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Altera USB Blaster III LEDs usage

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,680 Views

Hi,

I would like to know how is the RGB LED on Altera USB Blaster III used? What is the meaning of the LED colors!

Thanks!

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Fakhrul
Employee
747 Views

Hi AnttiLukats,


Thank you for your patience, and I sincerely apologize for not addressing your question directly in my earlier reply.

Regarding your inquiry about the meaning of the RGB LED colors on the on-board USB Blaster III, please find the detailed information below:

  • Off: No power / not connected / suspend mode
  • Blue: Connected, not in use
  • Green: Connected, an application is using JTAG, no traffic
  • Green flickering: Connected, data is moving through the JTAG interface
  • Purple flashing: Identify function has been triggered on this cable


If you have further questions or need additional clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I'm here to help and will ensure your concerns are addressed promptly.


Thank you again for bringing this up, and I appreciate your understanding.


Best regards,

Fakhrul


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25 Replies
sstrell
Honored Contributor III
1,458 Views

There's currently no such thing as a USB Blaster III that I know of.  Where are you seeing this product?  Or better yet where did you get it?

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,403 Views

If you look at the Quartus installation files you find a file with _blaster3_ in the name. If you look inside that file you see string: "USB-BlasterIII" ! Also found in that file are links to FTDI DLL's. So it seems Quartus will soon support FTDI based USB Blaster III hardware. Pretty exciting!

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
1,365 Views

Hi,
Installation files of which Quartus version? You have been initially asking about RGB-LED, suggesting that have seen a picture, manual or real hardware of claimed USB Blaster III.

Recent Quartus versions have this driver folders

drivers.JPG

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,343 Views

Latest Quartus Prime Pro installation.

There are NO driver files for USB Blaster III, but if you look in:

quartus\bin64\

folder then you see file named:

jtag_hw_usb-blaster3.dll

this is the USB Blaster III support DLL!

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
1,312 Views
Thanks,
jtag_hw_usb-blaster3.dll uses the same low-level DLLs as usb-blaster, but it's not clear which USB adapter will be recognized by it. Probably it's supporting a future product.
AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,276 Views

Well as there is string: "USB-BlasterIII" inside this DLL, it is clear that there will be USB Blaster III product. Based on FT2232H!

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
1,253 Views

Hi,
jtag_hw_usb-blaster3.dll is expecting VID_0403 &  PID6011, corresponding to FT4232H. It could connect to an Arrow-USB-Blaster with FT2232H after changing the PID and seems to use a similar JTAG connection scheme. It reads ID of connected FPGA, operation is however extremely slow compared to Arrow_USB_Programmer2 driver, apparently something is missing, may be a different method to set the operation frequency. Other than original Arrow driver, it's not supporting the clock frequency setting in hardware setup as shown below

FvM_0-1731670159146.png

Arrow-USB-Blaster with Arrow Driver

FvM_1-1731670379344.png

Arrow-USB-Blaster faking USB-BlasterIII



AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,239 Views

This is now really weird. I tried the same chaning PID 6011 but no luck, UB3 is NOT RECOGNIZED. I tried some more playing around with the string descriptions but no luck, the adapter is not recognized. Bummer! Using Prime Pro 24.2 version. You must be somewhat lucky!

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AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,239 Views

Ah, forgot: the official UB3 is based on FT4232H, but the UB3 onboard solutions will support FT2232H and FT4232H variants, just the pin mappings will be different.

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
1,235 Views

Hi,

as stated, I tried with Arrow-USB-Blaster, Port A is set to 245FIFO and D2XXX mode in EEPROM. Default FT4232H setting is UART and VCP.

You are talking about official USB-Blaster III and onboard solutions. Where did you get the info? 

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,228 Views

I'm possible talking too much

 

can you post your String desciption screen from FT_PROG. Here I really have no luck enabling UB3

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
1,212 Views

FvM_0-1731675816723.png

 

FT_Prog template appended

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,207 Views

This is getting really weird. If I use the Arrow blaster strings, then Arrow driver is loaded, also for PID 6011, it happily works with Arrow DLL. If uninstall Arrow drivers then no hardware is detected. It is really a mystery how come it works on your computer. I assume you have also Prime Pro 24.2 ?

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
1,182 Views

Hi,
you have jtag_hw_arrow_usb_blaster.dll installed for 24.2 jtagserver, it's apparently tried first. I don't have it installed for 24.2.

I'm presently using 24.2 Pro Standalone Programmer for the tests, same JTAG server and drivers as full installation.

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
1,181 Views

Hi thanks for all that testing !

 

well, same here I did UNINSTALL arrow drivers, but then nothing is recognized so it really is not working on my PC, weird. Well 24.3 should come out soon (it should be out already..) then we probably will know for sure how it is supposed to work.

 

Still I wonder how come it is recognized on your PC. I tried all I could with no results...

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AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
815 Views

It is interesting that there is no detailed info from Altera about UB3! The Agilex5 modular devkit already uses UB3 as can be seen from public documentation. So UB3 is coming, soon? Well the modular kit user guide does not explain how to enable UB3 it says connect Intel Download Cable II to 10 pin header

_AK6DN_
Valued Contributor II
768 Views

Well, here is the schematic of the 'UB3' from the Agilex5 devkit. See below.

So what makes you think the UB3 will be sold as a standalone device?

Maybe it is intended to be used as an embedded design on boards only.

 

Capture.PNG

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
753 Views

Hm, well the Cypress FX2 is obsoleted so UB2 is going to EOL.. So I think Altera has no alternative as to seek replacement for UB2.

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FvM
Honored Contributor I
715 Views

Hi,
Infineon is bringing FX2G3 ARM based processor series to replace FX2 with minimal hardware changes.  

AnttiLukats
New Contributor I
712 Views

Yes FX2G3 is coming soon, almost pin compatible, but requires full rewrite of the firmware! So it is not so easy to change to FX2G3.

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