Custom board with epcs & cyclone error

[Altera_Forum]

Has anyone gotten a custom board to work with epcs 4 and a cyclone yet? I have tried for a week and can't get the cpu or flash programmer to work. It either comes back with an error 6 "Unable to synchronize with target." or when I try to connect with the cpu it says that it can't pause it. I get no software response at all from the cpu. I can program the epcs and the jtag device fine seperately, and the altera code is correct because I can make pins function properly, but the cpu in the niosII is not responsive. If I do a sld info on the jtag port, the ports appear to be there and functional. I suspect this is a software issue, but nobody has been able to help yet. 

 The hardware connections appear to be fine and the target board was develpoed following the manual. I also tried putting a non used bridge in case that would solve anything.  I can make a custom design and software for the nios developement board and everything works fine, so the base install of the software is fine, it just won't work with a custom board.  Thanks, Dan

[Altera_Forum]

Not clear on what does or doesn't work on your board. 

I assume you have verified the devices are powered within spec, reset lines OK, and the master clock is present and clean.  Do you have both a Jtag header and a header for the Epcs device? If so, can you program the Epcs device with active serial mode using its header?  If not, are the data&clock signals to the device present and clean? Are the Jtag data&clock signals present and clean?  Some serial bus designs benefit from adding small series resistors on these lines.   Our custom board uses a cyclone with an Epcs1, but no configuration controller such as the kit board.  I can program the Epcs via its header, and I can also use the Jtag header to run applications, configure the FPGA, and program flash using the flash programmer utility. What I cannot do (yet) is program the Epcs with the flash utility.

[Altera_Forum]

Basically everything, but the processor works. Devices are powered correctly, the cpu is reset slightly after power on(or independently afterward) and the clock is as expected. I have seperate Jtag and epcs headers. Jtag and epcs both work to download fpga code by there respective paths. Physically the cyclone works, I can make lights blink and the clock is working fine. All in hardware though. The CPU is non-responsive through software and the flash programmer won't program the epcs through the cyclone via the jtag interface. I can program just the jtag firmware to the cyclone though. 

 What did you have to do to debug the software through the Jtag? I can't even get that to work. I'm trying just the simple hello world app.

[Altera_Forum]

Can you simulate it? 

Or debug through ISS?

[Altera_Forum]

I haven't tried that. I figured it would be harder to simulate it and get all the details then to get just a simple hello world to work....... Maybe I was wrong. ISS might be useful if it works easily. This is the first time I have tried NIOS. I'm used to doing everything in vhdl.

[Altera_Forum]

For our board, the debugger did not work initially but does now. I am not sure what changed here 

since the project has been modified several times. I would not worry about using debug or the flash programmer  just yet. Focus on getting the hello world to run, which is the simplest step.    It sounds like you can config HW ok, but not run any firmware.  You believe the Jtag is OK, and that the CPU is running, but you can't connect.  Eclipse has some quirks about creating SW projects, but I assume you have followed the tutorial. Double check that the run configuration you created points to the correct elf, ptf and CPU.  I would leave the terminal setting to jtag_uart until it all works.  What happens when you press 'Run'?

[Altera_Forum]

Just running hello world gives me the following: 

 Using cable "ByteBlasterII [LPT1]", device 1, instance 0x00 Pausing target processor: not responding. Resetting and trying again: FAILED Leaving target processor paused   If I do a sld info, the JTags are there. I'm thinking there is a memory issue. I am using just the 1c6 which is very tight on memory. I've had to do all of the steps outlined in helloworld just to get it to fit. I'm looking now for memory overflows that aren't flagged.

[Altera_Forum]

really, try the legacy SDK. I hear it's smaller. 

 If you have your c code, then it won't be hard to get it all running that way.

[Altera_Forum]

I have a 1C12 with an EPCS4 working. I did experience 

similar behavior ... but then I realized I didn't hold the cpu in reset long enough to allow the PLL to lock.  The strange thing about the behavior was that all of the peripherals (including SDRAM) seemed just fine, but the CPU would hang immediately after issuing the first instruction.  Regards, --Scott

[Altera_Forum]

I'll try holding the reset longer on power up, but I also have a pin that I manually hold in reset and it doesn't work either. I'm checking the floor plan and the ASDO and nCSO pins are apparently unconnected. I'm trying to figure out now how to connect them up. This seems like the SOPC should have done this for me. What other devices did you have in your design? 

Maybe there is something that I can do in SOPC to make them connect.  This still of course doesn't explain why I can't download software to it!  Dan

[Altera_Forum]

> What other devices did you have in your design? 

 Just the standard stuff: uart, a few timers, sdram .... No epcs or legacy asmi though. --Scott

[Altera_Forum]

The EPCS4 never worked on my Cyclone board since I bought it! The local FAE told me that its a common bugs on the Cyclone board, so I did not use it till now.

[Altera_Forum]

Well the mystery seems to finally be solved. It appears that NIOS II doesn't work on a 1C6 chip. When I replaced the 1C6 chip with a 1C12, pin for pin compatable, everything worked with just a recompile for the new device. Appears to be an Altera issue

[Altera_Forum]

Dan, we had Nios II running on a 1C3. Can you send me the project, or the ptf file you were using for the 1C6? 

We'd like to investigate this further. Also, who is your FAE?  you can send it all to khallbec@altera.com   Thanks!