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Stratix IV Transceiver SI Dev Kit: The GUI could not communicate with the board...

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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After spending 1.5 months going back and forth with Altera support in Penang, I figured I'd try here. 

 

My original support request was as follows: 

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

We have been unable to get the GUI to communicate with the board. We’ve tried a number of combinations of versions of drivers (although primarily the drivers that came with it – version 9.1). Along with 4 computers running different OS’s: Win7 64-bit, Win7 32-bit, Vista 32-bit and XP-Pro 32-bit. In all cases the programming and signal tap can communicate with the board using the USB Blaster ... at least I assume they can since the correct device is recognized. When we try and connect in the GUI we get the error message: 

The GUI could not communicate with the board... 

 

We also tried different .flash files. 

 

I'm inclined to think there is something wrong with the board.  

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

After some exchange with support, they indicated that the GUI *only* supports XP SP2 which was released in 2004 and which Microsoft *stopped* supporting in the summer of 2010. So after spending a lot of time trying to find a copy of XP2, and finally getting a computer up and running with it, I followed the suggested procedures with the same result, the GUI would not communicate with the board. 

 

In all cases I was able to program the board using Quartus II. 

 

I'd appreciate if anyone that has been successful in running the Transceiver Dev Kit could let me know if there were any tricks you needed to get it running (such as finding a computer that happened to be running Win XP SP2). 

 

Thanks in advance.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Do you have multiple blaster nodes? 

I assume the GUI only accept 1 node, the embeded USB blaster on the board. 

 

If you have remote-jtag, delete it list. 

If you have byte-blaster, delete it from list. 

 

I assume it will run on xp-32 and 7-32, I do not have it in my hand, so I can not test it though. 

 

If you can post the error or detail, I might be able to help a bit more.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I'll double check the number of nodes when I return to my office next week. My recollection is that I only have the embedded USB blaster as a node as I certainly haven't used the remote-jtag or a byte-blaster. 

 

The error message I get is a java popup that states: 

"The GUI could not communicate with the board." 

And then the GUI exits. 

 

I wish I had more information to provide, but this is the only error message I ever receive. 

 

Thanks for the feedback.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi, 

 

did you ever resolve this issue? I am seeing exactly the same thing with my dev kit.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi, 

 

After a very long exchange with support I finally received the following information: 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

FYI, I just got an information from our factory that it might be because the complete QII 91 is required..since there is some problem in the JTAG DLL that requires the entire QII91 to be installed. The way the GUI is packaged is that only the DLL’s related to programming is included. 

- Could you please confirm if complete Quartus II 9.1 (subscription edition) is installed too. If not, please try to install them and try re-running the GUI. 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

After downloading and installing the subscription edition of Quartus II 9.1, I was then able to use the GUI. I haven't yet tested if the GUI actually works under Windows 7 (I suspect it does) however, I was able to run the GUI in a Windows XP Mode Virtual PC (after installing the kit software and subscription quartus II). 

 

You can download Quartus II here: 

https://www.altera.com/download/software/quartus-ii-se/9.1 (https://www.altera.com/download/software/quartus-ii-se/9.1

 

Information on setting up XP mode under Windows 7 can be found here: 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

 

I haven't had a chance to experiment too much with the board since I got it running (as I've had to move onto other things). If you do happen to run it under Win 7 I'd be interested in finding out. 

 

Cheers.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi, 

 

i have QII V10.1 (subscription) installed, but still does not work. It may be the same issue with the files you describe. I might try reinstalling 10.1......
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I'm guessing you need to use QII 9.1 (the same version as with the dev kit).

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Yep, 

 

will give it a go, sounds like the dev kit needs SW version
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Helo everyone here, 

 

I'm abt to start using this stratix IV Transceiver SI Dev Kit too. I faced the same problem as you all here. I will download the subscribed version and try out again. But it seems the subscribed version would allow one to use it only within 30days. 

 

Another matter is, there is no files I could find that related to demo2 (Air-Max channels). Is anyone here trying out Air-Max channel as well? Would appreciate if you could share me how you did it...
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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As far as I know, the SI GUI only requires Quartus Programmer libraries. 

It means, the web edition should work.  

Even stand-alone-programmer will work. 

 

I would say, double check that you do not have any other blasters connected to the PC. 

This GUI can only recognize 1 blaster at a time, so if you have byte-blaster or something else in your PC, you need to disconnect and remove from the programmer list.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Thanks for your comment. I have checked to make sure there is only one USB Blaster running and installed the web-edition Quartus II 9.0sp2 and it works fine! Thanks a lot! 

 

BTW, I am planning to test the backplane connector (AirMax) channels on this board. The "user guide" says I will need a "signal_integrity_demo2.sof" file. But I found none and the GUI doesn't feature this functionability either. Would appreciate any form of help.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I had the same problem with the Stratix IV transceiver SI GT version (The GUI could not communicate with the board). I downloaded the QII9.1 version and now it works fine. Many thanks Brad.

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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The problem after installing QII 9.1 is that now the SI board is working fine with the GUI but we cannot use the Transceiver toolkit that is available on QII 11.0. Has anybody found any trick for this?

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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when you open QII 11.0 the environment variables should be updated so that everything works correctly 

 

have you tried the Transceiver Toolkit reference designs (not sure if they work in 11.0, but i used them in 10.1sp1)?
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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If you have 2 PCs, you might be able to do like this as well 

PC1 connect directly to the board and run the BTS GUI 

PC2 connect PC1 via network(remote-jtag) and use the Transceiver Toolkit. 

 

PC1 need to have Q9.1 to use the BTS GUI 

PC2 need to have Q11.0 to use the toolkit
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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The solution that I found is that: 

1. You first install the QII 11.0 

2. Then you install the QII 9.1 on the same machine 

3. You run the Programmer (either from 9.1 or 11) to download the file 

4. The GUI for the SI board is working fine using the 9.1 drivers.  

5. You run the QII 11 to load the transceiver toolkit
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