This was done using LimeSuite GUI (Version 17.10.0) doing the following steps:
Connect to LimeSDR
Modules → Programming
Select “Altera FPGA” under Device
Select “Bitsream to Flash” under Programming mode
Select rbf file using the open button
Program
The programming worked fine and i got the message that the FPGA is reset and i would have to reconnet. After trying to reconnect the GUI freezes and after some seconds i get the following output:
[12:34:27] WARNING: Gateware version mismatch!
Expected gateware version 2, revision 11
But found version 0, revision 0
Follow the FW and FPGA upgrade instructions: Lime Suite - Myriad-RF Wiki
Or run update on the command line: LimeUtil --update
After that I recompiled the gateware using Quartus 15.1.0 Build 185 under Winows 10 and generated the rbf file using “File->Convert Programming Files” and using the “rbf_file_setup.cof”. This produced the same issues as the precompiled rbf file from the github repo. A short diff showed that both files are exatly the same, which implies that recompiling the project should work. Therefore I had a look at the programming file from automatic updates which is located at: “…\AppData\Roaming\LimeSuite\images\17.10\LimeSDR-USB_HW_1.4_r2.11.rbf”. This file is not the same as the one provided in the github repo/recompiled one and is a few bytes smaller.
Therefore my question is what i am doing wrong and how i can generate a programming file that works. Maybe @Zack can assist? Thank you all in advance.
thank you for your fast reply! Updating LimeSuite GUI to 17.12.0 (in linux) actually did the trick, now it works as expected.
So in the meantime i also tried to compile an older commit of the gateware (2.11) which actually also worked with the older version of LimeSuite (17.10.0 in windows). So my expactation was that programming the FPGA using LimeSuit GUI is version independent. So to conclude for everyone who is also having issues:
make sure you use Quartus 15.x
use a gateware version that works with the version of LimeSuite GUI
So i guess when using the latest version of LimeSuite GUI one should always be able to upload the latest version of the gateware. Maybe you could also start using tags on git, in order to make it easy for everyone to check wether their LimeSuite version will be able to upload the gateware. Another thing is that when using an older version of LimeSuite to connect to a LimeSDR with a newer gateware/firmware version one gets a warning:
[12:59:58] WARNING: Firmware version mismatch!
Expected firmware version 3, but found version 4
Follow the FW and FPGA upgrade instructions: Lime Suite - Myriad-RF Wiki
Or run update on the command line: LimeUtil --update
[12:59:58] WARNING: Gateware version mismatch!
Expected gateware version 2, revision 11
But found version 2, revision 13
Follow the FW and FPGA upgrade instructions: Lime Suite - Myriad-RF Wiki
Or run update on the command line: LimeUtil --update
Will this be an issue or can i expect the LimeSDR to work fine using the older LimeSuite. The thing is that i am currently not able to build LimeSuite from source in windows and have to use the version packaged with Photos.
Actually, your problem was not LimeSuite but firmware, gateware 2.11 works with firmware 3, while gateware 2.12+ requires firmware 4. It does not matter which version of LimeSuite GUI, you use to upload them. Auto-update in LimeSuite 17.10.0 should install matching versions: fw 3, gw 2.11; and in 17.12.0 versions: fw 4, gw 2.12.
I could not find quartus version 15.1 anywhere. I tried to recompile the provided project with a quartus 13.0 and 18.1 but in every time, the LimeSDR_Gui crashes after I upload the new .rbf file. The DDR2 IP could not be well updated. Where can I find quartus version 15.1, please ?
Thank you all in advance.