"Modern" EPROM programmer

[+Propane13]

So, my last eprom programmer required:

- a parallel port

- MS-DOS

- a 3.5" floppy drive for software

 

The computer that has all of that support is very old, and in storage.

 

What do folks currently use for this? Is there some sort of cool/new cheap burner that works on modern hardware?

 

Thanks!

-John

[Drakon]

I have two. A genius 840 (I think the company that made it no longer exists). It so far has worked great with snes 8mbit eproms and nes 128k / 256k roms (I forget how many mbits those are). However the darn thing doesn't like the 4096 eproms. Good things about it is it connects by usb and it tells you if there's a pin not making a connection so you don't get a bad burn. I also have an ultra cheap willem that uses the parallel port, has software that runs in winxp, and that one using a 16 bit adapter works with the 4096 eproms but doesn't seem to like snes 8mbit eproms. Go figure.

Edited January 21, 2013 by Drakon

[S1500]

Wish I remembered the company, but I used an EEPROM burner/reader that was mailed to me to rip some pinball ROMs. It interfaced via USB. The software was a bit strange, but worked.

[+Gemintronic]

Someday I'll get into making my own carts for Genesis, SNES and NES. It's be nice to find one that can handle chips for all three.

[honestbob]

I have used two USB based EPROM Programmers.

 

The first is a Top853. This is just about the cheapest thing you can buy on eBay, and is usually around $35USD to $50USD including free shipping. It is fast, and I've used it with 27C801 EPROMs (8 Mbit), 27C040 EPROM (4 Mbit), 27F040 Flash (4MBit), 27C256 EPROM (256Kbit), and I think I've used it to read a 16Kb mask ROM and write a 16Kb EPROM.

 

These are worth trying if you want to play around with programming EPROMs, but don't want to risk spending a lot of money.

 

Note - I have had two of these as the first one I bought died. It was always a little twitchy, I think, but one day it just stopped writing and verifying correctly. It was cheap, so I bought another to replace it.

 

It comes with a limited library of standard chips that it can program, including most 8-bit EPROMs / Flash chips up to 32 pins.

 

However, the control software is Windows only and is very glitchy, and it does NOT run on 64-bit windows. So I had to do all my programming on a 32-bit Windows XP install. Their website says it should work on 32 bit Vista / Windows 7, but I haven't tested those. The software performs differently on different machines. I had to try a couple of different versions of it, and my final production setup for reliability involved stopping and restarting the software after every read, write, or verify. That is fine for just burning a couple of chips, but is a pain if you have to burn several at once. However you might find your setup works every time. Or possibly not at all As I said, the software is glitchy, although once you figure out what works with your system it at least seems predictably glitchy.

 

 

So I bought a True USB Pro GQ-4X from MCUMall

 

http://www.mcumall.c...?idProduct=4282

 

This is more expensive - $98 USD plus I think it cost about another $30-$40USD to ship it out to New Zealand.

 

It is reliable. I can leave the software running and burn 30 to 50 chips in a session if I like without it crashing or doing bad burns. And the software works fine on 64-bit windows, which is surprisingly hard to find amongst cheaper programmers.

 

It is however much slower than the Top853, which surprised and disappointed me. About 3 times slower. That doesn't matter much for a 27C256, but it means that a 27C801 takes approximately 9 minutes to do the blank check, programming, and verify instead of approximately 3 minutes for the Top853. There is a speed control in the software, but even at maximum speed it is still slower than the Top853.

 

They have an extensive support forums with people using these programmers, and you can buy a wide range of accessories for programming different types of devices. It also seems to have a large built in database of supported chip types.

 

So I can recommend a Top853 as a cheap solution for someone with 32-bit windows who is only doing a few chips and / or just wants to experiment. And I can recommend the True USB GQ-4X for someone who wants a more reliable burner where high speed isn't an issue. I also recommend you read through the MCUMall support forums for the GQ-4X looking to see if anyone has tried the specific programming configuration you want to use. eg. I haven't tried any of the plug-in accessories for programming newer types of chips. But a lot of the people in the forums have.

 

You can also buy UV Erasers on eBay for about $15 to $20USD. They are all pretty much the same - just simple little plastic boxes with a plastic clockwork timer and a little tray which you put the EPROMs into. Mine has probably done over fifty 15 minute erase cycles over the past couple of years and is still working fine.

 

Cheers

Edited March 11, 2013 by honestbob

[honestbob]

Just another comment on my last post. Your choice of programmer really depends on what you want to do with it. I suspect just about all of them will work fine for simple DIP packaged EPROMs (aside from my comments about the lack of stability of the Top853 software). But you need to research more carefully as the type of hardware you want to program gets newer and more complicated (and you may require additional adapters to connect your newer hardware to the programmer). I have only used 8-bit DIP based chips with the Top853 and True USB GQ-4X, topping out at the 32-pin / 8MBit 27C801.

 

Here is an older thread you might find useful that discusses some alternative programmers. I recognize a couple of the brand names there that are still being sold. However some of those are much more expensive though, so think about what your likely range of uses for the programmer is.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/101921-eprom-programmer-suggestions/

Edited March 12, 2013 by honestbob