How to check if ALTERA USB-Blaster is connected

Altera_Forum · ‎03-11-2016

Hi all,

I am looking for a way to programmatically determine if the Application is starting on its own or if it gets started with a connected ALTERA USB-Blaster (JTAG).

Until now I had two separate Project configurations in the IDE containing the defines _DEBUG and NDEBUG.

project details:

- Nios2/f

- ACDS 13.0sp1

- FreeRTOS

Thanks for your suggestions!

Altera_Forum · ‎03-11-2016

I've always used a GPIO with the built-in pull up enabled. It's connected to an external switch that grounded it. Grounded indicating debug mode, open is non-debug mode. The software could read that switch at startup to determine if you were running in debug mode or not.

If this isn't available, you might try a different scheme. I've not used this but it's easy to see if it works or not. Write some characters to the JTAG uart. If the transmit buffer never empties, no JTAG is connected. Don't write more than the FIFO holds or the software will hang waiting for the data to go out (which it never will).

Altera_Forum · ‎03-16-2016

Thank you for your response! I'll try that as soon as possible.