Hi

the drs4 start to generate Dtap signal after reset and standard configuration.

while in reset Denable and  Dwrite are low

after reset we put Denable in high

the Dtap starts to toggle, and the plllck stabilizes on about 1V.  

After 40Msec the Dtap stops to toggle and the plllck go to 2.5V

Why do the Domino stop working?

Thanks, Mony

my refclk is 1.25Mhz

what are the inputs and voltage you need to see?

Avdd and Dvdd are 2.5v

Denable is "1" Dwrite "0"

currently i am doing an external reset cycle, after that i am doing the configuration cycle.

should i relay on the internal reset?

the Dtap is toggling for 33.8msec and then just stops.

Thanks, Mony 

Hi

We have some meesurs to show (attached)

1. Dtap and Denable
2. Dtap+Denable in zoom
3. Dtap + Ref+
4. Dtap + Dspeed

From the screen shots it can be seen that ref+ is not synchronized with Dtap (PLL not working correctly)

And Dspeed is going done to zero after some time.

In our system Dspeed is shorted to pllout.

So it looks like pllout do not pump the RC filter capacitors.

We tested various value of R and C's.

Also we checked that pllout is sorted to Dspeed.

Thanks, mony

Hi

We have some measures to show (attached)

1. Dtap and Denable
2. Dtap+Denable in zoom
3. Dtap + Refck+
4. Dtap + Dspeed

From the screen shots it can be seen that refck+ is not synchronized with Dtap (PLL not working correctly)

And Dspeed is going done to zero after some time.

In our system Dspeed is shorted to pllout.

So it looks like pllout do not pump the RC filter capacitors.

We tested various value of R and C's.

Also we checked that pllout is sorted to Dspeed.

Thanks, mony

Hi Stefan

Thanks for your input.

We are in the process of assemble another PCB board.

so soon we can compere between two boards.

As for the PLLEN bit, we set it.

We checked several times the soldering of the DRS4 using a microscope.

Everything looks ok.

In what method do you recommend to solder the DRS4?

Thanks for the invitation to meet.

120Km is not so far J

mony

Hi

We have resolve the problem, the Dtap is now working correctly.

There were two problems:

1. After configuration we put the all address bits to one (standby mode)

We are now setting the address bits to all zero. Failure

to do so result in Dtap  stop toggling after several hundred milliseconds.

1. The DMODE bit in contradiction to the data sheet should be set to 0

And not to 1.

Is this a known bug in the chip?

Only bay setting DMODE to zero we got the Dtap to work correctly.

The PLL locks after 1 milisec.

If we set it to one we get Dtap that stop toggling after several hundred milliseconds.

We have test it on two boards, they both worked in the same.

Never did we get a One shot  Dtap.

Did you published a errata page to the drs4?

Thanks, Mony

surrey i forgot to update..

after carefully examining our VHDL we found out that there are brief times that we put A0-A3 in 1111

after making shore that a0-a3 never get 1111 value thae drs4 woks as expected.

The dtap toggols ok.

We can sample and read all the data channels.

So, putting A0-A3 value of 1111 even for very short period  " confuse " the DRS and then it start to behave in a strange manner.

mony

hello i am an student and i want to do my final project with drs4 board and i really can´t find how to open waveform file and how can i save or opened many of them quickly.

if you can tell me how i will be very grateful.

thanks,

kind regards.

I am having a general problem getting read back using the ROI mode.  In the transparent mode everything looks good. These are the steps that I take:

1) configure register (b"11111111",addr = "1100")

2) configure write shift register (b"11111111", addr = "1101")

3)  assert DENABLE and DWRITE

4) wait for trigger

5) on trigger deassert DWRITE

6) Strobe RSRLOAD

7)Set drs4 address to enable all channels (address = "1001")

8)give n SRCLK pulses

9) goto 3 and repeat.

Am I missing something? Everything looks straight forward based on the manual yet in the readout mode I only get noise. I do get the stop position on SROUT and the refclk is at 475 KHz as desired and I get the desired behaviour  for DTAP toggling at the same frequency as refclk.

Thanks for replying Stefan.

I was more so just concerned with the steps in the firmware when I had asked. However, yes the ROFS (1.05V) and O-OFS (0.9 V was 1.3 V earlier but, changed this becasue of ADC input requirements) are per spec, the VDD voltages are all there and input voltages are within the rails and finally the RSLOAD  (16 ns) too is ok. Looking at your eval board firmware , on appearance it looks exactly like what I am doing. I thought maybe I was/ still am missing some intermediate addressing stage. What I wrote earlier is what I still have.

Hello Sir,

Regarding to analog pulse counting by using DRS4 Rev.2.0 board, you have said that "There is a way to perform the counting dead time free, but that requires the V4 board, which has a hardware comparator on all four channels (The V2 board has only one comparator and a multiplexer). The output of these comparators go directly to the FPGA, which can then trigger on these signals. In principle one could implement a hardware counter in the FPGA, which works practically dead time free. But this requires a new firmware which has to be written. Either you do it yourself using the Xilinx development tools, or you wait until I find some time to implement this, which could take a couple of weeks or even months."

I am interested in it. I have DRS4 Rev.2.0 board. I have FPGA and Microcontroller firmware for this board. How can I implement this concept of counting pulses?

Hallo,
I'm using DRS4 Evaluation Board Rev 4.0 and I'm trying to change the output of the samples to be an average of  #  measurements (1000 or even more)
during the process I have encountered some difficulties I hope you will be able to help me  with:

1. the DRS chip have 8 channels but the Evaluation board have only 4 channels. does the default mode of the DRS in the Evaluation Board is 1024 bins for each channel or 2048?

2. in the readout mode, does it samples all the 1024 bins waveform from a channel and then move to the next one, or after each bin it move to the next channel?

3. In the file "drs4_eval4_app.vhd", I have a problem finding the names of the signals that represents the registers bits which tell me what is the number of the bin (1-1024) the ADC is reading from the DRS, and the signals

that represents registers A0-A3. can you send me their names? 

4. In another matter- is the -0.5V to 0.5V is the  upper and lower  limit of the input (or just a working range), and if not what is the limit for AC?  is there a fuse on the board in case of overload from the input? (I didn't see  it in the User's Manual, but I didn't know if you will mention it there in case there is one).

thanks in advance and have a nice day,

Tmiron

Thank you for the answer.

Have a nice week,

Tmiron.

 Hi Stefan,

I'm trying to add the averaging feature to the oscilloscope instead. I have a basic knowledge in C++ so I'm having problem finding the initial place (places) of the data acquisition. furthermore, I saw you already made an averaging possibility for some of the features in the program at the measure window.
Can you please tell we in which of the programs of the Scope (and in what line if possible) can I find the initial\main data acquisition so I could follow it from there, and where is the location of the averaging function you already made?

have a nice week,

Tmiron

I have been trying to compile my changes to the program, but have a problem with the "wxWidgets". can you tell me which version of the wxWidgets and which c++ program did you use to built the drs4's scope program?

I'm using "microsoft visual c++ 2010 express", and the closest I got to compile something was with the wxWidgets 2.8.12 version (It's tell me I'm missing the file "wxmsw28d_core.lib" although I built it).

have a nice day,

Tmiron.

My problem is not with wxWidgets itself but with links your program is doing to the wxWidgets. if you can please tell me the wxWidget version you used, I'll use this one instead the version I'm using and I think it will solve the problem.

Tmiron.

 but was version 2.9.4 the one you used when you built  Version 4.0.0 of the DRS4 oscilloscope program, or was it an erilar version, and if so, do you remeber what version it was?

tmiron.

 Hi Stefan.

I managed to add the averaging possibility to the oscilloscope program, but it runs too slow, so now I'm tring to add this option to the example file you attached to the program (drs_exam.cpp).
My problem is that when I run the file is not passing  the stage of getting the trigger. (it just wait after writing the line "Waiting for trigger...")
When testing the software, I work with a signal of up to 10 MHz, limited in voltage to the DRS Eval 4 ability, and I connect the signal to channel 1,from it by default is supposed to get the trigger. I also tried to change the channel settings to other channels or external trigger, and use them,  but it still not working.

I found out that the problem is related to the line "while (b->IsBusy());" in the code, but I have a problem understanding what the function "IsBusy" do and how it's work.

Can you please explain me a bit what this function does?

have a nice day,

Tmiron

Hi satefan,

I did some debug on the DRSOsc program and saw that everywhere you used the function "IsBusy()", you used it with "SoftTrigger()", which (to my understanding) create a software trigger. did you used another function, other than "ISBusy", that check the hardware trigger?

have a nice day,

Tmiron.

 hallo stefan,

I managed to fixed the problem. The problem was with the number I inserted to the function "b->SetTriggerSource" th get external trigger (it suppose to be "16" and not "4" or "12" as I understood from the function's comments).

Right now I'm trying to speed up the number of wavefrom  per second. I'm using your  drs_exam.cpp program you wrote as my basic program. When you wrote it you used the function "b->StartDomino()" inside the loop, which means that before every trigger you gave him a command to start the domino-wave.

From  the "DRS4 datasheet" (page 8) I understand that I can bypass the need to restart the  domino-wave by using "b->SetDominoActive(1)" and "b->SetDominoMode(1)", but when I tried it didn't work (the waveform I got every readout remain the same which means the dominowave froze after the first readout).

Am I understanding wrong or do I need to add somthing more\else so the domino-wave will not stop after each readout? is there any hazard by doing that, as mentiond in page 8 of the the datasheet?

thanks again,

Tmiron.