1. Home
  2. Embedded Programming
  3. MAX 7000 Dev. Board

MAX 7000 Dev. Board

I have an eSOC developement board from DeVry with an Altera Max 7000 serie CPLD chip on it.

The EPM7128SLC84-15 to be exact...

I never took the course for which I bought it & I'm trying to teach mysel to use it now but I cannot seem to get Altera's MaxPlusII software t see/recognize the board.

DeVry's site for the board is

formatting link

The MaxPlus program seems to want it to be an xxxxxx-6 (not xxxx-15). An time I try to connect, program, erase, et cetera the chip, I get an erro message about not recognizing the device or no device in the socket. Also SUPPOSEDLY there is a test program preinstalled on the chip but it does no seem to work.

I added the chip as noted in Altera's documention to the system hardwar (it's a win2k driver, but they always seem fine in XP anyway).

Am I just an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing or should I mayb assume the chip is bad & try the whole process again after replacing it?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

-JD

Reply to
Pyr0JD
Loading thread data ...

Get rid of MaxPlus, and use Quartus-II instead.

The web edition is free, and you can download it from the Altera web site.

Once you have Quartus installed, try to download the demo program to verify that your board is working.

Good luck, G.

Reply to
ghelbig

The dash number indicates the speed grad. The MAX7000 series is quite old. As Altera improves technology, they may drop the older, slower parts. Choosing the faster part should be no problem, except that the timing analyzer and waveform display may show misleading results if you try to simulate things at very high speeds - things that work on the -6 may not work an a -15.

As another poster suggested, you may want to try the newer Quartus II software - it should import the MaxPlus design without much problem, and I think you can till use the TTL-equivalent symbols in your designs.

I haven't used any in-system-programmable Max 7000 parts - when I used that family, they had to be programmed in an eprom programmer - so I can't offer any suggestions re programming the thing.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI  
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca  
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca
Reply to
Peter Bennett

You need a byteblaster programmer, I guess. The schematic is downloadable from the Altera website. I have no idea, whether a newer programmer is compatible with this oder family. It was quite in fashion as it was 5V HCMOS. Some stores still sell them. The maxplus2 software had its quirks with the programmer and the JTAG chain. As far as I remember, some of the menues are context sensitive and an you can only reach certain settings on "the right way". Can you read the JTAG chain ? Without having this right, none else is doable.

Try the forums.altera.com for further questions. The specialists are there.

Rene

--
Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com
& commercial newsgroups - http://www.talkto.net
Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

You also need to load a driver before the Altera Byteblaster will work on Windows 2000 or Windows XP. There is a FAQ or App note on Altera's web site describing how to install the low level driver. The driver is so the Altera software (Maxplus or Quartus) can access the parallel port directly. The driver is in \maxplus2\Drivers\win2000

Regards Anton Erasmus

Reply to
Anton Erasmus

Thanks to all who replied.... I got rid of MaxPlus II & got QuartusII.. Seems much easier to work with but I still can't get the devic recognized. The Win2k ByteBlaster driver is installed, & the developmen board supposedly allows (through the parallel connection onboard reprogramming in socket. I'll try the Altera forums mentioned. The LEDs o the dev board do flicker when it the software tries to communicate, bu nothing but this error pops up:

Error: JTAG ID code specified in JEDEC STAPL Format File does not matc any valid JTAG ID codes for device

So no, it's not reading the JTAG info. I don't know quite what to do a this point but as I said, I'll try the Altera forums.

Thanks again for the replies & any more suggestions would be greatl appreciated.

-JD

Reply to
Pyr0JD

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.