Additional SPI Flash

martinayotte · 2015-09-09T21:32:13.000Z

We’ve received a additional SPI Flash as a gift to test with the SPI Flash adaptor.
Which tool let us get access to additional SPI Flash ?
Can it be mounted to be part of the file system ?

alzhao · 2015-09-10T12:33:42.000Z

The answer is NO.

The SPI is used by internal flash already. Only when the internal flash is erased, it can ready from the contents of the external flash.

So, actually, the 2nd SPI flash is parallel to the firm SPI flash.

martinayotte · 2015-09-11T01:04:00.000Z

Even the SPI_CS is in parallel ?
So, do you means that the whole Domino SPI/JTAG Tile is useless and can not be use as a programmer ?
Then, I don’t understand why it has been designed for …

lbattraw · 2015-09-11T15:28:53.000Z

The SPI/JTAG board is to allow you to recover from (Internal flash) u-boot corruption, which would otherwise brick the Domino. From what I’ve seen you need to hold down the button on the SPI/JTAG board when applying power to boot from the external flash as otherwise it defaults to the internal flash. Here’s the info on flashing and de-bricking:

    <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/706167548/dominoio-an-open-hardware-wifi-platform-for-things/posts/1200391">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/706167548/dominoio-an-open-hardware-wifi-platform-for-things/posts/1200391</a>
<a href="https://github.com/domino-team/docs/blob/master/pi/flashing.md">https://github.com/domino-team/docs/blob/master/pi/flashing.md</a>

@Creator your links are broken in the online documentation since they link to files with a .html extension instead of .md, which is what they’re named with on Github. See https://github.com/domino-team/docs/tree/master/pi

-Larry

alzhao · 2015-09-11T17:45:45.000Z

Hi Larry,

In the docs, links are linked to .html files. Actually if you view http://domino.io/docs all the links are correct. Because the md files on github are changed to html files on domino.io/docs . So this is a problem when viewed on github.

martinayotte · 2015-09-11T22:03:37.000Z

Am I right, if I understand correctly, that this de-bricking method assume that the external SPI Flash has already the u-boot preloaded ?
This means that I should kept the SPI Flash chip provided as a gift in a safe place and never overwritting it.
Or is there a way to upload u-boot in another virgin SPI Flash which then can be used in this de-bricking method ?

alzhao · 2015-09-12T11:59:55.000Z

the external flash can be programmed using a SPI programmer. For example this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/EZP2010-USB-Programmer-SPI-Support-24-25-93-EEPROM-25-Flash-Bios-Chip-/271924677309

martinayotte · 2015-09-15T10:30:52.000Z

Is the SPI port can still be used for attaching other peripherals, such LCD display or GPIO Expander such as MCP23S17 or any other SPI peripherals ?

alzhao · 2015-09-18T13:53:17.000Z

I think so. But not yet did that.

jlsilicon · 2015-10-11T06:21:48.000Z

Alzhao,

To your statement:
> So, actually, the 2nd SPI flash is parallel to the firm SPI flash.

But, can we hook up a second SPI Flash, say a SD Card,

and use it in parallel as another Drive (like with the second CS) ?

How do we connect a SD Card, without the USB ?

alzhao · 2015-10-13T13:14:07.000Z

Actually I don’t know how.