Testing the BlackIce with Apio

obijuan 2018-01-03 15:59:15 UTC #1

Hi!

In early September, Ken Boak sent me two Icestorm Blackice boards for giving support in Apio[1] / Icestudio[2] projects. I have one board, and the other was for Jesus Arroyo, the main developer

We are finishing the support in apio (this step is necessary for giving support in Icestudio later) and we need you to test it. Specilly in Windows and Mac (Jesus and I are linux users). Any feedback is very welcome

First, you need to install python (currently python 2.7, but we are migrating it to python 3.6)

Second, install apio (but the development version with blackice support: 0.3.0b3):

pip install apio==0.3.0b3

You can check that apio has been correctly installed by typing:

apio --version
apio, version 0.3.0b3

Now, let's install the toolchain and other auxiliary packages

apio install --all

Create a working directory and add the following testing files:

blinky.v:

module blink(input clk, output LED);
localparam N = 24;
reg [N:0] count;
assign LED = count[N];
always @(posedge clk)
        count <= count + 1;
endmodule

blink.pcf:

set_io LED 70
set_io clk 129

From the working directory, let's create a blackice project:

apio init -b blackice
Creating apio.ini file ...
File 'apio.ini' has been successfully created!

We need also to install the blackiceprog:

pip install blackiceprog

and enable the drivers

apio drivers --serial-enable
Configure Serial drivers for FPGA
Serial drivers enabled
Unplug and reconnect your board

Now everything should be ok, ready for uploading our first test:

Just type:

apio upload
Board: blackice
[Wed Jan 3 16:47:05 2018] Processing blackice

FPGA_SIZE: 8k
FPGA_TYPE: hx
FPGA_PACK: tq144:4k
PROG: black-iceprog /dev/ttyACM0
...
icepack hardware.asc hardware.bin
black-iceprog /dev/ttyACM0 hardware.bin
Wrote 135100 bytes
========================= [SUCCESS] Took 3.53 seconds

You can see a vídeo of the uploading process here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nN6zx5XtF1GtQEgk1

Once the software is installed and configured correctly, you only have to edit your .v and .pcf files and execute apio upload

We need as much feedback as possible for the release. Once apio is debugged, you are only one or two clicks away from synthesizing and uploading circuits in your FPGA board. So easy... and from any platform: Linux, Win, Mac

I am looking forward to your tests. Thanks!

Best regards, Juan

[1] https://github.com/FPGAwars/apio
[2] (The forum do not allow me to add more than two links)

JesusArroyo 2018-01-03 16:22:18 UTC #2

Hello!

Just a little comment. The current beta version is available for Python 3 and also the programmer's script, so you can try it with this version of Python.

As Juan said, any feedback is welcome.

Thanks.

Folknology 2018-01-03 22:51:29 UTC #3

Thank you @JesusArroyo and @obijuan for all of your hard work in getting BlackIce supported with APIO this will make a real difference for it's multiplatform support and much easier for newcomers to Verilog and BlackIce. Is there a way to specify a minimum version for apio so I can make a more future proof version of these instruction for the wiki/tutorial we are working on?

Would something like this work:

pip install apio>=0.3.0b3

obijuan 2018-01-04 17:39:01 UTC #4

Currently you have to specify apio version 0.3.0b3 because is the development version and we are testing it. After the release you just get it installed with the command pip install apio (for all the platforms: Linux, win, Mac. it will install the latest version). So, let's use pip install apio==0.3.0b3 duriing the testing (one week? maybe two?) and pip install apio for the final instructions

obijuan 2018-01-04 17:47:01 UTC #5

If included the blink example into the apio-examples repo, so that it is easier for testing

Install the new examples with the following commnad:

$ apio install examples
Installing examples package:
Download apio-examples-0.0.10.zip
Downloading [####################################] 100%
Unpacking [####################################] 100%
Package 'examples' has been successfully installed!

You can see all the available examples for the different boards with the command:

$ apio examples -l

[...]
blackice/blink
It just blinks the red led 4 of the mystorm blackice board
[...]

For using the blink example type:

$ apio examples -d blackice/blink
Creating blackice/blink directory ...
Example 'blackice/blink' has been successfully created!

Enter into the new directory:

$ cd blackice/blink

And synthesize/upload the circuit into the FPG A with the command:

$ apio upload

It would be nice if you could test it in all the platforms and report here the problems/bugs found. Any feedback is welcome

Folknology 2018-01-04 20:19:09 UTC #6

Thanks @obijuan we have to be a little careful about inclusion of examples (such as those in our repository) as the PCF file changed from BlackIce to BlackIce-II, however your simple blink example will work on both boards as those pins remain the same, in fact the 4 demo led pins and the clk were left on the same pins to be consistent..

electrified 2018-01-04 21:56:14 UTC #7

Hello,

I can confirm that apio 0.3.0b3 works for me on Arch Linux, under both python2.7 and python3.6

The upload hung on me once with some kernel error messages about cdc_acm, but I've had that intermittently when uploading using cp/cat so I don't think it's particularly a problem with black-iceprog.

Cheers,
Ed

electrified 2018-01-05 09:25:03 UTC #8

Hi again

I've just tried on my Mac this morning, building works fine, but uploading fails with:

 ebr04@SBGML02609  ~/Documents/dev/blackice/blink  apio upload
 Board: blackice
 dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/libusb/lib/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
 Referenced from: /Users/ebr04/.apio/packages/tools-system/bin/lsusb
 Reason: image not found

What's the recommended method to install libusb?

EDIT: libusb is available on brew, installing that sorted it. Don't have my myStorm with me, will try later!
EDIT2: Realised I'm an idiot, should have followed the instructions and used apio drivers --serial-enable

Cheers,
Ed

electrified 2018-01-05 18:59:58 UTC #9

OK, got home and tried programming the myStorm from OSX.

The first run of apio upload changes the lit LEDs from LED1 and LED2 to LED5 and LED6, but the blinking doesn't start.

Running apio upload again uploads the bitstream successfully, but never terminates.

This is with IceBoot 0.3

Cheers,
Ed

electrified 2018-01-05 19:26:51 UTC #10

And finally, on Windows 10, fresh install of Python 3.6.4.

On installing apio using pip, I got error: option --single-version-externally-managed not recognized. To fix this, I installed wheel via pip.

Running apio upload causes Python to crash:

Cheers,
Ed

JesusArroyo 2018-01-07 23:37:55 UTC #11

Hi @electrified,

This is not tested in Mac so your feedback is very helpful. We will include the libusb installation with homebrew in the driver configuration process.

Thanks.

JesusArroyo 2018-01-07 23:41:23 UTC #12

Hi. This seems to be an issue with the programmer. If you want to play with it, here is the repo: https://github.com/jpenalbae/black-iceprog.

Anyway, the information is useful. Thanks!

JesusArroyo 2018-01-07 23:48:58 UTC #13

Hi. Thanks again!

Yes, the apio dependency Scons requires an updated wheel package to be installed.

For the second issue I think you can solve it by selecting "Add Python to environment variables" when you install Python 3.6.

Regards.

JesusArroyo 2018-01-13 17:22:35 UTC #14

Hi!

I have updated apio to 0.3.0rc1. Use pip install -U apio==0.3.0rc1 to install it.

Now the blackiceprog package is an extras_require for apio. So you don't need to care about the compatible blackiceprog version, apio does.

As always, let us know your feedback to verify this tool for all OS. Thanks!

Regards.

Elminster 2019-09-22 21:04:05 UTC #15

Interestingly the BlackIce MX behaves in a similar way, i.e. everyhing works on Linux, but on Mac the blackiceprog for the apio upload doesnt work. It looks like is worked from command line but board hangs until restarted.

I am guessing either way it would be too much effort to get Blackic MX support into icestudio if apio is more or less working. Just a case of sorting out the pcf bits, which is different to blackice I/II.

Folknology 2019-09-23 11:16:01 UTC #16

Also use latest version now

pip install -U apio

I will try to get updated support for APIO/Icetudio for Mx (Use BlackIce II board setting for now with separate PCF)

Elminster 2019-09-23 13:00:19 UTC #17

I have been using 0.4.0 for a while, which I think is the latest, on both command-line, in ATOM editor and in ICESudio. All works with linux, they work except for upload on Mac. But you can of course 'cat' it, that works.

I have been using icestudio with blackice II, but it is a bit of a faff. Not ultra urgent, just a nice to have.