EPM240T100C5N, LM2596, USB Blaster.

You can find some minimal development boards on ebay / aliexpress. I've used these successfully.

Some include a USB Blaster device as well. Something like this:

If you look for Altera's documentation about JTAG and Max II devices you'll find the pinout for the MAX 2 device.

If you install Quartus II and attach the JTAG to the board you should see the device in the programmer without much hassle.

Altera has a lot of video classes on their website that you can use to learn the workflow - I definitely recommend them.

The package I tried soldering was a TQFP100 (0.5mm pitch). Personally I had limited success on the first try on a PCB breakout board:

- misaligned the TQFP pins so I had to hot air it off the board and realign.

- lots of shorts while soldering everything

- using solder wick I removed most shorts but bent the pins so there are a few shorts.

I'm going to try soldering another one again. Hopefully I'll be more successful this time.

If you're ordering your own PCBs, having some larger uncovered traces help suck the additional solder away from pins to remove shorts. On my breakout the pads were pretty small and the rest of the traces going away from the pad were covered by soldermask.

Good luck! Emilian

You need very fine solder, .010" if you can get it, or .015" if you can't get the thinner stuff. A soldering iron with an insanely small, sharp point. My technique is to put a dab of solder on two diagonal pads. Attach the chip to those pads, and then check the alignment. You can "walk" the chip a bit to get good alignment on all 4 sides, by heating one of those pads, then the other. When alignment is good, apply liquid flux to all four rows of leads. Apply it liberally, so the whole area where the leads touch the pads are covered with flux. Then, apply the soldering iron to one pin at a time, working your way around the chip. If the PC board has heavy solder plate, you won't need to add any solder. If the plate is thin, you may need to add solder every 3rd or 4th lead. You will need micro-size sloder wick for the inevitable bridges. I dip the solder wick in the same liquid flux I use in this process. It is messier, but works WAY better when it has lots of flux on it.

I've soldered hundreds of TQFP chips in the 100, 128 and 144 size. The smallest were 128-lead with 0.4mm pitch.

Jon