Altera USB Blaster III LEDs usage

[AnttiLukats]

Hi,

I would like to know how is the RGB LED on Altera USB Blaster III used? What is the meaning of the LED colors!

Thanks!

[sstrell]

There's currently no such thing as a USB Blaster III that I know of.  Where are you seeing this product?  Or better yet where did you get it?

[AnttiLukats]

If you look at the Quartus installation files you find a file with _blaster3_ in the name. If you look inside that file you see string: "USB-BlasterIII" ! Also found in that file are links to FTDI DLL's. So it seems Quartus will soon support FTDI based USB Blaster III hardware. Pretty exciting!

[FvM]

Hi,
Installation files of which Quartus version? You have been initially asking about RGB-LED, suggesting that have seen a picture, manual or real hardware of claimed USB Blaster III.

Recent Quartus versions have this driver folders

 

[AnttiLukats]

Latest Quartus Prime Pro installation.

There are NO driver files for USB Blaster III, but if you look in:

quartus\bin64\

folder then you see file named:

jtag_hw_usb-blaster3.dll

this is the USB Blaster III support DLL!

[FvM]

Thanks,
jtag_hw_usb-blaster3.dll uses the same low-level DLLs as usb-blaster, but it's not clear which USB adapter will be recognized by it. Probably it's supporting a future product.

[AnttiLukats]

Well as there is string: "USB-BlasterIII" inside this DLL, it is clear that there will be USB Blaster III product. Based on FT2232H!

[FvM]

Hi,
jtag_hw_usb-blaster3.dll is expecting VID_0403 &  PID6011, corresponding to FT4232H. It could connect to an Arrow-USB-Blaster with FT2232H after changing the PID and seems to use a similar JTAG connection scheme. It reads ID of connected FPGA, operation is however extremely slow compared to Arrow_USB_Programmer2 driver, apparently something is missing, may be a different method to set the operation frequency. Other than original Arrow driver, it's not supporting the clock frequency setting in hardware setup as shown below

Arrow-USB-Blaster with Arrow Driver

Arrow-USB-Blaster faking USB-BlasterIII

[AnttiLukats]

This is now really weird. I tried the same chaning PID 6011 but no luck, UB3 is NOT RECOGNIZED. I tried some more playing around with the string descriptions but no luck, the adapter is not recognized. Bummer! Using Prime Pro 24.2 version. You must be somewhat lucky!

[AnttiLukats]

Ah, forgot: the official UB3 is based on FT4232H, but the UB3 onboard solutions will support FT2232H and FT4232H variants, just the pin mappings will be different.

[FvM]

Hi,

as stated, I tried with Arrow-USB-Blaster, Port A is set to 245FIFO and D2XXX mode in EEPROM. Default FT4232H setting is UART and VCP.

You are talking about official USB-Blaster III and onboard solutions. Where did you get the info? 

[AnttiLukats]

I'm possible talking too much

can you post your String desciption screen from FT_PROG. Here I really have no luck enabling UB3

[FvM]

FT_Prog template appended

[AnttiLukats]

This is getting really weird. If I use the Arrow blaster strings, then Arrow driver is loaded, also for PID 6011, it happily works with Arrow DLL. If uninstall Arrow drivers then no hardware is detected. It is really a mystery how come it works on your computer. I assume you have also Prime Pro 24.2 ?

[FvM]

Hi,
you have jtag_hw_arrow_usb_blaster.dll installed for 24.2 jtagserver, it's apparently tried first. I don't have it installed for 24.2.

I'm presently using 24.2 Pro Standalone Programmer for the tests, same JTAG server and drivers as full installation.

[AnttiLukats]

Hi thanks for all that testing !

well, same here I did UNINSTALL arrow drivers, but then nothing is recognized so it really is not working on my PC, weird. Well 24.3 should come out soon (it should be out already..) then we probably will know for sure how it is supposed to work.

Still I wonder how come it is recognized on your PC. I tried all I could with no results...

[AnttiLukats]

It is interesting that there is no detailed info from Altera about UB3! The Agilex5 modular devkit already uses UB3 as can be seen from public documentation. So UB3 is coming, soon? Well the modular kit user guide does not explain how to enable UB3 it says connect Intel Download Cable II to 10 pin header

[_AK6DN_]

Well, here is the schematic of the 'UB3' from the Agilex5 devkit. See below.

So what makes you think the UB3 will be sold as a standalone device?

Maybe it is intended to be used as an embedded design on boards only.

[AnttiLukats]

Hm, well the Cypress FX2 is obsoleted so UB2 is going to EOL.. So I think Altera has no alternative as to seek replacement for UB2.

[FvM]

Hi,
Infineon is bringing FX2G3 ARM based processor series to replace FX2 with minimal hardware changes.  

[AnttiLukats]

Yes FX2G3 is coming soon, almost pin compatible, but requires full rewrite of the firmware! So it is not so easy to change to FX2G3.