RPi 2: spi_bcm2708 or spi_bcm2709?

Question

I have already seen the questions: Does SPI port work on Raspberry B+ and SPI module on Raspberry Pi 2, but they don't answer my question.

I can't seem to get the SPI port working on my Raspberry Pi 2. Using a logic analyser connected to the pins, I can't get any signals from it, using spincl or by echo -ne "\x01\x02\x03" > /dev/spidev0.1

When I try to enable it with raspi-config, I get the following error:

modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'spi_bcm2708': No such device

• My /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf is empty
• /boot/config.txt contains dtparam=spi=on and dtoverlay=spi-bcm2835
• /proc/cpuinfo contains Hardware : BCM2709
• lsmod contains spi_bcm2835

Here is the output of several commands:

ls /dev/spidev*
/dev/spidev0.0  /dev/spidev0.1

uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.1.15-v7+ #830 SMP Tue Dec 15 17:02:45 GMT 2015 armv7l GNU/Linux

I'm a little confused about the fact that the hardware is listed as 2709, but it seems to be giving an error about 2708. Is this the reason the SPI isnt working?

Answer 1

SPI now uses the spi_bcm2853 module. spi_bcm2708 is deprecated.

You should see SPI activity with echo -ne "\x01\x02\x03" > /dev/spidev0.1

If you don't you are monitoring the wrong GPIO.

My piscope may help if the SPI bus speed is circa 100 kbps.

Answer 2

I got it working on a Pi 3 after some time, I already thought I had an error in cabling or soldering. It would load the spi_bcm2853 by default, but that was not working. I added dtoverlay=spi-bcm2708 to /boot/config.txt and after a reboot the cards were recognized. The used device is /dev/spidev0.0 tho, not 0.1. All cables go to pins 17 up to 24 (18 not connected):

The result from the Read.py: