[Lancelot] Re: RE: Lancelot Digest, Vol 10, Issue 3

Sun Mar 13 19:51:13 PST 2005

Hi Derek,

I am using Altera's Cyclone board, not a third party one.  I am also able to create a project that controls the LEDs so maybe it is the cable, I'll try to get a USB one soon.  

I tried the following the manual's instructions again, this time with the flash.flash file that Marco provided (after erasing the entire flash device as he suggested).  There is still no monitor output.  But when I look at the HSync and VSync signals from the Lancelot's VGA output with an oscilloscope, I do see waves.  

The positive and negative width's of the HSync are 28.6us and 3.7us, and the positive and negative for the VSync are 110us and 16.5ms.  It seems like the HSync signal matches the 640x480 timing requirements, but the VSync matches the 800x600 requirements and is inverted?!

Thanks,
Jowen

----- Original Message -----
From: Derek Simmons <DerekSimmons at frontiernet.net>
Date: Sunday, March 13, 2005 2:04 pm
Subject: RE: Lancelot Digest, Vol 10, Issue 3

> Are you using Altera's Cyclone board or are you using a third 
> party board?
> 
> Without knowing the exact board the EP1C20 Reference Design was 
> targeted for
> you might not want to trust the files. I found one other company 
> that makes
> an EP1C20 board that can be fitted with the Lancelot.
> 
> I recently got it to build for Altera's Stratix II Kit.
> 
> You need to get to the point where you can build the reference 
> project in
> Quartus II and NIOS SDK. 
> 
> Check to make sure that the pin assignments are correct. If the 
> project is
> running and the pin assignments are correct you should at least be
> outputting to the display garbage if not the correct images.
> 
> If you are display garbage on the screen then I would check the pin
> assignments for the flash memory.
> 
> The cable you are using could be the problem but the software 
> prints out
> that message even if you are using the Rev. B cable. Try creating 
> a project
> to control the leds or the lcd display. If it works then I suspect the
> cable.
> 
> Derek
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 21:07:44 -0800
> From: Jowen Yeo <jyeo at shaw.ca>
> Subject: [Lancelot] Help with Lancelot reference example
> To: lancelot at zytor.com
> Message-ID: <9423e994456e.94456e9423e9 at shaw.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am using the Lancelot VGA card with an Altera Cyclone EP1C20 for 
> a school
> project.  Right now, I can't even get the Lancelot reference 
> design that is
> on the www.fpga.nl website to work.  Here's what I've done:
> 
> - followed the instructions in the manual under "5. Reference 
> Designs".This produced the following error:
> 
> Mar 12, 2005 9:01:04 PM - (SEVERE) nios2-flash-programmer:
> com.altera.memory.RWM
> emoryException: File not found: ../software/lancelot/debug/flash.flash
> Mar 12, 2005 9:01:04 PM - (SEVERE) nios2-flash-programmer: Unable 
> to read
> input-
> data from: ../software/lancelot/debug/flash.flash, exiting
> 
> 
> So I...
> 
> - program the Cyclone with Lancelot_Cyclone_EP1C20.sof using 
> Quartus, this
> performs successfully
> - open NIOS II IDE, created a new C/C++ application from the
> ./software/lancelot location, set the SOPC Builder System as 
> .\nios.ptf, and
> CPU as cpu, and included the lancelot_syslib folder as the system 
> library- I build the project and get the following error: "***
> [C:/ece496/lancelot/nios_sim/dummy_file] Error 2"
> - I create a empty file called dummy_file in 
> C:/ece496/lancelot/nios_sim and
> build again, and it works now
> - Select Run.. from the Run menu, click the Run button, and 
> everything seems
> to work right since I see the following on the console window:
> 
> 
> nios2-terminal: Warning: The JTAG cable you are using is not 
> supported for
> Nios
> nios2-terminal: II systems.  You may experience intermittent JTAG
> communication
> nios2-terminal: failures with this cable.  Please use a USB 
> Blaster revision
> B
> nios2-terminal: cable or another supported cable.  Please refer to 
> the file
> nios2-terminal: errata.txt included in the Nios II development kit 
> documentsnios2-terminal: directory for more information.
> 
> nios2-terminal: connected to hardware target using JTAG UART on cable
> nios2-terminal: "ByteBlasterII [LPT1]", device 1, instance 0
> nios2-terminal: starting in terminal mode only (Control-C exits)
> 
> followed by:
> 
> Welcome to Lancelot!
> ====================
> Switching image
> Switching image
> Switching image
> Switching image
> 
> It keeps outputting Switching image, but my monitor doesn't display
> anything, and the status LED keeps going green-orange-green-orange...
> 
> After having built the project, the flash.flash file is created, 
> so I try
> following the instructions in the user manual again.  It outputs this:
> 
> Lancelot Image Loader
> ===================
> This utility loads the flash of
> the Altera Cyclone / Stratix Nios Development Board
> with the Lancelot PLD configuration, Nios software and images.
> Written by Marco Groeneveld
> 
> Programming EP1C20 using ByteBlasterII
> Info: 
> *******************************************************************Info: Running Quartus II Convert_programming_file
> Info: Command: quartus_cpf --no_banner --convert
> ../Lancelot_Cyclone_EP1C20.so
> user.rbf
> Info: Quartus II Convert_programming_file was successful. 0 
> errors, 0
> warnings
>    Info: Processing ended: Sat Mar 12 20:48:00 2005
>    Info: Elapsed time: 00:00:00
> Pre-Reading 434KBytes of data from U5:
>    |----.----+----.----|
>    ********************* (17.484 sec).
> Pre-Reading 65KBytes of data from U5:
>    |----.----+----.----|
>    ********************* (5.078 sec).
> Erasing 2 Sectors:
>    |----.----+----.----|
>    ********************* (1.593 sec).
> Writing 128KBytes :
>    |----.----+----.----|
>    ********************* (10.297 sec).
> Verifying 128KBytes of data:
>    |----.----+----.----|
>    ********************* (4.984 sec).
> Pre-Reading 939KBytes of data from FlashDevice:
>    |----.----+----.----|
>    ********************* (39.937 sec).
> /cygdrive/c/ece496/lancelot-full/flash_image
> [SOPC Builder]$
> 
> and I press the reset config button on the Cyclone board, but 
> nothing except
> the blinking LED.
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated, and yes, the monitor is 
> working.  The
> Lancelot is plugged into the J11, J12, J13 pins.  The problem 
> isn't the
> parallel cable I'm using with the Cyclone board is it?
> 
> Thanks,
> Jowen
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> End of Lancelot Digest, Vol 10, Issue 3
> ***************************************
> 
> 