[N8VEM: 18263] EPROM FLASH programmer choice?

Discussion:

G. Beat

2014-06-18 00:43:44 UTC

I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?

It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840 programmer
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software and manual likely minimal??

greg

Bob Devries

2014-06-18 01:36:41 UTC

Permalink

I have the Genius 540 from Stager, but it does *not* run on windows 8
and there have been no updates. I keep a Windows XP box just for that
(and other) programme.

In my experience, the Genius 540 does *not* do all that it is advertised
to do, and has some bugs with respect to screen output. Older EPROM
chips, while supposedly supported, do not work correctly.

Regards, Bob Devries
Dalby, QLD, Australia

John Coffman

2014-06-18 01:43:54 UTC

Permalink

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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On 06/17/2014 05:43 PM, G. Beat wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:5c33cf03-f51d-4cd0-b5a4-272ac34d282f-/***@public.gmane.org"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?

It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840 programmer
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software and manual likely minimal??
</pre>
</blockquote>
Greg, 
 
I have had bad luck with the Genius line of programmers.  I've lost
many a flash chip; i.e., chip rendered completely useless. 
 
I would recommend staying away from this programmer. 
 
--John 
 
 
 
 
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</html>



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G. Beat

2014-06-18 02:52:00 UTC

Permalink

That is why I asked :-)
Better to learn from those that bought first!

There is a TOPS product (Chinese also, I believe) that I have seen. When I was shopping for one 3 or 4 years ago,
a German company appeared to have a popular offering for $200-$250 USD. I have nit seen anything on that company today.

greg

G. Beat

2014-06-18 02:58:10 UTC

Permalink

That is why I asked. I see products for TOPS, but I think that is another Chinese supplier.

When I was looking 4 years ago, Batronix (Germany) seemed to be popular.
I see that their product prices have dropped (or the EU-USD exchange rate has improved).
http://www.batronix.com/shop/programmer/programmers.html

greg

Nikolay Dimitrov

2014-06-18 09:44:09 UTC

Permalink

Hi Greg,

Last summer when I started to build my N8VEM SBC v2, I had to do the
same choice - find a suitable programmer for my EPROMS. I had 2
requirements:
- The programmer should communicate with the host via USB, preferably
should be powered by the same USB cable (I don't like to say it, but LPT
is now officially dead)
- The manufacturer should be a well known and respectable company

This left me with 2 choices - Galep & Batronix. I've seen Galep used in
2 of my previous companies, and it's well-known name, but the USB
version was quite expensive for my personal use. And then I bought the
Batronix programmer (BX32 Batupo II).

The device has professional look and finish, drivers worked flawlessly
on my Windows XP & Windows 7 machines, the programming software is very
smart and usable (and hey, how many companies out there are releasing
their software for Windows, OSX, Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Gentoo at the
same time?).

If you ask me whether I regret my choice? Not for a single second. This
tool solved all my EPROM needs without creating additional trouble (as
unfortunately is typical for the modern cost-optimized tools).
Also, I don't work for Batronix so this is just my subjective opinion of
a happy customer.

Kind regards,
Nikolay

J. Alexander Jacocks

2014-06-18 11:49:23 UTC

Permalink

I have been very satisfied with my Advin Pilot MVP. It is still a parallel
port programmer, but it has very extensive device support, including old
high-power EPROMS. The software is well-written, and fairly easy to use,
as well.

- Alex

Post by Nikolay Dimitrov
Hi Greg,
Last summer when I started to build my N8VEM SBC v2, I had to do the same
- The programmer should communicate with the host via USB, preferably
should be powered by the same USB cable (I don't like to say it, but LPT is
now officially dead)
- The manufacturer should be a well known and respectable company
This left me with 2 choices - Galep & Batronix. I've seen Galep used in 2
of my previous companies, and it's well-known name, but the USB version was
quite expensive for my personal use. And then I bought the Batronix
programmer (BX32 Batupo II).
The device has professional look and finish, drivers worked flawlessly on
my Windows XP & Windows 7 machines, the programming software is very smart
and usable (and hey, how many companies out there are releasing their
software for Windows, OSX, Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Gentoo at the same time?).
If you ask me whether I regret my choice? Not for a single second. This
tool solved all my EPROM needs without creating additional trouble (as
unfortunately is typical for the modern cost-optimized tools).
Also, I don't work for Batronix so this is just my subjective opinion of a
happy customer.
Kind regards,
Nikolay

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Frank Vanderydt

2014-06-18 02:59:48 UTC

Permalink

Well I use a conitec Galep-4 running XP in a VMWare session using a
parallel port works great. But you could buy the USB version GALEP-5.

Tregare

2014-06-18 03:53:18 UTC

Permalink

I have a small assortment of programmers. A g540 that has worked ok for me
so far, an Xtronics pocket programmer that works well and I can use it to
test SRAMs (I think the g540 does this as well, an 'enhanced' willem
programmer, and a data io model 29 and a labsite also from data io, the
last is untested as I need to get a power supply and connector cable as
well as the software to run it.

Post by Frank Vanderydt
Well I use a conitec Galep-4 running XP in a VMWare session using a
parallel port works great. But you could buy the USB version GALEP-5.
Not cheap but it can program a lot more.
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William R Sowerbutts

2014-06-18 09:41:35 UTC

Permalink

I have a MiniPRO TL866 programmer bought on Ebay for about £45. It connects
to the PC over USB, no parallel port required.

I have never used the software that came with the device (it is only for
Windows) so cannot comment on that. I use a third-party open source tool to
drive the programmer under Linux, available here:
https://github.com/vdudouyt/minipro

Dave Jones at EEVBlog has taken one of these apart so you can see what's
inside. He seems to like it:

Will

Post by G. Beat
I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?
It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840 programmer
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software and manual likely minimal??
greg
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_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts will-***@public.gmane.org
"Carpe post meridiem" http://sowerbutts.com
main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=",c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}

Jim Strickland

2014-06-18 19:24:10 UTC

Permalink

Seconded on the TL866. I have one, and it works well. It also came in very
handy testing for fried TTLs on my Xi build after I managed to short out
the bus on a steel wool pad.
It won't program or read really old ROMS with nonstandard pinouts (Intel
1702s and the like) but once you get into the 4k and above rom world when
everything was standardized, it does fine. My only problem with it is that
you can't add your own chip setups to it.

IMHO, an open source USB EPROM/EEPROM/PAL/GAL/etc burner would be a
fantastic project for this group. I'm batting circuits around in my head,
but I'm not really there yet skill-wise.

-JRS

I have a MiniPRO TL866 programmer bought on Ebay for about Â£45. It
connects
to the PC over USB, no parallel port required.
I have never used the software that came with the device (it is only for
Windows) so cannot comment on that. I use a third-party open source tool to
https://github.com/vdudouyt/minipro
Dave Jones at EEVBlog has taken one of these apart so you can see what's
inside. He seems to like it: http://youtu.be/FLG03f_ua5g
Will

Post by G. Beat
I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?
It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840

programmer

Post by G. Beat
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software

and manual likely minimal??

Post by G. Beat
greg
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_________________________________________________________________________
<javascript:>
"Carpe post meridiem" http://sowerbutts.com
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}

Jim Strickland

2014-06-18 19:31:02 UTC

Permalink

Quick addendum re: TL866 - Software is Windows only, but works fine in
VirtualBOX on Linux. The software will run in Wine, but I've not managed to
get it to communicate with the device. It's updated every now and again
with bug fixes and more ICs. The English in the software is sketchy, but
nothing that gets in the way of using it.

Post by Jim Strickland
Seconded on the TL866. I have one, and it works well. It also came in very
handy testing for fried TTLs on my Xi build after I managed to short out
the bus on a steel wool pad.
It won't program or read really old ROMS with nonstandard pinouts (Intel
1702s and the like) but once you get into the 4k and above rom world when
everything was standardized, it does fine. My only problem with it is that
you can't add your own chip setups to it.
IMHO, an open source USB EPROM/EEPROM/PAL/GAL/etc burner would be a
fantastic project for this group. I'm batting circuits around in my head,
but I'm not really there yet skill-wise.
-JRS

Post by G. Beat
I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?
It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840

programmer

Post by G. Beat
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software

and manual likely minimal??

Post by G. Beat
greg
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_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts
"Carpe post meridiem" http://sowerbutts.com
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}

yoda

2014-06-18 19:58:58 UTC

Permalink

It looks like the open source code the Will suggests might be the answer.
Looks like there have even been updates to the code so it will run on Mac
too. All command line driven too which makes it useful as well. I wonder
what the continued development of it will be.

Dave

Post by Jim Strickland
Quick addendum re: TL866 - Software is Windows only, but works fine in
VirtualBOX on Linux. The software will run in Wine, but I've not managed to
get it to communicate with the device. It's updated every now and again
with bug fixes and more ICs. The English in the software is sketchy, but
nothing that gets in the way of using it.

Post by Jim Strickland
Seconded on the TL866. I have one, and it works well. It also came in
very handy testing for fried TTLs on my Xi build after I managed to short
out the bus on a steel wool pad.
It won't program or read really old ROMS with nonstandard pinouts (Intel
1702s and the like) but once you get into the 4k and above rom world when
everything was standardized, it does fine. My only problem with it is that
you can't add your own chip setups to it.
IMHO, an open source USB EPROM/EEPROM/PAL/GAL/etc burner would be a
fantastic project for this group. I'm batting circuits around in my head,
but I'm not really there yet skill-wise.
-JRS

Post by G. Beat
I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?
It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840

programmer

Post by G. Beat
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software

and manual likely minimal??

Post by G. Beat
greg
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_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts
"Carpe post meridiem"
http://sowerbutts.com
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}

Nikolay Dimitrov

2014-06-18 21:39:59 UTC

Permalink

Hi Jim,

Post by Jim Strickland
IMHO, an open source USB EPROM/EEPROM/PAL/GAL/etc burner would be a
fantastic project for this group. I'm batting circuits around in my
head, but I'm not really there yet skill-wise.

In general this would be awesome (and I doubt that there's someone on
the list who hadn't built their own device programmer(s) in the past
:D). From technical point of view, this should be easily done by
reworking the WillemPro schematics (or similar old-school LPT-based
programmer) and attaching it to a N8VEM computer. I think that the
software for this thingy won't be a big issue, but the definitions
(timings, pins, voltages) for thousands of ICs and the testing of the
programming algorithms will be an enormous effort. This is what you
typically buy from a big vendor.

Then, if you want to bootstrap your first N8VEM, this will be an issue
as you'll need a working N8VEM to program the EPROM for the new one. In
such case the PC-based tool is priceless.

Regards,
Nikolay

Vince Mulhollon

2014-06-18 22:02:23 UTC

Permalink

Post by Jim Strickland
IMHO, an open source USB EPROM/EEPROM/PAL/GAL/etc burner would be a
fantastic project for this group.

S-100 bus or ECB or both?

I'm not kidding either. If you want to "support" 25000 devices and be mfgr
certified for weird "fast" algorithms and have a USB port and windows GUI
software, it is a lot of work and a lot of money to develop.

On the other hand, if you pick like 3 eproms and 3 eeproms and decide thats
it, thats very roughly a factor of 4000 times less device support,
although making "lots of parallel I/O pins toggle" is still a bit of work.

Sergey

2014-06-19 19:22:41 UTC

Permalink

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

yoda

2014-06-24 01:21:05 UTC

Permalink

Thanks to the pointer to the mini pro tl866 and the github code. I now
have a programmer that runs on Mac and don't have to boot up a windows VM
anymore. And it is command line to boot which is even better

Thanks again - made my life so much easier now

Dave

Post by G. Beat
I no longer have access to an old PROM/EPROM/EEPROM/FLASH programmer.
Any suggestions?
It seems like the Shenzhen Stager Electronic (China) Genius G-840

programmer

Post by G. Beat
is widelt iffered, reasonably priced and uses USB interface. Software

and manual likely minimal??

Post by G. Beat
greg
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups

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_________________________________________________________________________
<javascript:>
"Carpe post meridiem" http://sowerbutts.com
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}

Jim Strickland

2014-06-24 18:15:55 UTC

Permalink

Seconded.

Post by yoda
Thanks to the pointer to the mini pro tl866 and the github code. I now
have a programmer that runs on Mac and don't have to boot up a windows VM
anymore. And it is command line to boot which is even better
Thanks again - made my life so much easier now
Dave

Nikolay Dimitrov

2014-07-03 21:21:03 UTC

Permalink

Gents,

Possibly this is old news for some of you, but I'm sharing this anyway -
just found a GPL software called "flashrom", which can program parallel
NOR FLASH memories. This is the website:

http://flashrom.org/Flashrom

There's a long list of supported ICs and multiple programming
interfaces, including FTDI (FT232H, FT2232H, FT4232H). SeeedStudio
supplies one of these at reasonable cost (jee, don't tell me I'm looking
for an excuse to get 1 or 2 new toys):

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/FT2232H-USB-20-HiSpeed-breakout-board-p-737.html?cPath=19_88

Hope this helps. Regards,
Nikolay

neilbradley

2014-07-04 19:17:58 UTC

Permalink

Or you could spend $50 and get one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-MiniPro-TL866CS-Universal-BIOS-Programmer-EEPROM-FLASH-8051-AVR-GAL-PIC-SPI-/171377582475?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e6e6618b

They work exceptionally well and even have a logic chip check-out, too.

Edward Snider

2014-07-05 20:16:57 UTC

Permalink

I bought one of these. They are great. Fast, tons of devices, logic chip
testing, and best of all.... no jumpers. :)

Ed

Post by neilbradley
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-MiniPro-TL866CS-Universal-BIOS-Programmer-EEPROM-FLASH-8051-AVR-GAL-PIC-SPI-/171377582475?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e6e6618b
They work exceptionally well and even have a logic chip check-out, too.

AG5AT

2014-06-19 00:07:33 UTC

Permalink

US and Canada. Maybe more. www.mcumall.com. GQ-4X. I have had one of these for 2 or so years. It does all of the N8VEM related eproms and eeproms I have needed

Aug
In Arkansas

G. Beat

2014-06-19 18:02:37 UTC

Permalink

At one time (~1998), Batronix (Germany) offered the Eprom Programmer 3.x/4 as experimental board.
It was parallel port driven and worked with their older Prog-Studio 6 software.
http://www.batronix.com/shop/programmer/eprom-programmer-4/index.html

The parts list (only used 4 ICs) and component layout can be found in the manual (page 9), found here:
http://www.batronix.com/pdf/DeviceManual.pdf