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Altera_Forum
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11 years ago

DE1 FPGA FTDI conflict with other devices

I'm doing remote communication of the Altera DE1 FPGA board and another instrument (Thor Labs TDC001 controller for motorized stages). I'm using MATLAB for the remote communication. When either the...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
11 years ago

You don't mention what software tools you're trying to use as part of your 'communication'. However, the Altera tools support multiple 'USB-Blasters' (this includes dev kits such as yours) allowing you to specify which one to use for each application. On the command line you'd typically add a "--cable" option to do so. E.g. 

nios2-terminal.exe --cable="USB-Blaster "

The USB-Blaster on the DE1-SoC kit I currently have connected appears as "DE-SoC [USB-1]" - your board may appear as something similar.

Failing that there is a utility that FTDI offer that allows you to reprogram the EEPROM inside an FTDI device. note: this carries risks in that, if not careful, you could render your hardware unreachable.

Read about and download the utility from here: ftdi - ft_prog (http://www.ftdichip.com/support/utilities.htm#ft_prog)

This could allow you to change the identity of one of your FTDI devices such that whatever software you're using doesn't consider it a valid device to use. You may well (almost certainly) have to make a complementary change to whatever software you're using to communicate with this FTDI device with the altered ID. disclaimer - I've not done this part myself but have successfully used the FT_PROG utility to reprogram and use FTDI devices for communications.

Happy New Year,

Alex