cyclone ep1c3t144 pin assignment file

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

 I bought a cyclone ep1c3t144 dev board a few months ago, but now i am trying to get it to work. At school we use a DE0 board wich uses a .qsf for the pin assignments. But now I am trying to find a .qsf file for the cyclone ep1c3t144 board but i can't find it anywhere. I already looked on the forum and on the internet but i can't find it. So my question is if anyone know if there is a .qsf file or some other file for it. I hope someone can help me.  - MasterQueen93

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 there are no .qsf-files for FPGAs, as the pin assignments inside a .qsf-file defines which signals connects to which pin (e.g. the VHDL signal "reset" goes to pin "W12"), Altera can only tell you which pin is of which kind (e.g. "W12" is an I/O pin).  However, since the DE0 is distributed by Terasic, you can download sample projects from there (you'll need a login, though): http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=165&no=364&partno=4 (http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=165&no=364&partno=4). In case you don't have a login, you can find the same files on the CD that came with the DE0.  What Altera offers is e.g. this: https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_us/others/literature/dp/cyclone/ep1c3t144.txt (https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_us/others/literature/dp/cyclone/ep1c3t144.txt).   Best regards, GooGooCluster

[Altera_Forum]

Which Cyclone development board is it? Who makes it? You may find some sample projects for it, with a Quartus Settings File (qsf) file you can use - for reference.  

 However, assuming you have a schematic for the dev board you'll indirectly create your own qsf file though Quartus. Don't write it yourself. Under the 'Assignments' menu use the 'Device' option to specify your particular part (this may have been done if you used the 'New Project Wizard...' to created your project) and use the pin planner to make all the I/O assignments you need for your project. Quartus will then generate the qsf file which, as stated at the top of the file:  --- Quote Start ---  Altera recommends that you do not modify this file. This file is updated automatically by the Quartus II software and any changes you make may be lost or overwritten.  --- Quote End ---    Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 @Alex, I agree that it is not the best practice to use the .qsf-file for a new project :) or to edit them... even though I have to admit I do that once in a while when I do bulk changes :rolleyes:  However, then I'd recommend to use the Assignment Export / Import feature of Quartus, at least for the device and pin assignments. These two categories are guaranteed to stay the same, so you can save a lot of work, as the DE0 has hundreds of pins. Here's how: 

• open a sample project that you got from Terasic (the link I posted earlier), or from somewhere else, in Quartus 
• go "Assignments" > "Export Assignments", and save them somewhere 
• create a new project as Alex described 
• go "Assignments" > "Import Assignments", and make sure you only import the categories "Device Assignments" and "Pin & Location Assignments" (button "Categories") 

   Best regards, GooGooCluster