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PRolp's avatar
PRolp
Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
7 years ago

Can't connect to JTAG on EP4CE6 Mini Board

I'm trying to use this board but failing to connect to JTAG on it, either via the command line jtagconfig or via Quartus. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Altera-EP4CE6E22C8N-Mini-FPGA-Board-Cyclone-IV-/112023254939

The device appears correctly in lsusb:

Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC

and in dmesg:

[795296.547927] usb 1-4: new full-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
[795296.709676] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
[795296.709685] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[795296.709691] usb 1-4: Product: FT232R USB UART
[795296.709696] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: FTDI
[795296.709701] usb 1-4: SerialNumber: AL0141DU
[795296.712569] ftdi_sio 1-4:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[795296.712655] usb 1-4: Detected FT232RL
[795296.712939] usb 1-4: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

and I've tried various combinations of running jtagd as root, copying pgm_parts.txt files around, setting permission on /dev/ttyUSB0, basically everything I could find by googling. My suspicion is that the USB device appearing as an FTDI part instead of an Altera part is what's killing this even though the product ID 6001 matches the USB-Blaster ID, does anyone know more?

Some more output of various commands:

$ jtagd --foreground --debug
JTAG daemon started
Using config file /etc/jtagd/jtagd.conf
$ jtagconfig
No JTAG hardware available

2 Replies

  • ak6dn's avatar
    ak6dn
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
    7 years ago

    Product ID is dependent on Vendor ID. So even if the Product ID is the same, if the Vendor ID is not correct, it will not be detected.

    On my Terasic FPGA board that implements an embedded USB Blaster, I see this:

    Device Descriptor:

    bcdUSB: 0x0110

    bDeviceClass: 0x00

    bDeviceSubClass: 0x00

    bDeviceProtocol: 0x00

    bMaxPacketSize0: 0x08 (8)

    idVendor: 0x09FB (Altera)

    idProduct: 0x6001

    bcdDevice: 0x0400

    iManufacturer: 0x01

    iProduct: 0x02

    iSerialNumber: 0x03

    bNumConfigurations: 0x01

    Same data for my standalone Terasic USB Blaster clone. So unless you can change to the correct Altera Vendor ID in the hardware (0x09FB) OR change your USB driver install files to look for your different VendorID (0x0403) your hardware will not be recognized.

  • Abe's avatar
    Abe
    Icon for Frequent Contributor rankFrequent Contributor
    7 years ago

    The USB port is not meant for programming the FPGA. Its meant for USB to UART PC communications when developing NIOS-II based applications or any other applications that need PC serial communications.

    The board uses the standard 9-pin JTAG programming interface. You need to use the standard Altera Byte-Blaster download cable to program this board/device via JTAG interface.

    The website clearly states the following:

    JTAG configuration interface

    So you need to buy the Altera Byte-blaster JTAG download cable and use it. Only the later boards feature on-board USB-Blaster and use the USB Blaster cable.