XML File and UART connection

[DanViolette]

The GECCO/CMOD .xml files have a value named port which is a hardcoded port value. Unfortunately this value is going to change system to system and on different OS.

There are two functions that look for UART ports depending on the hardware in open_fpga:

1. self.boardDriver = drivers.boards.getCMODUartDriver(self.config.find("port").attrib["value"])

This first one relies on the hard-coded XML value

2. self.boardDriver = drivers.boards.getGeccoUARTDriver(drivers.astep.serial.getFirstCOMPort())

This function returns the first COM Port, which isn't always the FPGA if other peripherals are used.

This also only works for Windows OS. We should think about how to strengthen this port selection so it works across platforms.

[richnou]

Hi Dan,

Something I used to do is get the Device "Human Readable" Name from listing the ports, for example here with list ports:

https://pyserial.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tools.html

The ListPortInfo class contains some strings that are reported by the Device - I know it works under windows, Linux I am not sure.

Then it should be possible to modify how the FTDI chip report themselves to the Os, for example by setting the device name to "CMOD", using the FTProg utility. Then it should be possible to list the devices and filter by CMOD name to always get the CMOD, no matter if another ftdi is connected to the system.

To be tested if it also works under linux...and if it really is worth the hassle, maybe the comport ought to be a command line parameter, not a fixed config.

Cheers!