LimeSDR USB GPIO input problem

Projects LimeSDR
1

I am working to use GPIO0 as a synchronization input as described in the following thread: Synchronize two LimeSDR
This uses the pin to modify the HW timestamps when a sync pulse occurs.

The FPGA modifications worked until about three weeks ago, and I think it may be due to a GPIO input hardware issue. When I apply any external input to the GPIO pins, the value read on the pin toggles between Low and High. This occurs whether I supply a constant logic 1 or a logic 0 to the pin. If there is nothing connected to the pin it always reads logic High. This appears to occur for all of the FPGA GPIO pins. Here is a graph I made of the read measurements on GPIO0 when constant logic High is applied.

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This issue occurs for both the modified and the standard up to date FPGA gateware. LimeQuickTest passes for both.

Does this issue sound like a physical problem with the GPIO pins? Is it necessary for me to purchase a new LimeSDR to get this working?

What is the best way to debug issues with the GPIO pins, it does not appear like this is included in LimeQuickTest?

Thank you,
Josh

2

I’ve never seen anything like that. It would certainly help diagnose it if
you had a second board available to test. But, before spending more money, it might make sense to double check that the firmware and library versions are known to work together - you didn’t by chance update LimeSuite or some other software component?

3

Thank you for your quick reply! I have not updated LimeSuite or another software component. This is for a Senior capstone project, and we have 3 LimeSDR’s split up among our team. I will borrow a one of the other boards later today and see if the issue still occurs.

4

RESOLVED:
It turns out that when I ran some sample code from LimeSuite for the GPIO pins it set many of the pins as an output. I didn’t re-set the GPIO pins as input when I tested the FPGA mod. When the pins are set as input everything works as it should.