exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

The CPLD will program with most of the pins shorted. So it programming is no indication of anything.

If its not booting then DiagROM is really the only option.

Hi Guys,

I got my board soldered up on Monday and got my programmer last night and I cannot program the cpld's for the life of me.
When I do a auto scan the chips are detected, and i can add the jed bus and memory files but afterwards I cant do anything with the chips, right clicking gives me no options for them.

I cant erase, program, verify, nothing..

could there be a problem with my soldering? everything looked good but my inspection scope is in storage so its a little hard to tell.

I have a few pictures I have posted for info.


Thanks for any help guys, this project is what got me to buy an a500!

right click on each chip in turn and you should see a program option.

It’s probably your programmer.

On one of the drop down menus you should see the option to disconnect the programmer. Click this and you will then see the option to program when you click each cpld.

Sorry, not near a machine where I could be more specific.

Terriblefire, the items I got when right clicking were " assign new config file, set programming properties, set erase properties, and launch file assignment wizard" there were no programming options, EzdineG was right it did work with that method I was able to erase, blank check, and program the cplds.

next problem I am having is when I program the bus, it boots with no issues to sysinfo and i get about 632 dhrystones, but when i program the ram cpld it will not boot.

I am assuming it is a soldering issue but i went over the joints on that cpld and they look great..
I read about the diagrom, but i dont have my programmer for that could i buy a rom from anyone?

also I notced that when i switch the clocksel to internal it will not boot, not sure whats going on there...

GoXoD wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2019 4:52 am Terriblefire, the items I got when right clicking were " assign new config file, set programming properties, set erase properties, and launch file assignment wizard" there were no programming options, EzdineG was right it did work with that method I was able to erase, blank check, and program the cplds.

Use assign programming file to pick the jeds.. then you can program.

As Stephen says above then save it as a project so you can just do a scan then open your project and its done in a couple of clicks

I think i am explaining things wrong and that makes sense as I don't know any of this very well.

So Starting from opening ise impact, I create a new project, then click configure devices using boundary-scan automatically connect cable, next it asks if i want to assign config files, at that point i say yes and pick the bus file then the ram file, I am using the tf530_alpha_sd_card rev3 .jed's, on the next screen it shows me device programming properties for the cplds, but the window has no property's listed, it just shows the boundary scan and the cplds, no other options, so i click ok. it takes me to the main screen and I right click the bus or ram cpld and it just says assign new config file, set programming properties, set erase properties, and launch file assignment wizard..

I'm sorry if i am making a mess of this, It seems like it should be simple but i think because my jtag programmer was from ebay its making it a pain.

So if i follow what ezdineg said and click disconnect cable from the software all the options now show up. and i am able to program, but if i program the ram cpld it gives me a black screen.

I was curious about the clock so i connected my logic analyzer to it, and it turned my LA off, after messing with it a bit I just powered on the a500 and the LA sprang to life, I thought that was odd so i removed it and did a continuity check and found that there is a short between vcc and ground.
it is around 220 ohms from 5v to gnd.
trying to track it down now.

If you see "assign" and not "program" then you havent got a jed assigned. You should see ..
If you see this then you havent got a jed assigned.

The cable status is completely irrelevant.

yep I see, but what i am saying is I have nothing, above Assign new config file.
Only time i get all the options like your top picture is after disconnecting the cable from the menu.