FERS A520x microcontroller firmware: user guide

What the firmware does

The microcontroller (PIC32) of the FERS A520x boards connects the board to the host through Ethernet and USB, and runs the board web interface. It works together with the FPGA firmware, which does the acquisition and the TD-Link (optical link to the DT5215 concentrator).

Supported boards:

Files in the NI package a520x-up-firmware

Required FPGA firmware

The web interface needs a recent FPGA firmware: A5202 Rev 8.0 or later, A5203 Rev 5.0 or later. With an older FPGA the web interface shows only the Dashboard (board information and connectivity) and the Network page, with a banner asking to update the FPGA. Update the FPGA first.

Updating the firmware

The firmware is loaded by the bootloader of the microcontroller over Ethernet, with the FERS firmware upgrade tool.

• The bootloader always answers at 192.168.50.2 (UDP port 6234), whatever IP address is configured in the board: the PC must be able to reach the 192.168.50.x network.
• Update one board at a time: all the bootloaders use the same address.
• Manual way (any firmware version): power cycle the board and start the update within 5 seconds.
• Automatic way (from this version, when the upgrade tool supports it): the tool restarts the board into the bootloader through the web interface, without touching the power supply. If an update is cancelled after that, the board stays in the bootloader until the tool restarts the application or the board is power cycled.

Web interface

Open http://<board address>/ with a browser. Factory address: 192.168.50.3, hostname FERS.

Hover a parameter (dotted underline) to see what it means.

The icon at the top right shows the TD-Link: green = link up, red = link down, grey = switched off because the board is used through Ethernet or USB. If the link was up and goes down, a red banner reports the time of the loss.

The charts need access to the internet the first time (the chart library is loaded from cdn.jsdelivr.net). Without it the Readout page shows no charts; the values are still shown.

Ethernet, USB and TD-Link

In normal operation the board uses one interface at a time to save power: when a host connects through Ethernet or USB the TD-Link is switched off, and when the board works on the TD-Link the microcontroller is switched off.

TD-Link debug mode (TD-Link page) keeps both TD-Link and microcontroller on, to watch the optical link from the web interface. It increases the power by about 1.5 W per board and can overheat boards that are not cooled by forced ventilation: use it only while setting up the experiment and disable it afterwards.

Network settings

Network page: hostname, DHCP, IP address, gateway, subnet mask, DNS. After Save and restart the restart page waits for the board at the new address and opens it. With DHCP the address is assigned by the DHCP server; if the new address is in another network, change the network settings of the PC and open the new address.