CycFX2Prog is a small and useful tool to program the FX2 (i.e. to download '8051 firmware into the RAM) and do basic enpoint communication for testing purposes.

All the examples below will use this program, so you should download and compile it first.

Building the program should be fairly easy: Unpack the archive and run make. If you experience trouble, please fix them and drop me a note.

A tiny command summary can be obtained by calling cycfx2prog with the --help option:

Usage: cycfx2prog [-d=BUS.DEV] [id=VV.PP[.N]] [commands...]
Options:
 --help       print this and then exit
 --version    print version information and then exit
 --list       list devices and busses and then exit
 -d=BBB.DDD   set device to use e.g. 006.003; if not specified, first
              unconfigured Cypress FX2 is used. Use --list to get BBB
              and DDD (bus and device number, not ID).
 -id=VV.PP[.N]  set vendor and product ID in hex; default 04b4.8613 for
              unconfigured FX2. N is the n-th device to use, default 0.
Commands: Must be specified after all options.
  reset          reset 8051 by putting reset low
  run            start the 8051 by putting reset high
  prg:FILE       program 8051; FILE is an Intel hex file (.ihx); will
                 reset the 8051 before download; use "run" afterwards
  delay:NN       make a delay for NN msec
  set:ADR,VAL    set byte at address ADR to value VAL
  dram:ADR,LEN   dump RAM content: LEN bytes starting at ADR
  dbulk:EP,L[,N] bulk read N (default: 1) buffers of size L from endpoint
                 EP (1,2,4,6,8) and dump them; L<0 to allow short reads
  sbulk:EP,STR   send string STR as bulk messate to endpoint EP (1,2,4,6,8)
  bench_bulk:EP,L[,CS]  bench reading L bytes from endpoint EP (chunk size CS)
                 NOTE: This uses libusb is slow on the host side!
Cypress FX2(LP) programmer tool v0.45 copyright (c) 2006--2009 by Wolfgang Wieser

Also see the examples below for detailed instructions on how to use the CycFX2Prog tool.

Note that since version 0.45 you can use the CycFX2Prog tool to program any FX2 attached to the USB, even if the FX2 does not enumerate as unconfigured FX2. For example, to program an ASUS OC-GEAR display which enumerates as vendorID 0x04b4 and productID 0x1737, use option -id=04b4.1737.

These are fairly simple examples to be programmed onto the USB-FX2 board. They are all "local", i.e. not using any of the IO lines of the USB-FX2 board. The indent is testing and understanding USB-FX2. Everything is running on Linux, of course.

Several examples are discussed in detail on the (local) examples page:

• hello_world_ram: The 8051 writes a hello world message to a memory location we can read.
• hello_world_usb: The USB-FX2 board transfers a never ending stream of hello world messages across the USB bus.
• convert_string: The USB-FX2 board converts arbitrary lowercase letters to uppercase letters via USB.

These example programs make use of the USB-FX2 board's IO lines and may require simple external wiring (just some connections) to work.

The following examples are discussed on the IO examples page:

• bench_in: Bulk read transfer benchmark.
• Slave FIFO: How to use different slave FIFO configurations.

FX2Pipe is a USB high-speed data transfer application which can be used to read data from stdin and pipe it to the FX2 device or read it from the FX2 device and pipe it out to stdout. Easy-to-use with built-in standard firmware and of course doing async IO for maximum speed. Read more

Connecting: The linux kernel should write some information to syslog as soon as the FX2 board is plugged in; something like:

usb 6-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
usbtest 6-2:1.0: FX2 device
usbtest 6-2:1.0: high speed {control bulk-in bulk-out} tests (+alt)

Furthermore, lsusb will list the device, e.g.

Bus 006 Device 005: ID 04b4:8613
     Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CY7C68013 EZ-USB FX2 USB 2.0 Development Kit

If you can't see these things although your FX2 board is connected, then you either forgot the jumper for USB-powered operation (look at the three-terminal connector on the left top on this image) or the board is not working properly and you gonna grab a lense, the soldering iron and an oscilloscope.

Note: Linux may load the usbtest module as soon as you plug in an (unconfigured) FX2 board. You need to unload the module (using rmmod) so that the software above can get access to the USB device. Also note that the module is loaded again each time you re-plug the board, for what reason ever (including a quick accidental power short circuit).

If you get access restriction problems, remember that you have to be root and not an unprivileged user.

USB Resets: If you see slow data transfer and/or lots of USB bus resets (syslog!), or errors that the device is not accepting a certain address (syslog!) you probably have trouble with signal transmission. Most likely reasons include:

• Your FX2 board is poorely designed or soldered. (In case of address rejection errors, it probably is not even responding at all.)
• The USB cable is too long or of bad quality.
• You are using a very cheap USB-2.0 PCI expansion card. On-board PCI host controllers (integrated into the chipset) and quality USB-2.0 expansion cards work better; test this with other USB high speed hardware.
  I actually made bad experience with two such cheap 4-port USB-2.0 PCI expansion cards from ebay. Both these cards showed the above behaviour when connected to USB memory sticks or USB hard drives which worked fine with on-board controllers (VIA, Intel) as well as with my new quality USB-2.0 PCI card...