(Resources) Schematic for EP4CE6E22C8N dev board ?

[moffy]

Has any one got a schematic for the following EP4CE6E22C8N development board?: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/397259141465?customid&toolid=10050
I have purchased one but the seller had minimal info about it. I have also done a search but couldn't find anything. It's nice in that it allows one to adjust the VIO with jumpers, for banks 3-8, I've traced that little out so far.

Summary:
Here is a summary so far with useful files to make it easy to find.
1. Schematic provided by @Picburner
2. Example files with Chinese characters removed, noted by @Bingo600
3. Win10 and generic Chinese USB Blaster don't appear to work with Quartus, experience of @moffy
    Others have reported success with generic USB Blaster, mileage may vary.
4. Waveshare USB Blaster, Win10 and Quartus work without modification to program the board, experience of @moffy

[moffy]

This is what I've traced so far.

[bingo600]

Could it be like this one

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/heep-to-access-some-fpga-documentation-on-beidu/msg5975307/#msg5975307

I got some doc from Beidu , via a friendly user here 
But yes .. I think there were no schematic

Maybe the files would help a bit

[moffy]

Could it be like this one

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/heep-to-access-some-fpga-documentation-on-beidu/msg5975307/#msg5975307

I got some doc from Beidu , via a friendly user here 
But yes .. I think there were no schematic

Maybe the files would help a bit

Thanks for the files, definitely looks like the same board. If there is no schematic available, I'll probably finish mine and post it here. It looks like a good board with a lack of info, which is annoying when trying to use it. 

[bingo600]

Thanks for the files, definitely looks like the same board. If there is no schematic available, I'll probably finish mine and post it here. It looks like a good board with a lack of info, which is annoying when trying to use it. 

Note: I had to rename the directories. to remove the chinese chars ... Quartus (13.0-sp1) wasn't happy with them

Did your board have Jtag P4 connected to 2v5 ?
I had to do a bodge wire, in order to power the programmers driver chips.

[moffy]

Thanks for the files, definitely looks like the same board. If there is no schematic available, I'll probably finish mine and post it here. It looks like a good board with a lack of info, which is annoying when trying to use it. 

Note: I had to rename the directories. to remove the chinese chars ... Quartus (13.0-sp1) wasn't happy with them

Did your board have Jtag P4 connected to 2v5 ?
I had to do a bodge wire, in order to power the programmers driver chips.

Thanks for the tip about renaming. Yes, Pin4 is connected to 2V5, but that appears permissable as it can be powered by VCCA(2V5) or VCCIO(3V3), not sure why or if there are conditions, but the EP4CE chip uses LVTTL standard which looks compatible with 2V5 LVCMOS. Did you have any trouble programming with the 2V5 on Pin4?

[bingo600]

Thanks for the tip about renaming. Yes, Pin4 is connected to 2V5, but that appears permissable as it can be powered by VCCA(2V5) or VCCIO(3V3), not sure why or if there are conditions, but the EP4CE chip uses LVTTL standard which looks compatible with 2V5 LVCMOS. Did you have any trouble programming with the 2V5 on Pin4?

Nope i had no issues programming , after i did the 2v5 bodge to Jtag pin4.

I used a "Real Programmer Clone"  - The one with the CPLD inside.

I have used the cheap (MCU) one w. success before, but they don't seem to like Quartus running in a VBox (Linux).

[moffy]

Thanks for the tip about renaming. Yes, Pin4 is connected to 2V5, but that appears permissable as it can be powered by VCCA(2V5) or VCCIO(3V3), not sure why or if there are conditions, but the EP4CE chip uses LVTTL standard which looks compatible with 2V5 LVCMOS. Did you have any trouble programming with the 2V5 on Pin4?

Nope i had no issues programming , after i did the 2v5 bodge to Jtag pin4.

I used a "Real Programmer Clone"  - The one with the CPLD inside.

I have used the cheap (MCU) one w. success before, but they don't seem to like Quartus running in a VBox (Linux).

Just for clarity, did you try programming with Pin4 at 2V5? And if so was it succesfull?

[moffy]

I have had to purchase a new USB Blaster V2 from Waveshare(FT245+CPLD), as my older chinese USB Blaster has been giving me repeated BSOD.

[moffy]

An updated schematic with the switches and flash included, it's terrible at present, just putting all the info on the drawing, if I feel motivated I could redraw it into a saner fashion.

[moffy]

The Waveshare USB Blaster arrived and the drivers installed and it is seen in the Quartus programmer software without crashing the PC, some progress.
P.S. Programming the board went fine with the JTAG voltage at 2.5V

[bingo600]

An updated schematic with the switches and flash included, it's terrible at present, just putting all the info on the drawing, if I feel motivated I could redraw it into a saner fashion.
(Attachment Link)

Could you upload the schematic as a PDF ?

TIA
Bingo

[moffy]

Here is the PDF.

[picburner]

I also purchased this FPGA board.
I reverse engineered it in a spare moment.
If you find any errors, please let me know and I'll fix them.

[moffy]

I also purchased this FPGA board.
I reverse engineered it in a spare moment.
If you find any errors, please let me know and I'll fix them.

I like your layout, easier to follow and from just a quick check looks good, thanks.

[moffy]

I also purchased this FPGA board.
I reverse engineered it in a spare moment.
If you find any errors, please let me know and I'll fix them.

It is nice to have someone else provide a schematic which also acts as a check for my board tracing, nice.
@Picburner I hope you don't mind but I rotated your PDF schematic 90 degrees to make it easier to read.
Here it is:

[moffy]

Here are the example files with Chinese characters removed from directories:

[mike011235]

I thought this board looked familiar. One arrived with my last Aliexpress order.

I suppose there isn't any new information here, but I ran into this before deciding to order:  https://iot-kmutnb.github.io/blogs/fpga/fpga_ep4ce6_board/

The DE0-Nano has more space, but this has accessible push buttons, USB-C and has just enough to be useful, even without using the IO.

[moffy]

That is a nice resource, I wish my generic USB Blaster had worked with Windows.

[voltsandjolts]

I bought one of the cheap blaster clones, with just one chip STM32F103 (no cpld). I struggled to find a windows driver that would make it functional, but got it in the end. Attached. YMMV!

[moffy]

I bought one of the cheap blaster clones, with just one chip (no cpld). I struggled to find a windows driver that would make it functional, but got it in the end. Attached. YMMV!

Thanks, I've already tried that driver and with my probably much older USB Blaster I only got BSOD when Quartus was open for programming. Even tried an older version of Win10 in a VM, same behaviour, so I just bit the bullet and went with the Waveshare USB Blaster which works fine.

[voltsandjolts]

Heads up - while the waveshare blaster seems good on windows, it apparently has issues on linux.
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/06/fixing-a-knockoff-altera-usb-blaster-that-never-worked/
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/07/fixing-more-cheap-altera-usb-blaster-clones-cpld-adventures/

[moffy]

Heads up - while the waveshare blaster seems good on windows, it apparently has issues on linux.
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/06/fixing-a-knockoff-altera-usb-blaster-that-never-worked/
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/07/fixing-more-cheap-altera-usb-blaster-clones-cpld-adventures/

That was a fascinating read and kudos to the author who developed fixes for the Waveshare in Linux and the two versions of the generic chinese USB Blasters. My generic Blaster seems to be STM32 based so outside the versions described.

P.S. If you want to try the CPLD version, you'll need Quartus II v13.0 or earlier that has the relevant part. This can be found at:
https://www.altera.com/downloads/fpga-development-tools/quartus-ii-web-edition-design-software-version-13-0-b156-windows

[mike011235]

Heads up - while the waveshare blaster seems good on windows, it apparently has issues on linux.
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/06/fixing-a-knockoff-altera-usb-blaster-that-never-worked/
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/07/fixing-more-cheap-altera-usb-blaster-clones-cpld-adventures/

Good info and alot of interesting reading there... looks like to some extent he solved the Linux issues and managed to get some of the clones working with his firmware. Also, in the comments in the second link, this was mentioned and looks interesting.

A Pi Pico based USB blaster: https://github.com/thisiseth/pico-usb-blaster

I have been using Linux nearly exclusively for a long time, no major problems with quartus, occasionally, I might have needed to add an old version of some library not in the current version of a distro to get it to work. So far I have only been using various Terasic dev boards (DECA, DE0-Nano, DE10-Nano) with built in USB blasters.

Thinking about time one could spend with the wrong clone, fixing one or trying a DIY solution, a USB blaster from Terasic could be worth while if one isn't interested in experimenting or places more value on time.

[bingo600]

Heads up - while the waveshare blaster seems good on windows, it apparently has issues on linux.
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/06/fixing-a-knockoff-altera-usb-blaster-that-never-worked/
https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/07/fixing-more-cheap-altera-usb-blaster-clones-cpld-adventures/

I use a "ZR-Tech" CPLD Blaster , but bought like 10+ years ago.
I haven't had any issues on Linux.

I have only tried w. Quartus 13 though.

Btw:
On mint 17.3 i decided to make a VBox install , and installed & fixed the Q13 on that version.
I became too cumersome to get Q13 working on later versions.

So now i have a "FPGA" VBox for Q13 , and ISE 14.7.

Only caveat w. VBox, that i have experienced.
As mentioned above, after switching to VBox , I had do use the Altera CPLD programmer
The EL-Cheapo (wch cpu mini) would not work, maybe the fixes above would change that ....
But my Blaster CPLD programmer works wo. any issues.

I have no issues w the Xilinx programmer under VBox.


/Bingo