S32K144EVB not recognised by USB after 2+ hours of correct behaviour

[chrisc1]

Hello NXP team,

I received our S32K144EVB today and managed to get approximately 5 builds on to it. It came up as a drive (although the name wasn’t recognised, it was just as E: drive). I flashed a couple of builds via Simulink to use the buttons and LED’s blinking at different frequencies, then played with a couple to manipulate signals via the rotary pot.

Now the board takes approx. 60 to 180 seconds to illuminate its status LEDs when I plug it into USB. It’s as if the driver does not respond like it did when I first plugged in. Often it doesn’t even come to life.

Also, I can no longer see the drive in Windows 10. However I know that it still has a valid application because the switches and LEDs still do what the last build was for. Therefore I can’t drag and drop *.mot files.

I tried connecting with FreeMASTER and the ToolsàWizard only shows me COM1, but no longer shows me what was COM3 for OpenSDA.

I looked through the forums for various articles and came across these:

https://community.nxp.com/thread/488831

https://community.nxp.com/thread/464233

https://community.nxp.com/thread/486976

The board was ordered from Farnell, came from USA and with lot AOIF192502 and I used the latest and greatest MBDT to create the builds. I can postulate that “maybe” some aspect of Windows 10 on my workstation might be causing USB driver issues with OpenSDA but I would appreciate if anyone has some pragmatic checks to suggest. All other phones and USB sticks and drive work ok. In fact I had the same issue when plugging into a laptop: board not recognised.

I don’t yet have the right cable to give the board independent power but anyway I don’t feel that would help me with USB detection. I am curious as to why the board worked and then now it does not. It’s not an issue with ports, I’ve tried every single one of the 8 I have available. I don’t have the small enough probes right now to access test points on the PCB to check for supply voltage. I’ve had issues in the past with USB drivers when I used to support Motorsport data-loggers but not had this kind of issue before where a PCB behaves dead 80% of the time after 2.5 hours of usage. Any ideas?

Thank you

Chris Catto

[chrisc1]

Thank you Marius,

ok so after installing the PE Micro drivers on the PC I was stuck because the board was not actually turning on (status LEDs showing life). I tried a few reboots of the two PCs and no joy. Tried another laptop and its USB, no change.

So, leaving USB aside, I'm thinking of using the power feed into J16. The Quickstart guide notes that it accepts 5V to 12V. I've used this power adaptor: OEM Adapter ADS0126A-X120100 100-240VACin 12VDC 1.0A out EE Brightbox etc OL0691 | Rich Electronics 

The board powers up correctly once I have J107 set to 1&2. So it looks like the internal power circuitry is intact.

Still not recognised via USB so I'm guessing I will have to do the driver update etc

Chris

[mariuslucianand]

Hello @chrisc1 

Please perform the Open SDA firmware update.

Hope this helps,

Marius

[chrisc1]

Hi Marius,

I was able to spend some time on a Zoom call showing the board lack of USB power-up to Mark Dunnett (ex-Motorola/Freescale/NXP) and the fact that the reset button does not allow the board to go into bootloader mode. I have shipped the card to him so that he can revive it with a JTAG (or similar) debugger. Mark felt it might be a faulty reset button (constantly resetting the board - possible but statistically not so likely) or the code in the debug chip becoming corrupted. I think the situation could be clearer once he connects with a Segger.

Thank you for the support so far, I will report once I know more :-)

[mariuslucianand]

Hello @chrisc1 

Mark felt it might be a faulty reset button (constantly resetting the board - possible but statistically not so likely)

Was the RED LED next to the reset button constantly turned on?

Because in this case, the P&E Recovery Utility works great on S32K144 too. Find more info here: 

Bricking and Recovering FRDM-KL25Z Boards: Reset, SWD Clock and Low Power | MCU on Eclipse 

Marius

[mariuslucianand]

Hello chrisc@rmlgroup.com‌,

Indeed you are facing a strange behavior of the board. But, from the detailed explanation, I assume that the controller is fine, but there is an issue with the OpenSDA.

If I had these issues, I would try the following approaches:

1. Install the PEDrivers. Go to PEmicro | Experts in Embedded tools for Flash Programming and Development  and under Windows USB Drivers there is the PEDrivers_install.exe. Please install the driver and check the board behavior.

2. If the driver installation does not solve the issue, then I would try reprogramming the OpenSDA drive, and this can be also a good thing to be sure that it runs the latest firmware: V1.19.

This is a very simple process: Go to the same PEMicro page, and download the Firmware Apps. In the archive locate the MSD-DEBUG-EVB-S32K144_Pemicro_v119.SDA file and extract it on your PC. On the S32K144 Board, change the J104 (the one next to the USB socket) to the 1-2 position. Unplug the board and while you are holding the RESET button pressed, plug in the board. A new BOOTLOADER drive should be mounted. Now copy the .SDA file to the new bootloader. When finished uplung and reconnect again the board. Don't forget to set the J104 to 2-3 position. You cand find more about this process in this User Guide https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-guide/OPENSDAUG.pdf  chapter 2.1 and 2.2

Let's see if this helps!

Regards,
Marius