tkarner Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Is there a thread or FAQ explaining how to make your own cartridges? I'm guessing I need the following: - An EPROM burner (any suggestions on which one?) - PCBs (the ones from Pixels Past look easy to use) - A source of EPROM chips (might have to buy these or I might be able to scavenge some from my packrat collection of old dead motherboards) - Some hints and tips on procedure - A source of cartridge cases (I could use some commons or does the Atariage store sell those cool transparent cases?) Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorgle Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Buy the best eprom programmer you can afford. I made the mistake of purchasing a Willem off ebay. The price was very reasonable, but I had nothing but misery with it. Very unreliable and inconsistent. Eventually I did manage to get it working well enough to burn some eproms. You will probably also want to get an eprom eraser as well. Finally, buy eproms from AtariAge. Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. not true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. not true. Uh, yeah, of course not. Al sells used EPROM's. "This is a used EPROM that has been cleaned and erased." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 couple of useful links http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...amp;hl=batronix http://www.epromman.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorgle Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. not true. Uh, yeah, of course not. Al sells used EPROM's. "This is a used EPROM that has been cleaned and erased." I'm not saying that ALL used eproms won't work, only that there can be issues with them. I've got a few of 'em here that simply won't erase and program completely no matter how long I leave them in the eraser. The ones I got from Al work erase and program completely every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. not true. Uh, yeah, of course not. Al sells used EPROM's. "This is a used EPROM that has been cleaned and erased." I'm not saying that ALL used eproms won't work, only that there can be issues with them. I've got a few of 'em here that simply won't erase and program completely no matter how long I leave them in the eraser. The ones I got from Al work erase and program completely every time. Please stop your noob level advice in this thread as I'm having a real hard time not ripping you a new one for being so foolish and misinforming the OP. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkarner Posted June 18, 2008 Author Share Posted June 18, 2008 Thanks for the pointers. The Willem programmer actually caught my eye but I figured there must be a catch. For only $40 everyone would be making their own carts. Thanks for steering me away from it. Is an EPROM eraser really needed? I was under the impression that sunlight or a UV light bulb would do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorgle Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. not true. Uh, yeah, of course not. Al sells used EPROM's. "This is a used EPROM that has been cleaned and erased." I'm not saying that ALL used eproms won't work, only that there can be issues with them. I've got a few of 'em here that simply won't erase and program completely no matter how long I leave them in the eraser. The ones I got from Al work erase and program completely every time. Please stop your noob level advice in this thread as I'm having a real hard time not ripping you a new one for being so foolish and misinforming the OP. Thanks. I'll say no more. I was just sharing my experience, limited as it may be. Good day, sir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmosiss Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 I have some NEC 8K eproms that after over half an hour, they still show as not erased. I've tried various methods, including the 1-minute-at-a-time, no luck. I just got like 30 of them, but 4K, and I'm hoping they are erased already. My favorite ones are some Mitsubishi 4K, and some Texas Instruments 8K ones. Those erase and write fast. The Mitsubishi ones are erased in 1:30! Too bad it's hard to look for specific eproms. Then you gotta figure out the erase time for each model. Now I started a list of model #s and erase times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 Thanks for the pointers. The Willem programmer actually caught my eye but I figured there must be a catch. For only $40 everyone would be making their own carts. Thanks for steering me away from it. Is an EPROM eraser really needed? I was under the impression that sunlight or a UV light bulb would do it. Sunlight is fine if you have about 25 years spare to wait for the process to work I suggest something fit for purpose, I got one from evilbay (a Hong Kong source) that works fine and was dirt cheap. I am sure a UV light would be OK, but you would probably want it in some sort of enclosure to stop blinding yourself/your inquisitive kids etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
channelmaniac Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 You have to use a germicidal UV lamp of the right wavelength and not a "blacklight" bulb. +1 on the enclosure. UV light will sunburn you and damage your eyes. RJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 Old eproms can have issues with incomplete erasing. not true. Uh, yeah, of course not. Al sells used EPROM's. "This is a used EPROM that has been cleaned and erased." I'm not saying that ALL used eproms won't work, only that there can be issues with them. I've got a few of 'em here that simply won't erase and program completely no matter how long I leave them in the eraser. The ones I got from Al work erase and program completely every time. Please stop your noob level advice in this thread as I'm having a real hard time not ripping you a new one for being so foolish and misinforming the OP. Thanks. I'll say no more. I was just sharing my experience, limited as it may be. Good day, sir. Not to jump into hot water, but I've had the same experience before. Granted, the ones that wouldn't burn after erased occurred because the EPROM was incorrectly flashed by an inexperienced guy (me), so putting VPP to the wrong pin really messes things up. Gotta watch that, and make sure that doesn't happen. Such chips can become toasted. I also had a few chip tubes with 100 EPROMs in it that were from a "used source" (i.e. dumpster harvested) 4 of the 100 won't erase at all. Now, if you get them from Al, or a reputable place, you're likely good. If you're harvesting parts from old and potentially fried machines (as was the case with the 100 chips I received), you're going to hit some duds. -John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 I periodically encounter EPROMs that will not erase or program, so it's not really that uncommon. Those get tossed right into the trash. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkarner Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 You have to use a germicidal UV lamp of the right wavelength and not a "blacklight" bulb. +1 on the enclosure. UV light will sunburn you and damage your eyes. RJ Thanks. I did some further reading and learned about the germicidal bulbs being the only ones that will erase an EPROM. They're UV-C and blacklights are UV-A. Some of the EPROM erasers on ebay are probably cheaper than buying a germicidal bulb and building a safe enclosure myself, so I'll probably get one of those. The Batronix burner seems like the way to go too. Waiting now for the tax rebate check... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmosiss Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 The Batronix burner seems like the way to go too. If you are lazy like me, it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkarner Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 Next question. Has anyone used a ZIF socket on the Pixels Past PCBs? I thought it might be convenient to have a handful of games on EPROMs and swap the EPROMs on the PCB instead of having one PCB per game. Also, to save myself from soldering, would a ZIF socket fit into the socketed PCBs? Any clearance issues, either on the PCB or with the console's cartridge slot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmosiss Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 Some info http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=125839 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 I periodically encounter EPROMs that will not erase or program, so it's not really that uncommon. Those get tossed right into the trash. ..Al For me, problems with erasure are pretty much always due to a dirty or damaged window rather than a defect with the silicon. Otherwise, the EPROMs seem to always let me change their bits from 0->1 in the erasure process. However, I often find EPROMs that will not program (i.e. the bits will not change from 1->0.) However, I generally don't throw them out right away - They get an extended stay in the eraser and another programming attempt before I give up on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torlus Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 (edited) You can also use EEPROMs instead of EPROMs (no need for an eraser in this case). Here is what I did to use a 28C64 EEPROM on a Pixels Past 2K/4K PCB : Works fine on a 7800 I own, haven't tested it on a 2600 though. Edited June 21, 2008 by Torlus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 You can also use EEPROMs instead of EPROMs (no need for an eraser in this case).Here is what I did to use a 28C64 EEPROM on a Pixels Past 2K/4K PCB : Works fine on a 7800 I own, haven't tested it on a 2600 though. You could also use the Pixels Past 8k board and you wouldn't need to hack components on. If you want to use 4k games on that board, burn two copies of the image to the 28C64 (which I'd guess you're probably doing anyway.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 However, I generally don't throw them out right away - They get an extended stay in the eraser and another programming attempt before I give up on them. I generally do this also--I'll save them and put them in the eraser again. If they don't program after that, they get tossed. I figure at that point it's not worth spending any more time on them. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Don't forget good label paper. A homemade cartridge is nothing without a good label. In the past I have bought precut labels from 8-Bit Classics for Atari labels. Last time I tried to order they were out of inkjet labels though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freshbrood Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Is there an easy way to expand the memory capacity on an eprom? Like up to 32k? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ever2600 Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Sure, buy a 32k eprom. That simple. And unfortunately, that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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