My Eprom burning set-up

[level42]

See the FS section ! Had to ID a lot of boards....which worked great mostly.

Anyway, since using a separate laptop and esp. a separate monitor is way too clumsy, I took a slight gamble and ordered this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4688

It's a PCMCIA to parallel port card. I ordered this one specifically because it is supposed to not only support printers but also a lot of legacy stuff like dongles and indeed EPROM programmers.

Others only support printers, f.i. like the cheaper one that dealextreme sells:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6187

The goal is to use the software under XP (should work) and on my "usual" work-laptop.
I think it will work. Will take a bit long to receive but hey, can't beat the price incl. shipping.

Also waiting eagerly for the eraser....

I also found my old card that allows EPROMS to be run on my Atari Lynx....mmmm gotta find me some of those a bit larger EPROMs

[level42]

Gee, those Chinese are REALLY fast !

Came home and the eraser was there !

It indeed looks and feels CHINESE but it works....

[level42]

I think I'll do a video on this one. The eraser has a US plug, but it runs on anything between 110 and 240VAC. So they included an adapter, but it's so awkward that it won't fit any socket in my home....

No big deal, I'll put a proper plug on it. I wonder how the voltage regulation works so I will open it to investigate

The unit is extremely light-weight (I think I will put something heavy in it) and the drawer falls open as soon as you lift the unit.

But hey, the clock ticks, there's a power switch and the blue light works

[baritonomarchetto]

You are lucky: mine has the timer not working   

[level42]

Now why does that not amaze me

I opened it to check it out and well......let's just say that it wouldn't pass any European safety tests.....simply alone by the fact that there's no mains fuse.

The wiring looks fragile,the tube wires are soldered to the pins of the tube so if you need to replace it one time (but maybe a complete new burner is cheaper )
There's a small PCB for the voltage conversion but I haven't figured out how they let it run on this wide voltage range (i.e., does the UV light burn twice as bright in Europe than it does in the US).

Oh and mine has Chinese characters on it too.

But still, you don't hear me complain, it works like a charm

[level42]

Wahoo, it works !

Yes it did work before, but that was with my old laptop connected to an external monitor.

Thanks to Etienne I was able to replace the completely busted screen and lid ! Thank you Etienne !!

Next I had a pretty large struggle getting the Needham EMP-10 to work. First I tried it in XP but didnt get it to communicate properly. It would start-up, but I could only read an EPROM once in a while. Further constant family module errors...
So...then I had decided to switch back in time to W'98 but.....after installing it, I realized that so many hardware of the laptop would require unavailable drivers that that wouldn't be a workable solution either.

So.....finally I decided on getting a dual-boot set-up.ALthough I really didn't like that I would have to switch between OS-es I didn't see an alternative... First more struggling with GAG. Great dual boot utility, BUT I couldn't get FreeDOS to boot with it.

So..........I decided to once again wipe the HD, partitioned a very small C partition for Freedos in FAT32 and the rest of the HD in NTFS for Win XP.

Installed everything and works great. I could use the EMP-10 under Freedos 100% and XP ran great too.


So....just for fun.......I tried once more to run EMP-10 software under XP. I had installed the special XP utility (like every time before) and had 0 hope.

But it worked !!!!

The ONLY thing I had changed from my previous set-up was that I had switched the Parallel port from Standard to Bi-directional in the BIOS.

So that was the bugger for it to not work in XP......when using XP, set it to Bi-directional !

I bet this was also the reason why it wouldn't work on the Toshiba laptop....that one didn't have the bi-directional setting. Using ECP/EPP is of course not a good idea with the burner.



So....concluding: I can now work 100% in XP even with the burner.

Took quite some time and persistence to get it 100% like I wanted, but the success tastes sweet

[Superully]

but the success tastes sweet

doesn't it always?

[level42]

yes......unless......it only lasts very short....like now.....

I was gearing up for removing the DOS partition but tried it again just before and......now it fails.

I don't understand why !!!!

I did do some updates (about a freaking zillion security updates....) and what not....

So I figured, OK there's some update killing the special EMP driver, installed it again....no improvement.
Soooooo...I thought let's get rid of the updates so re-install XP AGAIN.....no improvement ?!?!?!?!?!

I HATE WINDOWS !!!

OK....well I will live with the set-up as it is now. XP/Freedos dual boot. It works. And I'm happy.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Im glad i could help you

didnt i mentioned that first; dualboot with fat for dos and then install windows on the other partition  
these devices rely on hard LPT acces, so the only good way to do that is in dos

but i have to admid, its strange that it worked under xp for a while...

i saw stranger things in windows, so thats why i suggested dualboot in the first place..

btw fat 32 is only needed if your partition exeeds 2048 MB, but if fat 32 works for you, perfect !

now you can put files from xp there and read them in dos

btw xosl is a nice boot manager too, i use that if i need to hide partitions from other installations
although the xp bootmanager works fine too

Im happy it works !

[level42]

didnt i mentioned that first; dualboot with fat for dos and then install windows on the other partition  

Yup...being stubborn is one of my better qualities

I _had_ to try it because others have it working. I guess it's probably on older/full-size PC's.

Anyway, I'm happy and thanks again !

[Etienne MacGyver]

Yup...being stubborn is one of my better qualities

I recognise that 
and the experience that i have with that is that you learn from it , so thats a good thing