starting the cyclone development kit of Altera!

[Altera_Forum]

I'm a student and I really want to implement some projects whith the development kit of altera... 

I bought a Cyclone Development kit , with serial number SN# 05803 .Then I followed the instructions on the getting started guide . I plugged the JTAG cable between the PC and the development kit.... When I typed the command 'nios2-terminal' to access to the board, I obtained the message   ' nios2-terminal: "There are no JTAG cables available on your system"  I tried the command 'nios-run -t' as well but I obtained the following message:  '"### nios-run: could not open COM1" "nios-run: exiting." :angry:   I'm using Quartus II 4.2 and Nios II 1.0 for my project. I cannot start the development kit!!! :o please help... Any solution will be well done...  Regards,

[Altera_Forum]

Maybe: 

Missing the JTAG Sever.  You'd like to do: 1. install the Byteblaster or USBblater driver 2. add Hardware in Quartus

[Altera_Forum]

Hello mountain8848, thanks for your answer... But I'm a begginer and I don't understand which server u are talking about, I used the cyclone development kit CD and it's installed some programs... where can I find the latest drivers for the Byteblaster? what do u mean about "add Hardware in Quartus"? 

oh please, I really need a hand guys http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif  any sugestion will be really appreciate....

[Altera_Forum]

You need to tell us which cable you are using, and indeed which OS. The instructions for ByteBlaster and USB-Blaster are different. 

 For ByteBlaster (MV or II) on Windows you need to run `jtagconfig --add ByteBlaster lpt1` on the command line. For USB-Blaster on Windows it should just work. Linux is more complex.  ps. You should probably be using the IDE rather than nios-run (which is part of the legacy SDK - the old way of doing things). Once you have something working on the IDE then there are command line alternative ways of using it.

[Altera_Forum]

Good morning, thanks for your help Womba... I&#39;m working on windows XP professional and I&#39;m using : 

 1. ByteBlaster II : I typed the command `jtagconfig --add ByteBlaster lpt1`. Now, when I&#39;m trying nios2-terminal" it replies : "The selected JTAG cable is either not connected to a board, or the board is not switched on." why, the 2 leds are on? how can I solve this problem?   2. µClinux OS ( NIOS II linux distribution version 1.3), My SOPC builder system is linux_1c20.ptf   3. I&#39;ve tried the Nios II IDE to configure the kernel ( I don&#39;t know if my configuration is a good one but it seems to be intuitive http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif ) but I don&#39;t know how to ensure that the PC is communicating with the board... may be directly by implementing a C program witch tries to get the tension on a pin? otherwise,how can I initialise a the communication with board using the IDE?  4. where can I find all the cammands for the SOPC builder?  Regards

[Altera_Forum]

I can&#39;t answer all your questions I&#39;m afraid. I suggest you ask the other questions in different threads (one question per thread makes things easier for other readers too). 

 I assume you&#39;ve tried connecting the ByteBlaster cable to the board as well as verifying the power. If you are still getting this error message then you might have plugged the cable in backwards. If that doesn&#39;t work then there is probably a hardware fault with your ByteBlaster or your board.  The tools nios2-terminal and/or nios2-download will tell you if you&#39;re communicating with the board (by returning error messages if they can&#39;t connect). I&#39;m not sure which of these ucLinux uses in its usual flow to get the board running.

[Altera_Forum]

good morning, I&#39;m back... 

 I think that I did all what I had to do in order to solve my problem : just to establish a simple terminal connection with the development board defined on the top. I tried to find some solutions to solve my problem but nothing happens! I cannot load the .sof program and I have the same error messages.  I tried to work with an other altera development board ( EP1S10F780C6 ) and it works fine... I don&#39;t understand why the EP1C20F400C7 does not work. .. I tried to download some drivers for the blaster II in the following link and elsewhere...  http://www.altera.com/support/software/dri.../dri-index.html (http://www.altera.com/support/software/drivers/dri-index.html)   Nothing! http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif  The CD development kit doesn&#39;t work as well... the same problem I think: " Could not find Nios II development kit on this system".  I definitely think that I have a hardware fault with my board but I also think that something new should be done to make this new board work well... But what?  So, mr Womba, what can I do now?  I&#39;m completely disabled guys... help

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Oscar, 

to verify if u have a hardware fault, u should try with another EP1C20F400C7 board, if u have it. Otherwise have u got a ByteBlaster MV cable?

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Soin,  

http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif I haven&#39;t an other EP1C20F400C7 board or a Byteblaster MV cable, may be I should use this cable... Do u think that the right cable for this board should be the Byteblaster MV one?

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Oscar, 

i have a Stratix EP1S10 development board and a byteblaster MV cable, and it works. I don&#39;t know if ByteBlaster II cable is ok for your cyclone board...

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Oscar i&#39;m here again. I looked at the documentation about your board and i&#39;ve read that the board has three 10-pin JTAG headers:J24 connects to the Cyclone device (U60), J5 connects into the EPM7128AE device (U3), and J28 connects to the EPCS4 serial- 

configuration device.  What connector r u trying to use?

[Altera_Forum]

Oscar, can you detail the steps you are taking, and copy any additional information that would be useful. 

 If you powered up the board with a LCD display connected you should see the web server boot up (unless someone has overwritten your flash or you have blown up the LCD connecting it backwards or to the wrong header).  Also I had to modify the Cyclone full design so that it would use a Cyclone PLL. To check this look at the bottom right corner of the SDRAM PLL and make sure it says "Cyclone". If you are not the first user of this board the behaviour may be different like I meantioned above, and if that is the case you may want to restore it using the steps in this document: http://www.altera.com/literature/manual/mn...yclone_1c20.pdf (http://www.altera.com/literature/manual/mnl_nios2_board_cyclone_1c20.pdf) (Appendix &#39;B&#39;)  Good-luck