bladeRF being (USB) disconnected during FPGA firmware recovery

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CormacG
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:00 am

bladeRF being (USB) disconnected during FPGA firmware recovery

Post by CormacG »

So, I attempted to update the FPGA firmware on my bladeRF x40 while it was connected and powered by a Raspberry Pi 2. Something didn't go right (power voltage dip I suspect) and the firmware update didn't take. No big deal, there's a fix i.e. upgrading using the FX3 bootloader i.e. as is set out at https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF/wiki/U ... bootloader I'm attempting this fix on a laptop (one I've used the bladeRF with extensively, without any issues) not the raspberry pi.

Everything goes as indicated in those instructions until the seemingly successful completion of this command in bladeRF-cli:
recover <bus> <address> <path_to_firmware_image>/bladeRF_fw.img

which results in a prompt: Success! Use "open" to switch to this device. Note that a "load fx3 <firmware>" is required to write the firmware to flash.

However, when I try to open the bladeRF device to run the load fx3 command i.e. by issuing the open command in bladeRF-cli, I get a No devices found error as during the previous recover step, the bladeRF is being disconnected as a USB device for some reason. This disconnection is happening in both ubuntu 16.04 and windows 7 (I've tried the recovery procedure in both OSs) and is preventing me from finishing out the recovery procedure.

My questions:
Why is the bladeRF USB disconnection happening when the recover <bus> <address> <path_to_firmware_image>/bladeRF_fw.img command is executed by bladeRF-cli? What can I do to either prevent the USB disconnection from happening or otherwise overcome it / work around it and complete loading the firmware onto the FPGA?

Thanks
CormacG
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:00 am

Re: bladeRF being (USB) disconnected during FPGA firmware recovery

Post by CormacG »

UPDATE

bladeRF USB disconnect was being caused by the laptop being docked in a docking station, something associated with USB ports and the dock was giving rise to the disconnects. Removing the laptop from the dock eliminated the issue.

In case anyone should encounter this issue...
bglod
Posts: 201
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:10 pm

Re: bladeRF being (USB) disconnected during FPGA firmware recovery

Post by bglod »

Glad you figured it out. I was going to suggest that this sounds like a power interruption issue to me -- either caused by the host, or the bladeRF itself. The latter being unlikely if it was working fine before the attempted firmware update.
Electrical Engineer
Nuand, LLC.
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