[hpsdr] Hermes doesn't come to life

[Bob Stricklin]

Make sure your clocks are feeding into the FPGA properly and have the correct frequency. If clocks are slow they would explain the slowness. The JTAG port uses JTAG clocking.

When you program you are programing the SPY  (EEPROM) serial memory. This memory is read into the FPGA at start up. After all the memory is loaded into the FPGA a pin on the FPGA changes state to indicate this is complete. I forget which pin it is but you should be able to find it in the schematic or the FPGA datasheet. Checking this pin would tell you the FPGA is coming to life and clocked properly and reading in its memory load.

Based in your description of the shorting I would not think you have damaged the FPGA. You may have a solder bridge on one of the pins or open that would keep it from working. Inspect all your pins carefully. 

Bob N5BRG