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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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13 years ago

how to remotely use two dev kits

Hi to all!

I have two identical dewkits (dk-dev-4sgx230n ) and I need to use them from a remote workstation at the same time.

The devkits are both connected to a windows pc that I access by remote desktop.

I have two problems with this configuration:

1) windows change the USB-blaster - USB port association each boot of remote pc so I'm not able to distinguish wich devkit I'm using. There is a way to know it or to associate at each usb-blaster a mnemonic name?

2) After firmware develop I will need to write the flash memory, but all the procedures I found for flash the devkit require to change the position of Sw2, thing that I can not do remotely ;) Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance

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  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    1) windows change the USB-blaster - USB port association each boot of remote pc so I'm not able to distinguish wich devkit I'm using. There is a way to know it or to associate at each usb-blaster a mnemonic name?

    --- Quote End ---

    You can program the FTDI chip in the USB-Blaster to have a unique serial number. Download the FT_PROG tool

    http://www.ftdichip.com/support/utilities.htm

    Read the contents of the EEPROM and save it as an XML file, then edit the serial number, and re-program the EEPROM. For example, for the two kits I have I used the serial numbers S4GXDK01 and S4GXDK02.

    If you only have one board plugged in, then Quartus will call them both [USB-0], however, if you have both kits plugged in, then they are [USB-0] and [USB-1], and always in the same order. The other sanity check I included was to use one of the DIP switches on the board - 0 for board zero, and 1 for board 1. The downloaded design checks that its on the right board before starting :)

    --- Quote Start ---

    2) After firmware develop I will need to write the flash memory, but all the procedures I found for flash the devkit require to change the position of Sw2, thing that I can not do remotely ;) Any suggestion?

    --- Quote End ---

    JTAG download has always been sufficient for my tests, so I didn't look into this, sorry.

    Cheers,

    Dave