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terecatu's avatar
terecatu
Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
1 year ago

Compatibility issue or bad Altera USB blasters?

Hi, I am attempting to flash EP4CE6 (Cyclone IV) using a precompiled .jic from an open source project - SonicSurface (see https://github.com/upnalab/SonicSurface, https://www.instructables.com/Sonic...
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FvM's avatar
FvM
Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
1 year ago

Out of curiosity, I did some tests with a recent fake "Altera" US Blaster from the market, probably the same CH552 based device shown in post #1 in hardware jpg.

My findings are (with Windows 10 OS):

1. Running the device with recent USB Blaster driver (FTDI CDM version >= 2.11), installed with Quartus 17.1 or later, breaks JTAG server operation, probably due to FTDI driver behaviour.
2. After uninstallung USB Blaster drivers and installing Quartus 13.1 drivers (FTDI CDM version 2.04) the device is installed as USB Blaster.
3. The device has still problems to recognize the JTAG chain of most FPGA boards, but works with some, apparently due to signal quality problems.
4. Using an additional buffer (a JTAG optical isolator) allows operation with more boards.

There are at least three different versions on the market, with identical case, CH552, STM32 and PIC18 based. The signal quality problem must not necessarily be the same for all types.