Devkit for dummies

Hardware
1

a few beginner’s questions/answers

2

  • the RJ45 socket does not have the usual LEDs showing the status (or they are not connected)

  • the devkit is pingable

  • the ip address is reported on the sdi_usb1 port

  • the ethernet interface is not working per default on power up (at least if devkit is not connected to a shelf manager)

3

Can anyone clarify this? We are unable to ping the devkit over ethernet. If this is because the ethernet is not working on power up, how do we enable it?

We can access the Management interface and send serial commands.

We don’t get any response when sending commands to the sdi_usb1 port. What (if any) commands does it respond to?

Finally, is there a guide to getting started with the devkit aside from (https://espace.cern.ch/ph-dep-ESE-BE-ATCAEvaluationProject/PP_IPMC/Public%20documents/CERN-IPMC%20DevKit.pdf)?

Thanks in advance.

4

  • only by accident I found out that the ethernet interface was working after I have run the script main.py in the ipmc-devkit repository. I don’t know exactly which command enables the ethernet interface, I stopped investigating when I got the first ping reply

  • as far as I’ve understood sdi_usb1 is only used to output log and debug messages.After power-up I’m getting a bunch of messages here including the ip address. Warning: in my case when I have both usb interfaces connected I was able to crash the devkit by running the main.py script: it tries to auto-detect the interface to use and after sending a command to the wrong port nothing was working anymore. I’ve modified the script in a way that the port to be used can be specified on the command line

5

After power-up I’m getting a bunch of messages here including the ip address.

When you say “after power up”, you mean that you establish a serial connection to the board, and upon completing the serial connection you get a stream of information from SDI_USB1? We get silence on that port.

Warning: in my case when I have both usb interfaces connected I was able to crash the devkit by running the main.py script:

Do you mean “crash” as in, you had to power cycle, or that you caused some problem that required repair or reconfiguration of the board?

6

Hi,

Sorry for my really late reply, I just want to close this thread and provide give reply :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks for this nice introduction to the devkit

The CERN-IPMC needs to have a valid hardware address to boot (parity check). This is exactly what the main.py script allowing the module to boot and the ethernet interface to start. At start-up, a lot of messages are shown on the debug interface, including the IP address.