Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
21 years ago

Custom board with epcs & cyclone error

Has anyone gotten a custom board to work with epcs 4 and a cyclone yet? I have tried for a week and can't get the cpu or flash programmer to work. It either comes back with an error 6 "Unable to synchronize with target." or when I try to connect with the cpu it says that it can't pause it. I get no software response at all from the cpu. I can program the epcs and the jtag device fine seperately, and the altera code is correct because I can make pins function properly, but the cpu in the niosII is not responsive. If I do a sld info on the jtag port, the ports appear to be there and functional. I suspect this is a software issue, but nobody has been able to help yet.

The hardware connections appear to be fine and the target board was develpoed following the manual. I also tried putting a non used bridge in case that would solve anything.

I can make a custom design and software for the nios developement board and everything works fine, so the base install of the software is fine, it just won't work with a custom board.

Thanks,

Dan

13 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    Not clear on what does or doesn't work on your board.

    I assume you have verified the devices are powered within spec, reset lines OK, and the master clock is present and clean.

    Do you have both a Jtag header and a header for the Epcs device?

    If so, can you program the Epcs device with active serial mode using its header?

    If not, are the data&clock signals to the device present and clean?

    Are the Jtag data&clock signals present and clean?

    Some serial bus designs benefit from adding small series resistors on these lines.

    Our custom board uses a cyclone with an Epcs1, but no configuration controller such as the kit board.

    I can program the Epcs via its header, and I can also use the Jtag header to run applications, configure the FPGA,

    and program flash using the flash programmer utility. What I cannot do (yet) is program the Epcs with the flash utility.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    Basically everything, but the processor works. Devices are powered correctly, the cpu is reset slightly after power on(or independently afterward) and the clock is as expected. I have seperate Jtag and epcs headers. Jtag and epcs both work to download fpga code by there respective paths. Physically the cyclone works, I can make lights blink and the clock is working fine. All in hardware though. The CPU is non-responsive through software and the flash programmer won't program the epcs through the cyclone via the jtag interface. I can program just the jtag firmware to the cyclone though.

    What did you have to do to debug the software through the Jtag? I can't even get that to work. I'm trying just the simple hello world app.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    I haven't tried that. I figured it would be harder to simulate it and get all the details then to get just a simple hello world to work....... Maybe I was wrong. ISS might be useful if it works easily. This is the first time I have tried NIOS. I'm used to doing everything in vhdl.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    For our board, the debugger did not work initially but does now. I am not sure what changed here

    since the project has been modified several times. I would not worry about using debug or the flash programmer

    just yet. Focus on getting the hello world to run, which is the simplest step.

    It sounds like you can config HW ok, but not run any firmware.

    You believe the Jtag is OK, and that the CPU is running, but you can't connect.

    Eclipse has some quirks about creating SW projects, but I assume you have followed the tutorial.

    Double check that the run configuration you created points to the correct elf, ptf and CPU.

    I would leave the terminal setting to jtag_uart until it all works.

    What happens when you press 'Run'?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    Just running hello world gives me the following:

    Using cable "ByteBlasterII [LPT1]", device 1, instance 0x00

    Pausing target processor: not responding.

    Resetting and trying again: FAILED

    Leaving target processor paused

    If I do a sld info, the JTags are there. I'm thinking there is a memory issue. I am using just the 1c6 which is very tight on memory. I've had to do all of the steps outlined in helloworld just to get it to fit. I'm looking now for memory overflows that aren't flagged.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    really, try the legacy SDK. I hear it's smaller.

    If you have your c code, then it won't be hard to get it all running that way.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    I have a 1C12 with an EPCS4 working. I did experience

    similar behavior ... but then I realized I didn't hold the

    cpu in reset long enough to allow the PLL to lock.

    The strange thing about the behavior was that all of

    the peripherals (including SDRAM) seemed just fine,

    but the CPU would hang immediately after issuing

    the first instruction.

    Regards,

    --Scott
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    I'll try holding the reset longer on power up, but I also have a pin that I manually hold in reset and it doesn't work either. I'm checking the floor plan and the ASDO and nCSO pins are apparently unconnected. I'm trying to figure out now how to connect them up. This seems like the SOPC should have done this for me. What other devices did you have in your design?

    Maybe there is something that I can do in SOPC to make them connect.

    This still of course doesn't explain why I can't download software to it!

    Dan
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    21 years ago

    > What other devices did you have in your design?

    Just the standard stuff: uart, a few timers, sdram ....

    No epcs or legacy asmi though.

    --Scott