob !! Re: Corrupted Monitor on DSPx

[Richard Miller]

Hi Bob:
No problem, not much to be done until 39VF040 with a good monitor arrives.  I have put it away for now, and have started reading all the information available on the website again. Its been awhile since I have reviewed this information, and amazing how much I have forgotten!
73
Rich 
      From: Bob Larkin <boblark at proaxis.com>
 To: Rich Miller <av8torrich at yahoo.com>; "kd7ts at comcast.net" <kd7ts at comcast.net> 
Cc: Rich Miller via DSP-10 <dsp-10 at mailman.qth.net>
 Sent: Thursday, December 3, 2015 7:58 PM
 Subject: Re: [DSP-10] HEY !! Bob !! Re: Corrupted Monitor on DSPx
   
Hi Rich and Mike -  I just got home from a lunch and read the 
discussion.  I need to get my mind attached to this before I can say 
much.  Unfortunately, the chief-in-charge says we are going to Eugene 
now, and won't get home until about midnight.  So, it will be 
tomorrow...  73, Bob



On 12/03/2015 01:49 PM, Rich Miller wrote:
> Hi Mike:
>
> What you have written certainly makes sense to me. You are correct, the monitor was present in some form until last night. This is when I noticed the FL1 had completely turned off. Upon recycle  it was clear something was amiss. When I attempted to reload UHF 3, it became clear the monitor was gone.
>
> Based on your description, I am having a problem understanding how corrupted monitor could continue to allow certain operations to work, while not allowing other functions to operate correctly. I would think if the monitor was corrupted in anyway, all operations would cease to work (upon reboot). If this is true, then I think there may be a problem with the ADSP-2185 which was causing the original issue, and I somehow managed to corrupt the monitor working on the original symptoms.
>
>
> 73
>
> Rich, AJ3G
>
>> On Dec 3, 2015, at 4:25 PM, kd7ts <kd7ts at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 03 Dec 2015 10:30:28 -0800, Rich Miller via DSP-10 <dsp-10 at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Just out of curiosity, is it possible in your opinion for a DSP-10 to partially run with a corrupted monitor? I really can't find any fault in any of the other parts of the RF Chain on the main board. When serial programming works and programs the shift registers, then the PLL's work great.
>>
>> Hi Rich,
>>
>> Opinions ? Sure, I wrote this up a few years ago, and will add some clarification ..
>>
>> The ADSP2185 is a specailized processor optimized to handle FFT calculations, but also does many other jobs to make the DSP-10 operate. It does nothing on its own and requires instructions to be loaded into its memory. A Flash memory chip, 39VF040, is used to store the programs that the ADSP2185 uses.
>>
>> When the DSP-10 is started the ADSP2185 looks for something to run.  In the case of the ADSP2185 used in the DSP-10x, this is BANK0 of the 39VF040 flash memory. The first few instructions are a "boot loader" that load the monitor stored in the flash to the low memory of the ADSP-2185 and start the monitor running from the ADSP-2185.  Once running, the monitor looks at the jumpers, JP1 and JP2 on the interface board to see what should happen next.
>>
>> The monitor, still running from the ADSP2185, checks  JP1 for further instruction and if JP1  is closed,  looks in BANK1 of the 39VF040 and loads the UHF3 DSP program into the ADSP2185 memory and turns execution over to the DSP program. At this point, we have the monitor loaded in low memory and UHF3 loaded above it somewhere, but still in the ADSP-2185. The flash is not needed until the next time the DSP-10 is started.
>>
>> If JP1 is open, the monitor, running in low memory of the ADSP-2185, waits for instructions from the outside. This is where the monitor is used to load FLASHUTB to the ADSP2185 and execution is turned over to the "FLASH UTILITY".
>>
>> The flash utility knows how to talk to the flash memory, and we use it to load new insructions and/or programs to the appropriate flash memory bank. The monitor is still in the ADSP2185 low memory, but program execution is under control of the "FLASH UTILITY" , FLASHUTB.EXE.
>>
>> As long as power is on, the ADSP2185 memory is retained, and we can use this feature to write a copy of the monitor back to the FLASH MEMORY. If you erase or corrupt the monitor in BANK0, it can be written back by the flash utility from the copy in ADSP2185 memory.
>>
>> If you erase or corrupt the monitor in BANK0, AND reset the DSP-10 or cycle the power, then there is no longer a copy of the monitor in the ADSP2185 low memory and no copy in the 39VF040, so you can put this away until you get another 39VF040 flash chip with a monitor in BANK0.
>>
>> The monitor is the first thing we use and the heart of these operations, and without it there is no reading, or writing of the flash memory.
>>
>> So, the opinion .. if there is not a monitor in the flash chip then UHF3 will never be loaded to the ADSP-2185 and not much is going to happen. If the PLL gets programmed, then there must be a copy of the monitor in Bank0 of the 39VF040.
>>
>> http://www.proaxis.com/~boblark/dsp10_dspx_flashbank1.htm
>>
>> There are many hints available from the software used to update the UHF3 program from the link above.
>> Remember there are 2 jumpers, for the two banks, JP0 controls access to BANK0 where the monitor is stored, and JP1 controls use of BANK1 of the 39VF040 where UHF3 is stored.
>>
>> I am guessing that the problem must lie in the BANK1 data, or a problem in moving the program data stored in BANK1 to the ADSP-2185 memory.
>>
>> Mike KD7TS
>>
>> How's that for an opinion ??
>
>