About the EZ-USB Firmware & Programming

The CY7C68013A device does not have internal flash memory. Instead the program to be run is stored in external EEPROM and loaded on start-up. Alternatively for development you can just reload the image into the internal code memory, which is not permanent and power-cycling will cause the code to be loaded from external EEPROM.

For certain boards (e.g. Digilent Inc Nexys2) you may wish to leave the original code in EEPROM. On each power cycle you will be required to load the firmware into the CY7C68013A device if you choose to do this - it's fairly simple & one could easily script it, or even add it to the python code.

Getting the Firmware Image

If you clone the GIT repository, you can find the firmware image at: hdl\example_targets\ezusb-firmware\ztex-sdk\examples\usb-fpga-1.11\1.11c\openadc\OpenADC.ihx .

Programming the Firmware Image

When you plug in the USB device, you will have to first install the CY7C68013A generic drivers. Then point to drivers at hdl\example_targets\ezusb-firmware\ztex-sdk\libusb-win32 during the programming process when the device re-enumerates.

To program the USB chip, you have two example files to follow in the directory hdl\example_targets\ezusb-firmware\ztex-sdk\fwloader :

openadc_load_firmware.bat: This will load the firmware into the USB chip. This will remain in the USB chip until you power-cycle the board (e.g.: plug & unplug it)
openadc_program_firmware_eeprom.bat: This will burn the firmware into the EEPROM device. WARNING: OVERWRITING WHATEVER IS ALREADY IN THERE.

Further Development with the EZ-USB

If you are interested in doing further development with the EZ-USB device, see http://www.ztex.de/firmware-kit/ which is the author of the SDK used for this firmware. If you have trouble with the firmware you can ask on the OpenADC Mailing List too.