Altera ByteBlaster II vs ByteBlaster MV

Aug 25, 2005 1 Replies

Hi group,



I have been using one ByteBlasterMV for a long time now, to program a chain of 4 components in JTAG: EPM1270144 LXT971 LXT971 EPM1270144



LXT971's are Intel (Level-One) PHY's, with an Instruction Register of length 4 bits.



I run Quartus II 4.2 SP1, free Web version, on an XP PC.



I have never had the slightest problem with the MV pod.



Recently, I purchased for our manufacturing/test department one ByteBlaster II for programming the same chain of components on the same PCB, using the same setup.



Of course, I tried it first at my desk. Does not work. De-installation/re-installation of driver has been done as per Altera Web Site instructions.



MV keeps on working fine. ByteBlaster II keeps on refusing to provide reliable behaviours.



For instance:


-- accepts to erase both Altera CPLD's



-- says they are blank



-- running examine returns a message like "Bad silicon ID on device 4"



-- same thing with program/verify.



Tried with a second ByteBlaster II. Same thing. Tried with another card holding the chain of components. Same thing.



I can think of:


-- II has less drive than MV (TMS,TCK,TDI,TDO are not buffered on my card)



-- II runs faster ?



Any idea ?



Thanks beforehand.



Hi Jean,

BB2 has a completely different driver circuit, so that might definitely be the problem. However, you may want to put a 22-ohm resistor on TDI and TCK on the cable side - it sometimes helps.

Best regards,

Ben

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