ATDH1150USB mini tear down.

Last month I mentioned the ATDH1150USB Atmel CPLD JTAG programmer, and my efforts to home-brew my own programmer based on some ancient code I found on Atmel's website.

The escalating level of effort required to make my own programmer outweighed the $45 it cost to just buy the Atmel programmer. Slightly annoying, since I already own an Atmel branded JTAG device, the AVR Dragon.

There's scant information on the web about the 1150, unlike it's popular Altera cousin the "USB Blaster".

Here's the hardware that came in the box:

Box contents: mini USB cable, a loooong (I estimate 18") 2x5 JTAG ribbon cable,
and a 6" 'JTAG-X" 

The first thing I did was immediately void my warranty(does this thing even have one? I have no idea, I'm guessing that the folks at Atmel would be laid back if I ever ran into issues, this isn't a consumer device. )

CPLDs, and the importance of knowing when to quit.

As an engineer, I can have a natural tendency to become obsessed with problem solving. Every problem I come across is a personal test, "If this problem is solvable, I will be victorious, I will conquer it". I think the hard thing can be recognizing when the solution isn't worth the effort. The ability to spot this before others is what can make a great manager, that's not what this post is about, however.

Let me tell you a little story about CPLD's:

Now if you ask my wife, she'll tell you I'm the cheapest, stingiest man alive, if you ask my mother, well she'd probably agree, but if you asked me, I'd tell you I just take pride in being resourceful. I've always had a hard time paying someone to do something I could easily do myself.

VDHL

I got a chance finally to play around with my Papilio One board, and the Button/LED Wing I got.

I'm fascinated by VHDL, though I'd consider myself a 'novice'. 

I think something may be amiss with my board, or the wing. 

I wrote some trivial 'hello world' VHDL, I made a component that I can "wire up" (technical term) to either the high side or low side of a wing. (The Papilio has 3 16 bit wing sockets, but the Button Wing is 8 bit, and can occupy either half of a wing).

So my component looks like this: