Recommendation for a PROM burner

[Dave]

There are several BP-1200 units on EBay for in the $200-250 range "or best offer".  I'm thinking you could pick one up for less than $200.
While the BP-1200's do have the drawback of no longer being supported, the software is still available for download from the BPM Micro ftp site (BP Micro changed their name to BPM micro a few years back).  These programmers will program just about any 5V part out there.  They are rock solid and are built to last.  One of these with a 48-pn socket will cover just about any vintage computing application except, as mentioned elsewhere, the 1702/1702A.

Compared with the cheap Chinese programmers, this has the disadvantage of only programming 5V parts, and parts are no longer being added. It requires a parallel port rather than a USB port.  It has the advantage of a truly comprehensive list of 5V parts, including the bipolar PROMS, etc.  And it will last forever.
The Data I/O Unisite and 3900 series is still supported and there is an excellent support group on Yahoo Groups.  These do tend to be more expensive, as are the adapters, but these are also built like tanks.  They have the advantage of having all the software on board (and someone developed a DIY hard disk interface, so upgrading is not terribly expensive).  They only require a serial terminal or terminal emulator and a serial port (a USB-serial adapter will do.)
The Xeltek's also look very versatile, and are supported, but not cheap.


Dave
     On Friday, March 13, 2015 11:34 AM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
   
 

 So, I need to add a PROM burner to my collection of stuff, and I'd like to ask
for recommendations.

I'm looking for something that's easy to find on eBay, not _too_ expensive,
and can handle (via the appropriate adapters, which should also be relatively
easy to find) a very wide range of old PROMs/EPROMs from back in the day.
(I.e. ability to support modern chips is not really an issue.)

The ability to read them would be a real plus (no idea if that's a common
capability or not). Serial interface preferred, but I could work with parallel
(again, no idea what was usual).

Thanks in advance for any insight!

      Noel