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Greece, Athens
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713 Review
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Review on πŸ”Œ Enhanced USB Blaster: High-Speed Stability for CPLD FPGA Programming by Donald Larson

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Works on Linux but needs to use openocd

None of these clone blasters seem to work with the Quartus 20.X programmer. I've tried many different ways and although the device ID was recognized, it couldn't be set up/programmed. Others suggested trying openocd on Linux, which I did, it was available as a 0.10.0 package. I had to create a simple configuration with just one line called maxiipgm.cfg:jtag newtap auto0 tap -irlen 10 -expected-id 0x020a20dd. Then call it with: openocd -f /usr/share/openocd/scripts/interface/altera-usb-Blaster. cfg -f maxiipgm.cfg -c init -c "svf $1" -c shutdown Replace $1 with the name of your svf file. You can convert to the svf file you want in Quartus Programmer. This is for the Max II CPLD family which is popular for many small projects. You may need to change the above ID to something other than EPM570. Can work with Cyclone FPGA but only to avoid programming external flash memory. If you're running an Altera Cyclone or better, your best bet is probably to get the official Altera USB Blaster.

Pros
  • Great price
Cons
  • Big and bulky