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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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17 years ago

DE1 Board detects (USB <-> Serial) instead of USB blaster

I downloaded the Quartus 7.1 SP1, Nios 7.1 SP1 and together with Megacore IP Lib. The first time I connected the USB cable, the windows found the new hardware and install the driver by pointing to x32 folder. It was fine and it was working well. Both Quartus and Nios are working. Then, I restarted my computer and could not detect the USB Blaster. Instead, it detects a USB <-> Serial Hardware where it was supposed to be USB Blaster. So I just install and update the driver again by pointing to x32 folder. Then, now the quartus cannot detects the USB blaster. I thought it was my computer fault but it's not. I tried to use the DE1 in my university's computers. It cannot detect the USB blaster. Can anyone explain to me what happened?? Why cant the computer detects the USB blaster? Thanks

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    17 years ago

    The problem may be cause the adapter lost it's identity that's stored in the 93C46 serial EEPROM connected to the FT245. Without a valid EEPROM content, the FTDI chip defaults to an USB-to-serial adapter. The EEPROM is not only used to identify the correct driver (this could be overcome by installing a particular driver explicitely) but also read in by the driver during startup. So most likely the USB-Blaster can't work without the correct EEPROM content. FTDI has the mprog tool donwloadable at FTDIchip.com to read and reprogram an EEPROM atached to an FTDI adapter. If it turns out, that the EEPROM content is altered, you can copy the EEPROM from an USB-Blaster or a functional DE1 board to your board.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    17 years ago

    Thanks for the advise.... But how do I communicate with the board if it cant connect it as USB blaster? Do you how to use Mprog? If you do, can you show me how to do it? thanks

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    17 years ago

    MProg scans the USB for any FTDI FT232, FT245 and FT2232 device connected. Therefore it should detect an USB Blaster indendant of it's EEPROM configuration in effect, also if accidentally regarded as USB-to-serial adapter. MProg operation is documented but almost self-explanatory to my opinion.