Debugging tools working well - just need time to work with them

LED ARRAY PANELS

Somehow I didn't expect the lights to alternate directions, but that makes sense with the most direct wiring path on the panel. Looking at the panel, the top left pixel is number 0. Running down the left edge we have pixels 0 to 15, then it turns around and runs upwards one column over, with 16 at the bottom and 31 at the top. Reversing again, the third column runs from 32 at the top to 47 at the bottom. 

It took a moment to determine what number each array position is associated with, but then it was easy to see the condition of the logic with all those pixels active. Very easy when I have the Arduino send each word of a transaction with a human sized pause - the values going up and down the SPI link are shown clearly during the pause. I can also see the transaction type latched as the related LED lights up. 

INTEGRATED LOGIC ANALYZER WORKING AS WELL

It only took a few minutes poking around until I figured out how to link up to the ILA cores and begin watching the signals. The only complication is that finite state machine names are converted to a hex number, thus I need to look these up before attempting to trigger the logic analyzer on a specific state. 

In just five minutes, before I had to head back to my home, I found a defect and have already corrected the logic (VHDL code) in preparation for my next time at the shop.