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Spoder's avatar
Spoder
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1 year ago

Quartus II Lite edition is not recognizing Cyclone IV EP4CE6 board

Quartus isn't showing any devices in Hardware setup. I know the computer knows it's connected because it shows up in Settings and Device Manager, I've also uninstalled and reinstalled the USB Blaster Driver several times and it still won't show up. Any ideas on what else I can try?

12 Replies

  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor

    Please give more information,
    - which programming adapter is connected (embedded on Devboard, external Intel, Terasic, other)?
    - which driver details are shown for the programmer in device manager
    - what's shown with jtagconfig command in command window?

    - OS, Quartus version?

    • Spoder's avatar
      Spoder
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor

      - The JTAG interface is embedded on the devboard
      - The details of the driver say it's working properly.

      - The jtagconfig command shows: "Remote Local Server: Unable to connect"

      - I'm using Windows 11 and Quartus II Lite 23.1

  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor

    Hi,
    do you have a complete specification of the development board? I don't know an EP4CE6 board with embedded USB-Blaster. May be there's a compatibility problem, e.g. non-FTDI USB-Bridge.

    I expected info like below under driver details:

    I wonder what "Remote Local Server" is. I don't have it under Windows 10.

    • Spoder's avatar
      Spoder
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor

      Hi, it's a EP4CE6E22C8N board, it looks like this:

      I'm not sure if what I said about "embedded JTAG" is correct, I'm sorry, I'm new to this. But, it comes with a USB Blaster cable to connect to the computer.

      About the driver:

      I should also add that the USB Blaster and the board itself works fine, as I've already tested it on another computer.

  • sstrell's avatar
    sstrell
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor

    Most newer boards have the USB Blaster hardware on the board itself so all you have to do is connect a standard USB cable.

    But your older board doesn't look like it has that. So you've got a USB Blaster "pod" with the 10-pin JTAG connector connected to the JTAG port on the board?

    Just to confirm you clicked that "Currently selected hardware" drop-down and there was nothing listed there?

    If you can use a command shell, try running the jtagconfig executable in the Quartus bin directory to verify that the computer really isn't seeing any JTAG connection.

    • FvM's avatar
      FvM
      Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor

      Hi,
      thanks for the information. The board uses an external USB Blaster, according to internet offers it comes with a Chinese clone, small black box with light blue stripe and "USB Blaster" printing. Similar devices have been reported not to work with recent (Windows 10) drivers due to non-genuine FTDI chip. They are intentionally blocked by the driver, the adapter is apparently enumerated but not functional. You can review respective discussion here on the forum. Known solutions are using an old (e.g. Windows 7) unsigned driver in Windows 10 test mode.

      • Spoder's avatar
        Spoder
        Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor

        So, using a Windows 7 driver in Windows 10? That may be a problem since I don't have access to a Windows 10 computer, but if I did, where could I find a Windows 7 driver?

    • Spoder's avatar
      Spoder
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor

      Yes, that is correct.

      The jtagconfig command shows: "Remote Local Server: Unable to connect". Does this mean the computer isn't actually recognizing it?

    • Spoder's avatar
      Spoder
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor

      Hello,

      It seems like I am indeed using a clone USB Blaster (sorry for that, the kit I bought was the most affordable I could buy as a student). As for any solution. I couldn't find any way to use old drivers (for starters, I had to use a modified USB Blaster driver for ARM Windows) and Quartus was never able to recognize my board, in fact, by that point I wasn't even sure if Windows itself was really recognizing the board or if it just knew there was a USB Blaster connected.

      I completely bypassed Quartus by using OpenOCD on macOS, which recognized the board on the first try, to upload a .svf version of the program into the board.

  • Hi,


    Sorry to tell you that we do not ensure the quality of clones devices. Hence we are unable to provide further service for this case.

    I now transition this thread to community support. f you have a new question, feel free to open a new thread to get the support from Intel experts. Otherwise, the community users will continue to help you on this thread. Thank you.

    We apologize for the inconveniences.

    Regards,

    Aiman