[subexp-daq] Question on default firmware for VULOM

[Håkan T Johansson]

Dear Günter,

question: are you using different firmwares due to the need to have 
different amounts of various kinds of logic inside?

Or is it just to run 'older' versions, due to software incompatibilities?

If the latter, then the long-term approach would be to try to rectify that 
by maving to newer versions when possible.

We have been working on forward-porting the sis3316 branch you are using. 
All the nurdlib-common things have been merged with the master branch 
already.

The sis3316 changes are also done, but needs testing.  We have no 
experience or direct access to such modules.  We have tried to be careful, 
but it is easy to overlook things.  Separate mail to come.

Cheers,
Håkan




On Tue, 20 Feb 2024, Weber, Guenter Dr. wrote:

> 
> Dear friends,
> 
> 
> attached please find a script that automatically choses the right firmware
> for the VULOM.
> 
> 
> If you find time, please have a look at it and tell me if you think it is
> useful or if there is any mistake.
> 
> 
> On my system it works fine so far.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best greetings
> 
> Günter
> 
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> Von: subexp-daq <subexp-daq-bounces at lists.chalmers.se> im Auftrag von Weber,
> Guenter Dr. <g.weber at hi-jena.gsi.de>
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 20. Februar 2024 10:46:52
> An: Hans Toshihide Törnqvist; Discuss use of Nurdlib, TRLO II, drasi and
> UCESB.
> Betreff: Re: [subexp-daq] Question on default firmware for VULOM  
> 
> Dear Hans,
> 
> 
> just to close this issue, here is what we are doing now to set the VULOM to
> the right firmware. As it is possible that a DAQ system is operating with
> different software versions that also require different VULOM firmware, we
> now load the right firmware 'on-the-fly' as part of the startup of the DAQ
> system. After loading of the firmware a short waiting time is necessary
> before the VULOM is ready again.
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
> # Obtain the right firmware
> 
> VULOM4_FW=`cat ${TRLOII_PATH}/fw/vulom4b_trlo/trlo_defs.h | grep
> MD5SUM_STAMP | sed 's/.*0x//'`
> exportVULOM4_CTRL=$trloiipath/trloctrl/fw_${VULOM4_FW}_trlo/bin_${machine}_${vers
> ion}/trlo_ctrl
> 
> # setup local constants
> addr=3
> firmware_region=2
> 
> # restarting the VULOM to set the correct firmware version
> echo "Restarting VULOM with firmware region" $firmware_region
> $TRLOII_PATH/bin/vulomflash --addr=$addr --restart=$firmware_region
> echo "Waiting for VULOM to answer..."
> exit_code=1
> while [ $exit_code -ne 0 ] ; do
>     $TRLOII_PATH/bin/vulomflash --addr=$addr --read &> /dev/null
>     exit_code=$?
>     if [ $exit_code -ne 0 ] ; then
>         sleep 1 #sleep for 1 sec before retrying
>     fi
> done
> 
> 
> # Trigger on VULOM pulser
> $VULOM4_CTRL --addr=$addr --clear-setup --config=vulom.trlo standalone
> module_trigger
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> If we did understand the naming convention in "bin/vulomflash --addr=$ADDR
> --readprogs" a bit better, we would probably also be able to estimate from
> the name/number of the firmware the right firmware region on the VULOM (and
> we could check if the right firmware was already loaded). But at the moment,
> we set firmware_region by hand.
> 
> 
> In the ideal world, we would then have an init script for the DAQ that takes
> care of the VULOM settings just by looking at the state of the software
> under TRLOII_PATH. This could help our guys a lot who have no idea about all
> this stuff :-)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best greetings
> 
> Günter
> 
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> Von: Hans Toshihide Törnqvist <hans.tornqvist at chalmers.se>
> Gesendet: Montag, 19. Februar 2024 10:37:37
> An: Discuss use of Nurdlib, TRLO II, drasi and UCESB.; Weber, Guenter Dr.;
> Discuss use of Nurdlib, TRLO II, drasi and UCESB.
> Betreff: Re: [subexp-daq] Question on default firmware for VULOM  
> Dear Günter,
> 
> As I understand it, the firmware you would like to have has been flashed and
> tested quite a lot and seems to work?
> 
> Then you can flash program area 0, but you will need the --force option too.
> Area 0 will only be flashed if the firmware in question has been flashed
> into another area, as in your present case.
> 
> After that it will load after every power cycle.
> 
> Cheers,
> Hans
> 
> 
> "Weber, Guenter Dr." <g.weber at hi-jena.gsi.de> skrev: (19 februari 2024
> 10:15:37 CET)
>
>       Dear friends,
> 
>
>       I restarted the crate and now get the following error message
>       when starting the DAQ:
> 
>
>       10: crate/crate.c:923: .Slow-init module[0]=GSI_VULOM.
>       LOG: TRLO: MD5SUM: 0x426cb99c (CT: 5bba6507 = 2018-10-07
>       19:56:55 UTC)
>       WARNING: Known firmware (alias): 0x6e4ba1a9.
>       WARNING: Known firmware (alias): 0x1409285e.
>       WARNING: Known firmware (alias): 0xa73c5093.
>       WARNING: Known firmware (alias): 0x6e4ba1a9.
>       WARNING: Known firmware (alias): 0x1409285e.
>       FATAL: TRLO firmware wrong: 0x426cb99c, expected 0x6e4ba1a9 or
>       alias.
> 
> 
> I assume that upon power-on the VULOM is booting with a default
> firmware that is not the one necessary to run with the most recent
> version of NURDLIB, etc.
> 
> 
> How can I tell the VULOM which firmware version from its memory it
> should load as default?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you very much!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best greetings
> 
> Günter
> 
> 
> 
>