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I have this custom board that has no JTAG connector (set up for Active Serial with an EPCS4 flash). I can load a NIOS2 on it using tricks learned in this forum and I can flash LEDs on board. Is there a way to send data back and forth for debugging (like on the JTAG UART) using SPI on the USB Blaster?
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You just commented that you have no JTAG connector, so what use it the USB-Blaster, as you have no way to connect it?
If you're just asking whether you can "re-task" your USB-Blaster as an SPI GPIO, then yes, you can do that. Its not "officially" supported, but the FTDI drivers allow you to access a USB-Blaster, and so long as you send it USB-Blaster protocol packets, you can use it for whatever I/O you like. You do need to power the VCC pin on the 10-pin header (since that powers the buffer inside the USB-Blaster). The USB-Blaster protocol is documented here:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/urjtag/index.php?title=cable_altera_usb-blaster Its actually less of a hassle to just use an FTDI C232HM/HD cable in MPSSE mode ... they're $26 ...
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/c232hm-ddhsl-0/768-1106-nd/2714139 http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/c232hd-ddhsp-0/768-1011-nd/2767783 Cheers,
Dave
Honored Contributor
