jtag

Ordered a JTAG tool

I dug out my trusty JTAG tool last night to look at the firmware that’s actually loaded in the Hava Titanium HD. JTAG is a test interface that lets you test a board and read/write the firmware. Unfortunately the JTAG tool I have is a McGregor Wiggler that hooks up to a computer’s parallel port. I don’t have a parallel port anymore, the laptop that had one died a few months ago.  :^(

Last night I ordered a new JTAG tool, a “Signalyzer Tool with ARM 20-pin JTAG adapter”. This JTAG tool hooks up via USB. While it’s designed for regular ARM cpus the IXP430 uses the same JTAG connector pinout as a regular ARM cpu. I ordered it shipped second day air so it should be here Tuesday. I ordered it from the MicroController Shop in Nevada. It’s under ARM on the left hand menu and then under debuggers. They sell quite a few different USB JTAG units but the Signalyzer seemed to have the most features and flexibility in the under $200 group. It doubles as a logic level (non-rs232) serial port, GPIO, SPI, and even I2C interface. It also works with JTAG from 1.2 to 5.5 volts, a feature necessary with modern low voltage cpus.