I tried every ever pof & sof files, not working, I got minimig menu but

red screen came to dcreen thats mean custom chips error :(

--- In minimigtg68@yahoogroups.com, Alex Perez <aperez@...> wrote:

>

> Why not recompile it? It's not that hard, and you can do it for free

> with Quartus 8 Web Edition from the Altera site.

>

> On Dec 2, 2008, at 12:56 PM, ozkanocakli wrote:

>

> > I tried every ever pof & sof files, not working, I got minimig

menu

> > but

> > red screen came to dcreen thats mean custom chips error :(

> >

> >

> >

>



I am able to program de1 but I could not get boot screen, I will be

happy if you can help me via msn

--- In minimigtg68@yahoogroups.com, Alex Perez <aperez@...> wrote:

>

> Why not recompile it? It's not that hard, and you can do it for free

> with Quartus 8 Web Edition from the Altera site.

>

> On Dec 2, 2008, at 12:56 PM, ozkanocakli wrote:

>

> > I tried every ever pof & sof files, not working, I got minimig

menu

> > but

> > red screen came to dcreen thats mean custom chips error :(

> >

> >

> >

>

I download latest version 8.1 , when i try to compile it it gives

several errors

ozkanocakli wrote:



> I download latest version 8.1 , when i try to compile it it gives

> several errors



You'll find people are going to be more willing (and able!) to help if you

actually bothered to describe _what_ errors you're getting and the steps you

took to get to that point, rather than just waving your arms and saying "it

doesn't work".



Regards,



--

|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it

|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"

first of all if I bothered with my posts I am sorry, the point i am

able to send sof file via jtag or pof file with programing mode.



de 1 board shows regular messages



spihost.rom found

kick.rom loading



then black screen turns red like amiga, when gives custom chipset

error, and it resets it self



I can get minimig menu by pressing blue key switch



best regards

ozkanocakli wrote:



> de 1 board shows regular messages

>

> spihost.rom found

> kick.rom loading



AFAIK there are two issues with (DE1) Minimig atm...



(1) SDRAM timing. Some DE1 boards use different SDRAM chips which aren't

compatible with the Minimig SDRAM controller out-of-the-box. I also believe

that SDRAM problems can be mitigated to some extent via timing constraints

in Quartus.



(2) Reportedly some SD cards aren't compatible with the Minimig SD

controller. People have had success with some previously failing SD cards

using certain format utilities.



Personally, I've had mixed success with the various releases of Minimig on

the DE1, DE2 and my own hardware platform, both with .SOF releases and my

own builds with various versions of Quartus.



Unfortunately, until timing issues etc are resolved it's a case of "luck of

the draw" for the DE1/2 builds as far as I can tell. Seems most people have

managed to find a version that works on their hardware. I've been menaing to

take a closer look at the DE1/DE2 problems but haven't found the time.



Unfortunately there's probably not a lot you can do except try the different

builds and different SD cards. Not sure anyone else can help you either?!?



Anyone else disagree with this summary?



Regards,



--

|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it

|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"

Hi Mark, et al.



--- In minimigtg68@yahoogroups.com, Mark McDougall <msmcdoug@...>

wrote:

> AFAIK there are two issues with (DE1) Minimig atm...

>

> (1) SDRAM timing. Some DE1 boards use different SDRAM chips which

aren't

> compatible with the Minimig SDRAM controller out-of-the-box. I also

believe

> that SDRAM problems can be mitigated to some extent via timing

constraints

> in Quartus.



The SDRAM controller files for v12d and v12e have one difference.

The SDRAM controller file for V13 reverts to using the 12d version.



FMAX setting for 13 is markedly different from either 12 versions.



SPIHOST.rom appears identical for 12 versions, but different for V13.

V13 spihost.rom still works for me when using 12d build.



Haven't looked too much at differences between other file versions.



My experience with different versions:



12d works fine, with versions: 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, 8.1 (all FULL versions)

12e builds fine, but always gives me a spihost load timeout error.



13 only works for me when built using 8.0 (sp0/sp1).

Blanks screen when built with 7.x , and I get the RED error screen

when built with 8.1 $%#!!! (I think ozkanocakli had the same problem).



I have the later SDRAM chip : PSC - A2V64S40CTP

I contacted TerASIC support, as the PSC web-site :

http://www.psc.com.tw/ doesn't provide any datasheets.

TerASIC support told me that data for the PSC chips is covered by an

NDA, but they believed the PSC chips were identical to the ISSI chips

(for which data is freely available).



I can only suspect that the chips are ever-so-slightly different, and

the SDRAM controller is running just within tolerance for ISSI chips,

but outside that of the PSC chips.



I did get this:

http://whoyouvotefor.info/altera_sdram.html

SDRAM controller working on my DE1 ok, might try grafting it on to

minimigtg68 over the xmas break.



> (2) Reportedly some SD cards aren't compatible with the Minimig SD

> controller. People have had success with some previously failing SD

cards

> using certain format utilities.



I haven't found an SD card that wouldn't work correctly *AFTER* being

formatted with SD card specific software. I mainly use Toshiba brand.



> Anyone else disagree with this summary?

A fair assessment.



Cheers,

Leslie