@zack I successfully programmed the LimeSDR Mini with latest GW bitstream.
Thank you again for all your support.
Please find below some screenshots and additional info to get a working device driver for clone USB Blaster.
First test programming session using .sof file:
Second programming session using the .pof file (all programming options checked):
Now GW v1.24 is reported when connecting to the board using LimeSuite GUI:
I initially had blue screens or Quartus Programmer crashing due to issues with USB Blaster device driver. I was using the one supplied with Quartus standalone programmer but there seems to be some incompatibility with 64bit Windows and/or signatures.
I found another driver in this post on Altera forum: http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19233 (scroll to message #5 ).
I uninstalled and removed previous driver and installed this one after disabling the windows signature enforcement. Not a best practice but no virus was detected in the downloaded zip file.
Please note that this new driver is FTDI related. I guess the clones emulate FTDI chips using the STM32 micro programmed for this…
One last important note about the 2x5 female/female cable that comes with the clone: pin sides are reversed compared to the male one represented in the new wiki page.
Look at this image to understand how the USB blaster cable pinout should be considered when connecting it to 7 pins on LimeSDR:
in the male connector the odd pins are on the left and even pins are on the right, while in the female on cable odd are on the right and even are on the left. Especially important if you don’t want to cut the cable and use jumpers instead:
Not bad for a 9 Euro clone + 7 pin header + some spare jumpers
Happy programming!
mario