Altium NanoBoard-NB1 without Altium Designer Software - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Maxl123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 12, 2023, 04:45:19 pm
content: Good evening everyone!I recently got an Altium NanoBoard-NB1 for a few bucks, however it didn‘t come with any software and since I don’t own a copy of Altium Designer 6, I’m not able to do anything with that board. Apparently no one else got that problem too, because I wasn‘t able to find a single bit of information on the internet.Maybe someone of you got something on that topic?Thanks in advance and have a nice Weekend!Max

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2023, 05:04:16 pm
content: Maybe write them for a link to download the original CD. This seems to be the user manual:https://www.ninedotconnects.com/public_resources/NanoBoard-I-ref-guide.pdfLATER EDIT-----------------From the pics, the onboard FPGA is a Xilinx Spartan II.If so, you'll need Xilinx ISE 10.1, not newer. More recent versions dropped the support for Spartan 2.

author: Maxl123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 12, 2023, 06:02:26 pm
content: Can confirm, the onboard FPGA is a Xilinx Spartan XC2S100E. I already texted Altium, however they won‘t send me a downloadlink for Altium Designer 2004.

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2023, 11:07:46 pm
content: 1) get the manual for the board which includes the schematics:https://techdocs.altium.com/display/HWARE/NanoBoard-NB12) install the FPGA vendor toolchain3) ? ? ? ?4) profitThere is no need to have Altium installed as they document the board (including its plug in modules) in the pdf manual. Just a generic development board.

author: Maxl123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 13, 2023, 08:08:25 am
content: Yep, that‘s how far I have come too, however the „???“ part is a bit frustrating, because the Xilinx ISE 10.1 won‘t install on my PC. But unfortunately later versions of ISE won‘t support the Spartan 2.

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 13, 2023, 08:45:52 am
content: I had the same problem. My NB package came complete with a CD and a key for Altium, but it was only valid for one year, so I 'found' an Altium version that supports the Nanoboard (the latest versions don't) and I'm not ashamed to use it just for the Nanoboard. I tried to get it working with ISE but never succeeded. I also downloaded all the examples from the Altium website before they are gone:

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 13, 2023, 10:25:56 am
content: For the time limited licenses, might works if installed in a virtual machine, virtual machine in witch the clock is kept back to the year when the license was still valid (by default the clock will synchronize to the host machine).This setting has to be made before installing the OS, so everything will look genuine as if it were back in time. If the virtual machine is installed with the current date then the clock is rolled back, some licensing schemes might detect that and refuse to work.How to keep the guest's machine clock independent of the host's machine clock depends by each virtualization software. Both VMware and VirtualBox can do that (both free and multi OS). You'll have to search online for the correct steps to set an independent clock before installing an OS for the preferred virtualization software.

author: Maxl123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 13, 2023, 11:55:38 am
content: Another way could be accessing the Flash memory directly via a SPI programmer. Because if I understood that correctly, it should be possible that the daughterboard FPGA is loaded with the data from U6 (SPI flash PROM), this behavior can be configured via the JP2 header.

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 13, 2023, 12:42:12 pm
content: Quote from: Maxl123 on May 13, 2023, 08:08:25 amAltium (if you were to obtain it) would require ISE installed to do anything with the board, so even if you get a copy of that it won't help with ISE not installing. You have a problem with lack of FPGA vendor tools, not a lack of Altium.ISE Foundation WebPACK - 10.1OS support XP/Vista 32bit, or a couple of legacy 32bit linux flavours. So build a machine with the supported environment and go for it.

author: Codex
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 12:47:55 am
content: I have got this to work.AVOID - Its very difficult to use old Altium with ISE and or Quartus these days. You need the correct period versions of everything or know what your are doing. Also Altium FPGA stuff can be very annoying to use as it abstract another layer; makes it more complex and add Altiums FPGA bugs into the mix. Although I had got it all to work. I did not use the Parallel Port version of Altiums jtag. I used Altium USB jtag, just connect the USB jtag fly wires to NB1 HDR3 a wire at a time, use the schematic.THE BEST WAY. Avoid using Altium and its jtag. Just use the Free ISE Webpack and a cheap generic 3rd party jtag. I used a Diligent JTAG as I had some handy. Then you just build a new FPGA project all within the Xilinx ISE tools.NOTE. If you use the Altera FPGA module, then you need a paid license. The Xilinx FPGA module is supported with the free ISE Webpack.