Help. Hardware tutorial does not run on Cyclone II Starter Dev Kit

I am having the same problem using the Altera DE2 development board. I have read that if I upgraded to Quartus 7.2 it would help, but I am still having trouble.

Any help would be appreciated

ashipm01,

I too upgraded from 7.1 to 7.2 in the hope of solving the problem. I am using the standard Web Edition free license and the tutorial I referred to is the document is the Altera "Nios II Harware Development Tutorial".

Eli

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I followed the Hardware tutorial all the way through and everything in both Quartus and IDE compiled correctly. The programmer says it succesfully the *time_limited.sof file even though I did get a dialog box that forced me to press cancel with the message "Click Cancel to stop using Open Core Plus IP." Perhaps that is the problem.

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Are you hitting the CANCEL button when you get the above message? Do Not click on the CANCEL button and run the IDE keeping the Quartus II programmer as it is (with the CANCEL dialog box). If this does not solve your problem, please elaborate some more.

BD_SLS hi,

Thank you. That did the trick.

Now, perhaps we can persuade somebody to include that little step in the tutorial. It certainly was not intuitive to me.

With grateful thanks,

Eli

Please file an SR in the Altera system and ask them to file a documentation enhancement to the tutorial design instructions.

Thanks,

Avatar

Hi everybody,

I am having the same problem as ashipm01. I have DE2 educational board and I have upgraded my sotfware to Nios II IDE 7.2 (without license) and Quartus II Web Edition v7.2 too. My problem is that I can't complete the "Nios II Harware Development Tutorial".

I followed carefully step by step the tutorial: first of all I created and generated a nios 2 processor with the SOPC builder and programmed via USB-Blaster to the Ciclone II.

Then, I started with Nios II IDE. I made a New C/C++ Application using count_binary example and selected the .ptf file generated before. Once builded the project, I select Run as-->nios 2 hardware and after several seconds appears in the console the message:

Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00

Pausing target processor: not responding.

Resetting and trying again: FAILED

Leaving target processor paused

I have found on the web (http://forum.niosforum.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t4116.html) 4 possible solutions to solve it:

1. SOPC-builder > board-settings > change the assignment of your pins from "unassigned" to "assign in Quartus II project"

2. Quartus II > Menu bar: Assignments > "Device & Pin Options" > tab : "Unused Pins" > as input tri-stated.

3. If you only get time-limited.sof, please keep the open core plus window open: do not click the "cancel"

4. Connect your reset button with a toggle switch. If the toggle switch to '0' does not work, try to upload your program but with '1'.

I have done steps 2,3 and 4 but I don't know how to specify my board settings with SOPC Builder 7.2! I just can select the device family Ciclone II and I don't know if it is the problem.

Would be someone so kind to tell me how to solve it or explain me what I am doing wrong?

Thanks for advanced

Benjamin

eliehrman, I know your post is very old but I would like to post the workaround that worked for me when I was troubleshooting the same problem that you are having. Even if you don't click 'Cancel' on the message "Click Cancel to stop using Open Core Plus IP," it still fails to work and gives the exact error message you posted.

The trick is do exactly (verbatim) as BD_SLS stated. That is, close Nios II IDE (or Software Build Tools for 9.1), then program the FPGA with your time-limited .sof in the Quartus II Programmer, then don't click on 'Cancel', and then run Nios II IDE (or Software Build Tools). I tested this several times today, and it worked consistently. In case you would ask me... this is not documented anywhere as far as I know.

BTW, I am using the latest development kit (Stratix IV E Dev Kit) and the Nios II Software Build Tools 9.1. More than two years later, Altera still did not fix this. Amazing...