Issues with ALTERA EP600

[OiramCisulix]

Hi all,

I have never faced this interesting situation. I am trying to program ALTERA EP600DC PLD, taken out of some devices, UV erasable chip, using Xeltek 610P programmer. It supports the device but, out of the 8 chips that I found, not one wants to be programmed. First of, programmer reports Manufacturer of ID error, and then when trying to program it also reports error that chip location and buffer do not correspond.

Has anyone has any experience with this EP600 thing??

 

[barry]

Do you know the chips are not defective? Do you know the security bit in the devices haven't been set?

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

soundls like
* wrong chip
* defective chips
* wrong connection (wrong insereting in socket)
* wrong programmer setup
* wrong configuration file
* ...

Klaus

 

[OiramCisulix]

Hi,

soundls like
* wrong chip
* defective chips
* wrong connection (wrong insereting in socket)
* wrong programmer setup
* wrong configuration file
* ...

Klaus

have you dealt with EP600?

 

[OiramCisulix]

Do you know the chips are not defective? Do you know the security bit in the devices haven't been set?

I cannot exactly imagine how 8 chips can all be deffective, but, no, I do not know for a fact that those are not. The xeltek 610P does not have option to set security pins one way or another. Ooooor the software is , weird.
This is why I asked for help from someone who actually dealt with EP600.

 

[betwixt]

Question:
You say these are "taken out of some devices" so presumably they are already programmed and the security bit is set. Have you UV erased them? Without erasing first, the security bit will prevent further programming.

Brian.

 

[barry]

I cannot exactly imagine how 8 chips can all be deffective, but, no, I do not know for a fact that those are not. The xeltek 610P does not have option to set security pins one way or another. Ooooor the software is , weird.
This is why I asked for help from someone who actually dealt with EP600.

There is no "security pin". It's an internal setting- set in the configuration file.

And as betwixt points out, I think you need to erase them before you can program them.

 

[OiramCisulix]

There is no "security pin". It's an internal setting- set in the configuration file.

And as betwixt points out, I think you need to erase them before you can program them.

yes, multiple times. I meant security bit but that gets reset when erased. Still does not explain all 8 chips reporting ID error, erased or not. I was hoping to attract attention of someone who had programmed these chips. Still waiting to hear from Xeltek.

 

[KlausST]

have you dealt with EP600?

decades ago I had to do a design for a customer.
This does not mean I can answer details.

On the other hand ... they are not much different than other brand parts. Like device ID, security features, programming features, programming files, compiler features....

Klaus

 

[OiramCisulix]

decades ago I had to do a design for a customer.
This does not mean I can answer details.

On the other hand ... they are not much different than other brand parts. Like device ID, security features, programming features, programming files, compiler features....

Klaus

I know those are not much different. This is why I said I have never faced this weird situation. Every other device I tested works fine. But this one, hm,..... incredibly weird. All 8. I suspect it may not be chips but what could it be?!?!?!? Programmer works fine with other devices.

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

It should be an easy task to read the ID of your devices .. and what your configuration file expects ....
Since your programmer says there is a mismatch ... it should be the next simple task to find out which one is correct.

This way you can find out if the file is the culprit or the devices are...

Then you can do the next steps...

Klaus

 

[barry]

Ok, so assuming you don't have 8 bad chips, that only leaves several possible options:
1) Your programmer is bad.
2) Your eraser is bad.
2) Those are not EP600s.

Can you verify the parts are blank(erased)? Can you read the ID code? What is it? What's expected?

 

[OiramCisulix]

Ok, so assuming you don't have 8 bad chips, that only leaves several possible options:
1) Your programmer is bad.
2) Your eraser is bad.
2) Those are not EP600s.

Can you verify the parts are blank(erased)? Can you read the ID code? What is it? What's expected?

I am waiting from Xeltek to get back to me, I asked them the ID question too. Weird part is this programmer will tell me "Erased OK" even if the socket is empty.
Programmer is OK, I programmed other devices too.

 

[barry]

this programmer will tell me "Erased OK" even if the socket is empty.
Programmer is OK

These two statements seem contradictory.