21 Dec
2001
21 Dec
'01
7:10 a.m.
See below.
--- Christopher Smith <csmith(a)amdocs.com> wrote:
I've been thinking recently that I should
possibly
get a ROM reader/writer
so that I can preserve the ROMs out of all my old
parts, and I was wondering
whether anyone had some experiences (good or bad)
with any different
programmers?
Which programmers are good, which aren't so good,
and why?
Where is the best place to get one, and which is the
best to get on a tight
budget?
What about making your own? (Note that I think this
may be an interesting
project, but I'd really rather put my time into
other things right now, so
this is near the bottom on my list of options...)
One called "Leaper 3" interests me because of its
ability to copy one ROM to
another without any kind of computer hookup, which I
imagine might be
useful, but I know nothing else about it.
I have been very pleased with this model:
http://www.transtronics.com/memory/EPROM.htm
It does up to 32 pin EPROMS without an adapter. The
fairly inexpensive adapters let you program uP's and
word-oriented ROMs. It's not of production quality but
so what at the price.
It has pretty good software support (albeit DOS): they
came out with a Windows version but I haven't tried
it. The price is very good - ~150 US. Weird, though:
my model has a center pin negative AC adapter - so I
have to be very careful with it in my pile of wall
warts.
I considered making my own (I did make a 2716
programmer in the past) but if your time is worth
anything at all you can't beat this with a hammer.
What it won't do (and this may or may not be important
to you) is work with "funny" pre-JEDEC ROMS/EPROMS
(like the TI 2716 w 3 voltages), or a 2708, 04, or a
1702. 1702's in particular required fantastically
weird algorithms and voltages (like, 50 volts!). You
will have to do a lot of searching to find a
programmer that can do these, chances are they will be
used, really old, and totally unsupported by the
manufacturer. Half of the programmers people buy on
eBay are unsupported by mfgrs (like, DATA I/O, fer
example) and a surprising number of those that are
supported only have 28 pin sockets.
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