XSVF JTAG Programmer

Now I need to have a device that glitches my Xbox 360. For my pursuit of frugal fun, I chose to use a cheap Coolrunner (I bought off eBay for $8) instead of the Team Xecuter CR4 XL (which is currently $33 plus shipping, not to mention the QSB kit). But there is one more problem. The Coolrunner I bought comes blank (not programmed). The information to program the Coolrunner with (in XSVF file) comes with the JRunner software, and XSVF files are for being written to device through JTAG interface.

I have a Matrix NAND Programmer to read and write NAND from Xbox 360. That process seems to use an interface that is SPI (or very similar to it). On internet, I have seen people post connection diagram for connecting  Maxtrix NAND Programmer to the JTAG interface of the Coolrunner. Interestingly, the programmer does have six connection pads on the side, and the JTAG interface is pretty similar to SPI. Because of that, and also the fact that the other NAND programmers / software can also be used to program JTAG, I had assumed that I can do that same with Matrix NAND Programmer.

It turned out not working. As mentioned in my other post, the Matrix NAND Programmer is compatible to NAND-X with drivers from NandPro 2.0. But it turns out that NandPro 2.0 does not yet accept xsvf option (that programs JTAG using a XSVF file). That feature is added in NandPro 3.0, but the NAND-X driver with NandPro 3.0 would not work with Matrix NAND Programmer.

So I am stuck here. Basically, I would still need to buy a NAND-X or JR Programmer to program the device, or I will have to find some creative way to get it done cheap. I read about the JTAG spec, and it is just four lines which seems to be quite straight forward. Then I found some code about playing XSVF through Bus Pirate. Bus Pirate is a very useful tool I have always wanted. But it is another $28 even though it beats buying CR4 XL. There has to be a better way.

After some more search, I found this library of writing XSVF files, called libxsvf. It is an open source project that programs XSVF files to an interface that you can provide. That is great. All I need is a bit-banging interface, and I can program the JTAG. I have thought about building a quick bit-banging interface with an AVR processor, or even an Arduino Pro Mini. But I happened do not have an 3.3V Pro Mini at hand, and my Coolrunner seems is marked 3.3V (but I don't have any data sheet on it). The next option is the well used FTDI USB-Serial interface, and I happened to have one of such (FT232R Breakout) which can be configured to either 5V or 3.3V.

Libxsvf comes with the main code compiled into a library and a couple of sample code that uses the library. One of the simple code is using simple GPIO in synchronous mode, the other one uses FT232H's MPSSE in asynchronous mode. My board is a FT232R, it can not use the later one. Oh well, I will just program the FT232R bit-bang as synchronous GPIO then.

Here come out my compiler and pretty soon I am writing to my Coolrunner. There are a few tricks to get it to run fast enough (mostly dealing with USB latency timers). It is possible to use the asynchronous mode to make it faster, but for the purpose of getting my Xbox 360 to work, that is enough. It takes a couple of minutes to program a 32KB xsvf file.

The source file of my program is xsvf_bang.c. It is based off xsvftool-gpio.c of libxsvf, and I hope I do get the license right. It needs to be linked to libxsvf (compiled as static library) and ftd2xx.lib (download driver from FTDI and extract).

 So after much trouble (all in the name of saving some $40 and having fun), my Coolrunner is ready to work with my Xbox 360.