Write Temporary FPGA Image to USRP RIO Through JTAG USB

Updated Nov 17, 2020

Environment

Hardware

  • USRP-2940
  • USRP-2942
  • USRP-2943
  • USRP-2944
  • USRP-2945
  • USRP-2950
  • USRP-2952
  • USRP-2954
  • USRP-2955
  • USRP-2953

Other

Digilent ADEPT

  • I want to write an FPGA image to my USRP RIO device through a JTAG connector.
  • Something went wrong while updating firmware on my USRP RIO device and now it isn't responding.

Follow steps below to write/recover an FPGA image to USRP RIO device through a JTAG connector:
  1. Install then open Digilent ADEPT utility. 
  1. Power On USRP RIO device. Connect it to PC by USB A - USB B cable.
  2. Adept Utility should recognize your device as Dsp 1:
  1. Use the Browse... button to open navigation window to define FPGA image location. 
Note: If you want to recover bricked USRP RIO device you should use one of default images provided with NI-USRP driver. Default FPGA images directory for Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\NI-USRP\images
Check with FPGA Image Flavors description to choose appropriate one
 
  1. Click Program

Note: Written FPGA Image will take effect only till power cycling USRP RIO.

To recover bricked device perform procedure, described in How to Update Firmware and FPGA Images for the NI 292x and N2xx USRP article, before power cycling USRP. 

Additional Information

This article only covers the Digilent ADEPT workflow.
You may use any of following options to write temporary FPGA image to USRP RIO: