Configuring an FPGA without JTAG

[Altera_Forum]

Hello everyone, I am fairly new to FPGAs so forgive me if I ask a stupid question. I have recently moved my Cyclone III board from a starter kit and am trying to make it work on its own on a PCB board. To do this I am attempting to configure the FPGA from an EPCS16, using AS mode. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the NIOS Flash Programmer required that the board already be running and configured before the EPCS could be written, so I did not connect any JTAG pins. 

 So, my question is, can you create a HW and SW file together like the NIOS flash programmer does and flash it into the EPCS, without the FPGA already being configured at all?   Or if you have any other suggestions on how to configure the FPGA without a JTAG or a running board please let me know.   Thanks in advance, Joe

[Altera_Forum]

You can configure the EPCS device directly through active serial programming. Now obviously you did not put down a header to enable you to do this so you're going to have to solder some wires to the pins of the EPCS device to allow you to do this. 

 Please read the section entitled "Programming serial configuration devices" in the following document: http://www.altera.com/literature/hb/cyc3/cyc3_ciii51010.pdf  For future reference ... always put JTAG on your board. :)  Jake

[Altera_Forum]

Oh I forgot to mention ... you flash the EPCS device using the Quartus II Programmer within Quartus. You'll have to first create a POF file using the File->Convert Programming File tool. 

 Jake

[Altera_Forum]

and if you connect the programmer to the EPCS, you should add some clamping diodes to protect the FPGA. Have a look at page 22 of that document (http://www.altera.com/literature/hb/cyc3/cyc3_ciii51010.pdf).

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  so you're going to have to solder some wires to the pins of the EPCS device to allow you to do this.  --- Quote End ---  Yes, but this operation also requires to disable the configuration pins, that drive out to the EPCS device. The AS programming interface has a pin for this, I guess, you pin strapped nCE to GND, so you have to keep the FPGA in reset to program the EPCS, e.g. by shuttting down VCCA or VCINT.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for your help so far everyone, I believe I have the epcs wired correctly, however once I flash my device using the quartus programmer, I don't think it is loading onto the FPGA. To test this I wired an multiple IO pins to ground vcc and PWMs generated in firmware and then flashed the board. None of the pins behaved any differently that before I programmed the EPCS. If my connection was miswired would I get an error during the download stage? Any other thoughts would be appreciated.