8 Nov
2010
8 Nov
'10
2:07 p.m.
I was recently given an Advin Systems PILOT-142 device programmer... but
of course no software with it.
I downloaded Advin's Captain v1.34 software for XP from their website,
where they claim support for the model -142 but after installing and
launching the software, it reports that it does not work with the
"revision" of my programmer.
There are no revision or series marks on the unit other than the PILOT-142
sticker above the power switch... so I don't know what makes it different.
Email to Advin says they have NO software that supports the -142 even
if their website says otherwise.
In any case, I'm looking for anyone that might have DOS or Win software
for this older beast. It would be a nice unit for burning 2716, 2732
and a number of old PALs that I would like to do.
Chris
--
Chris Elmquist
8 Nov
8 Nov
6:33 p.m.
On Mon, 8 Nov 2010, Chris Elmquist wrote:
I was recently given an Advin Systems PILOT-142 device
programmer... but
of course no software with it.
I downloaded Advin's Captain v1.34 software for XP from their website,
where they claim support for the model -142 but after installing and
launching the software, it reports that it does not work with the
"revision" of my programmer.
There are no revision or series marks on the unit other than the PILOT-142
sticker above the power switch... so I don't know what makes it different.
Email to Advin says they have NO software that supports the -142 even
if their website says otherwise.
Advin are just useless.. I was contemplating the purchase of a smaller
Pilot programmer on eBay and dropped them a note to make sure that the
bipolar PROM family was covered. They told me to "..download the Captain
software and see what it offered on the menu". The implication being that
anything in the software was supported by the programmer. The software
featured all the PROM types I was interested in! Good news.
Bad News: $150 + shipping later, I discovered that it produced only errors
when trying to read a PROM. Dropped another note to their "tech support"
folks and a different person responded with "..oh, that model doesn't
support PROMs" (!) In frustration, I asked why I had been told to look at
the software for answers. The response was along the lines of "well after
you looked at it you should have contacted us to see what that hardware
actually covers...". Which, of course, had been the original question.
They are now prominently on my crap-list of vendors to avoid.
Steve
p.s. - Good luck with the software!
--
9 Nov
9 Nov
7:08 a.m.
On Monday (11/08/2010 at 06:33PM -0500), Steven Hirsch wrote:
Advin are just useless.. I was contemplating the purchase of a smaller
Pilot programmer on eBay and dropped them a note to make sure that the
bipolar PROM family was covered. They told me to "..download the Captain
software and see what it offered on the menu". The implication being
that anything in the software was supported by the programmer. The
software featured all the PROM types I was interested in! Good news.
Bad News: $150 + shipping later, I discovered that it produced only
errors when trying to read a PROM. Dropped another note to their "tech
support" folks and a different person responded with "..oh, that model
doesn't support PROMs" (!) In frustration, I asked why I had been told
to look at the software for answers. The response was along the lines of
"well after you looked at it you should have contacted us to see what
that hardware actually covers...". Which, of course, had been the
original question.
They are now prominently on my crap-list of vendors to avoid.
Steve
p.s. - Good luck with the software!
:-) Thanks!
I get the impression that the "tech support" people are just sales people
who can't be bothered to find out the real, factual answers. The response
I got was really just a sales pitch for a new $700 programmer...
to which I replied, that if I were to get a new programmer, I would
certainly get one that had Linux host software.
I can understand them not wanting to burn large amounts of support time
or effort on obsolete product... but I don't think we got anywhere
close to that with my simple request for information.
I've added them to my crap-list too.
And Dan on this list has sent me some old DOS software to try so we'll see
what we get. Thanks Dan.
Chris
--
Chris Elmquist
9:46 p.m.
On Tue, 9 Nov 2010, Chris Elmquist wrote:
On Monday (11/08/2010 at 06:33PM -0500), Steven Hirsch
wrote:
Good luck! I ended up buying an Andromeda Research programming system
after the experience with Advin. Completely at the other end of the
spectrum. It's a small company and they bend over backwards to be
helpful. 100% of the technical information is available: all schematics
for the base unit and all adapters (there are many of them). All adapters
are available as bare PCBs if you want to build them yourself. I
assembled the bipolar PROM adapter and a couple of others in a weekend.
The system covers just about every type of programmable device known to
man, with the sole exception being PALs and PLDs.
The software is DOS only, but no big deal. It's not resource hungry so I
use an old Dell P3 box as a bench computer to drive it. I cannot
recommend them highly enough!
Steve
--
Advin are just useless.. I was contemplating the purchase of a smaller
Pilot programmer on eBay and dropped them a note to make sure that the
bipolar PROM family was covered. They told me to "..download the Captain
software and see what it offered on the menu". The implication being
that anything in the software was supported by the programmer. The
software featured all the PROM types I was interested in! Good news.
Bad News: $150 + shipping later, I discovered that it produced only
errors when trying to read a PROM. Dropped another note to their "tech
support" folks and a different person responded with "..oh, that model
doesn't support PROMs" (!) In frustration, I asked why I had been told
to look at the software for answers. The response was along the lines of
"well after you looked at it you should have contacted us to see what
that hardware actually covers...". Which, of course, had been the
original question.
They are now prominently on my crap-list of vendors to avoid.
Steve
p.s. - Good luck with the software!
:-) Thanks!
I get the impression that the "tech support" people are just sales people
who can't be bothered to find out the real, factual answers. The response
I got was really just a sales pitch for a new $700 programmer...
to which I replied, that if I were to get a new programmer, I would
certainly get one that had Linux host software.
I can understand them not wanting to burn large amounts of support time
or effort on obsolete product... but I don't think we got anywhere
close to that with my simple request for information.
I've added them to my crap-list too.
And Dan on this list has sent me some old DOS software to try so we'll see
what we get. Thanks Dan. 
8 Nov
8 Nov
9:50 p.m.
Hi Chris,
I've got DOS-based Advin Pilot software from the 2004 timeframe.
Contact me offlist and we'll work out how to get it to you.
Regards,
Dan
dan at decodesystems.com
www.decodesystems.com
On 11/8/2010 2:07 PM, Chris Elmquist wrote:
I was recently given an Advin Systems PILOT-142 device
programmer... but
of course no software with it.
I downloaded Advin's Captain v1.34 software for XP from their website,
where they claim support for the model -142 but after installing and
launching the software, it reports that it does not work with the
"revision" of my programmer.
There are no revision or series marks on the unit other than the PILOT-142
sticker above the power switch... so I don't know what makes it different.
Email to Advin says they have NO software that supports the -142 even
if their website says otherwise.
In any case, I'm looking for anyone that might have DOS or Win software
for this older beast. It would be a nice unit for burning 2716, 2732
and a number of old PALs that I would like to do.
Chris
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days inactive
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4 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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chrise＠pobox.com -
dan＠decodesystems.com -
snhirsch＠gmail.com