Sync Box firmware

Back to Sync Box Guide

There is an Altera CPLD (EPM570T144C3) and an Atmel micro-controller (AT89C51) on the Sync board.

• SyncBox CPLD Firmware Description [PDF] (SC2-ELE-S589-201)
• SyncBox Microcontroller Software Description [PDF] (SC2-ELE-S589-202)

Consequently, there are two sets of firmware:

• firmware for the CPLD part (*.pof file)
• firmware for the microcontroller (*.hex file)

Firmware Upgrade Instructions

To upgrade the Sync Box firmware,most times both the microcontroller and the CPLD firmware need to be reprogrammed.

The CPLD firmware can be loaded using the Altera USB-Blaster that connects to the on-board P23 JTAG header, and Quartus Programmer software. A *.pof file needs to be loaded.

The micro-controller firmware can be loaded using a USB cable that connects to the on-board J1 connector, and Flip Programmer software available from Atmel website. A *.hex file needs to be loaded.

For more details, see section 9 in: Sync Box User's Guide

Note: I had to install Flip on 3 computers before I could get the USB driver to work!

Firmware .hex & .pof Downloads

Revisions

Firmware set Rev. 1f

Filename

sync_box_v1f_25feb2010.pof

sync_box_v1f_25feb2010.hex

Features

adds a ckd command to the rs232 interface to adjust the frequency of DV_Spare1 and DV_Spare2 by setting a 50MHz divisor through the command.

when you turn on the sync box, the firmware revision 1f appears on the rs232 terminal

Firmware set Rev. 1e (6e?)

Filename

sync_box_v6e_11aug2008.pof

sync_box_v1c_17nov2006.hex

Features

added a 50MHz clock on SMA output of the Sync box

Note

Since the microcontroller code is still 1c and that is what is reported in rs232 terminal, there is no way to identify this set from a 1c set.

Firmware set Rev. 1c

Filename

sync_box_v6c_19oct2006.pof

sync_box_v1c_17nov2006.hex

Features

original firmware

Firmware Repository

Ask the "MCE team at UBC" for a username/password to be able to access the cvs repository.

You can checkout a copy of the source code as follows:

CVSROOT=:pserver:username@e-mode.phas.ubc.ca:/home/cvsroot/
export CVSROOT
cvs login
cvs checkout mce/sync_box

If on Windows PC, install a CVS client ( e.g. http://www.tortoisecvs.org/ ).

• CVS server info is:
  • server: e-mode.phas.ubc.ca
  • repository folder:/home/cvsroot/mce/sync_box
  • module name: mce
  • protocol: pserver