programming a maxim device with the USB blaster

Hi again,

I have recieved that error many times. I have gone through various generated *.jam files, and have yet to work out what to do about it. You are correct, there is something wrong with the generated file. And yes, it IS annoying when it says 'see message window for details' and yet, no message appears.

So, options:

1) Email Altera directly, or post in a different part of the forum about the svf2jam utility and why it refuses to accept certain SVF files. especially when maxim specifically suggest its use (which implies they themselves have tested it).

1a) Email Maxim :)

2) Use a different programmer. This isn't an ideal solution, but the lattice ispVM software (available as a standalone utility) can play SVF files directly. It will only work with lattice cables though. If you have a parallel port on your computer, the circuit for the JTAG dongle is pretty simple - although its still a hassle to knock up a small circuit JUST for programming one chip. Xilinx has impact software, again, uses a simple parallel port dongle and can play generic SVF files.

3) Post your SVF file, and I'll see if anything is there which gets ignored by the SVF2JAM utility (which seems to get really arsey with many forms of SVF file)

4) Post your generated *.jam file, and I'll go through it to see if anything could throw an error. By rights, we shouldn't have to manually edit the generated file, but you never know.

5) Use an open source utility such as urjtag, or openOCD, which can both work with the USB blaster, and have SVF file players. Bypassing the need for converting the SVF to JAM. Its a command line utility, which can be integrated into various enviroments - I have found it very difficult to use, but then again, I am a GUI person, who likes nice buttons to click :)

6) If you are really stuck, a while ago I worked on a simple SVF player, able to work with various generic USB-JTAG interfaces, including the Altera USB blaster. I abandoned it, because I have never written a high level language program before, so it was a steep learning curve. But I did get quite far with it, and it 'seemed' to be able to read any version of the SVF specification (so it worked with every SVF file I tried). I'm not just being 'nice', since I need it anyway, and this would be an excuse to re-animate the project.

Sorry for flooding you with idea's, but options are always a good thing. All depends on how urgent this is, and how savy you are with knocking up hardware. Plus, I can sympathise with how annoying this is.

Buriedcode.