[hpsdr] Simple Procedure for Quickly Updating Firmware on Mercury, Pennylane and Other HPSDR Boards

[Bob Mahrenholz]

The procedure describes a simple, fast method of updating the 
firmware of cards installed in a
High Performance Software Defined Programming Radio (HPSDR). It 
requires no removal or
moving of cards or installation of jumpers. It uses a Terasic 
Technologies Blaster plugged into the
USB Port of a laptop or other Windows PC. The Blaster is simply 
plugged into the programming
header connector on the board to be updated and a programming program 
run on the PC.

The Terasic USB Blaster Download Cable may be purchased from Terasic 
Technologies
(http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=&No=46 
) for
$50 U.S. plus $30 shipping or from Digi-Key as their Part No. P0302 
for $75.00.

The Windows PC must first be set up for programming the FPGAs  of the 
HPSDR cards as
follows:

Download a copy of the "USB-Blaster Download Cable User Guide (PDF)" from
www.Altera.com/download/drivers/dri-index.html. After reading the 
manual, download and install
the Blaster driver as described on Page 1-3 of the manual. Driver 
will be found in folder
C:\altera\11.1sp1\qprogrammer\drivers\.

The necessary programming software for the PC is obtained from 
Altera, the maker of the FPGAs
on the HPSDR cards. The software for programming using the Blaster 
may be downloaded from
https://www.altera.com/download/software/prog-software. You want the 
"Stand Alone Quartus II
Programmer (Free)".

To set up the programming software on the PC, simply double click on 
the downloaded program.
Then go to C:\altera\11.1sp1\qprogrammer\bin\ and right click on 
"quartus_pgmw" to create a
shortcut. Minimize the page and drag the shortcut to the desktop. 
Label it "Shortcut to quartus-pgmw".

You are now ready to program FPGAs with the Blaster:

To get started, we need to download the necessary .pof files from the 
SVN into a known directory.
If a SVN download is used, the directory is C:\PennyMerge\

Next, plug the Terasic Blaster cable into a USB port on the laptop. 
Laptop should be powered up
showing the desktop.

Double click on the Altera shortcut on the desktop set up above. A 
"Programmer Window" should appear.

In the Programmer Window, select the "Mode" of "Active Serial Programming".

Click the "Hardware Setup" button. "USB BLaster" should appear as a 
line in the Hardware Setup
window that opens. Double click "USB-Blaster". This should put 
"USB-Blaster" in the "Currently
Selected Hardware" window. Click "Close".

In the main "Programmer Window" select "Add File" and navigate to the 
folder that has the
Penelope.pof (or Mercury.pof) file in it. Single click on the desired 
file and click "Open" on the
"Programmer Window". The Device column of the "Programmer Window" 
should now show
"EPC84" for Pennylane or EPC16 for Mercury..

Check the "Program/Configure" box on the "Programmer Window".

Now, plug the Blaster cable into the programing header of the HPSDR 
card whose firmware
you want to upgrade.
        For a Pennylane card, the cable is plugged into P2, a 10-pin 
horizontal header at the upper left
corner of the board with the red stripe on the cable to the left.
        For a Mercury card, the cable is plugged into J4, a 10-pin 
vertical header near the top rear
of the card with the red stripe on the cable turned up.

Power up the Atlas bus.

Click "Start" in the "Programmer Window".  Progress of the 
programming process will be shown in
the "Progress Box" and completed steps will be listed in the bottom 
portion of the "Programmer Window".

When the "Progress Box" shows "Completed", you may power down the 
Atlas bus and disconnect the
Blaster cable from the HPSDR card. You are now ready to go.

Although I used a separate laptop PC for programming the cards, I 
believe the HPSDR computer could
be used if it runs Windows XP.

Thanks to Dan, N4XWE,  and Joe, K5SO, for helping me figure all this out.

73,
Bob, K4QQK