MAX V & Board Test System

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

I just got the MAX V kit.  I'm learning to work with the kit. I installed quartus II 14.0 64 bit web edition on c:\Altera\14.0 folder . Also install the Max V develompent kit 11.1 on c:\altera\11.1\kits folder. I install the driver and can see it under device manager . USB Blaster. I plug the board to the PC USB and the blue light turn ON. Although , when I try to run Board Test System.exe software - nothing happens ??  No error , nothing hangs in the PC memory. simply nothing . Any reason ?  I try on 2 computers Win7 64 bit .  Thanks , T.Z.

[Altera_Forum]

Does the kit appear in device manager when you plug it it? It should be listed as 'Altera USB-Blaster II' or similar under the 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers' or 'JTAG cables' - or possibly another category that'll appear/disappear as you plug the board in & out. 

 Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 Yes it appears under device manager. today I install win xp 32 bit on a new drive, install quartus II 11.1 , and Max V develompent kit 11.1 . Now its working. So on XP 32 bit its working, no problem. But on win 7 64 bit not working ?    thanks.

[Altera_Forum]

I very much doubt it's a problem with Win7 64-bit - I use several Win7 64-bit PC's without any issues. I don't have that particular kit but doubt it's any different to the others I have... 

 Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

I agree with you. But I cannot run BTS on win 7 64 bit . I'm looking for an idea how to solve this problem.  

I try jtagserver --uninstall and jtagserver --install as some one suggest .  that also did not help. When I run jtagserver --status  I'm getting:   Server is running  Remote clients are disabled  not sure what it means.  Thanks.

[Altera_Forum]

You should be able to run the BTS software without any hardware connected to your system. The GUI should appear and then declare it can't find any hardware. So, I'd suggest, it's not relevant whether your JTAG server is running or not. Windows 7 isn't happy with something at a more basic level. A bit of a long shot (perhaps) but have you tried repairing you Windows 7 installation? 

 Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  You should be able to run the BTS software without any hardware connected to your system. The GUI should appear and then declare it can't find any hardware. So, I'd suggest, it's not relevant whether your JTAG server is running or not. Windows 7 isn't happy with something at a more basic level. A bit of a long shot (perhaps) but have you tried repairing you Windows 7 installation?  Cheers, Alex  --- Quote End ---    I have the same issue. I have recently bought a start up kit with a MAX V CPLD and went exactly through the same process. First installed the latest version of Quartus II web edition and the latest kit which is for version 11.1. It is said in the documentation that Quartus II version 11.1 and greater should work with the kit but indeed the test program doesn't work at all (nothing happens) if one doesn't install the version 11.1. Finally, I made it work but the test program can not see the USB-Blaster. I can run the BTS without hardware but I only have an option for a Ethernet based device. Essentially the USB-Blaster seems to remain undetected even if the driver seems to be installed correctly. I looked and there seems to be a 64-bit as well as a 32-bit version of the driver. There are no warning about driver issues on my laptop. I'm also using Windows 7 64-bit. In my case I don't have the option of trying on a 32-bit Windows. Actually, this is for me pretty catastrophic as my laptop with the current configuration is what has been issued at work for me! I'm pretty sure that my Windows installation is not broken or something like that! Any Altera gurus could suggest a solution? Thanks a lot!

[Altera_Forum]

Having installed the Max V Dev Kit on my 64-bit Windows 7 machine - I accept there is an issue. It didn't work straight off. After a little playing around I can make it work. 

 The issue seems to reside with a Quartus 14 installation and in particular the way it modifies the 'quartus_rootdir' environmental variable. My installation modified it to "c:\altera\14.1\qprogrammer" which represents a change from pre Q14 versions.  By changing the variable to "c:\altera\13.1\quartus\" I can make the Board Test System software work. It also works when '13.1' is substituted for other installed versions of Quartus (11.1 or newer).  As yet I've been unable to make it work with Q14. If I do I'll post the solution.  Cheers, Alex  PS. If you don't want to permanently modify your quartus_rootdir environmental variable you could use the attached batch file to modify the variable temporarily when running this board test system.

[Altera_Forum]

Find below the result of the Altera service request I raised asking after this issue. I wasn't expecting any more than this from the answer, but for the sake of completeness... 

   --- Quote Start ---  Board test systems(BTS) are dependent on Quartus version at least some features of BTS are. I am afraid there is no workaround you have to modify the QUARTUS_ROOTDIR in order for BTS to work.  --- Quote End ---    Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I have the same issue. Nothing happens. I then used the batch file mentioned above, but it barely did anything. The CMD window appears then disappears. I try to run BTS and still nothing.   Anything new on this?  NB

[Altera_Forum]

I had the same problem but with a Max10 RevB kit. I tried the RevC kit and it worked. Maybe its a version issue for you? Also, once connected it kept giving me error "No JTAG detected or selected". I fixed that by setting the DIP switches on the Max10 dev board to the default settings. Just wanted to share my experience with BTS. Hope this helps. 

Good Luck!

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

I just got a Max V KIT and the BoardTestSystem also no running. I tried to adjust the environment variables as the following instructions  https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_us/pdfs/support/kdb/downloads/rd01292013_416/setting_up_environment_variables_for_gui.pdf But still the BTS does not run.  How to solve this problem ???? Thanks. Bienle