My Eprom burning set-up

[level42]

Well, since I picked up the Video Pinball PCB from the storage and since one of the ROMs is missing, I was once again in need of an EPROM burner. (I think the English guys say programmer, but we call them burners).

I remembered that I actually was given one by my good friend Luc.....
Although it's an oldy, it's also a very sturdy and professional looking one.It's a Needham's EMP-10



Found some good info here: http://www.arcadesolution.com/needhams.html

 However, I never started using it before because it has some (slight) drawbacks:

- connects through parallel port, one that must be able to be addressed directly (which rules out any USB->Parallel solution)
- runs on DOS software. It can also run in windows with some right driver though
- it only has the US (110V) power supply

Of course my Mac and current PC laptop don't have a parallel port anymore.

So I dug out an old laptop. The main issue with it is that the LCD is totally bust. But it works with an external monitor.
This one does have a parallel port.

I will reformat the harddisk and install FreeDos on it (going back to old times folks !)
I will only use it for the EPROM burner so, no problems there.


So, I ordered a matching power supply that will run on 230VAC and a VERY cheap UV eraser. It screams "China" all over, but an UV eraser is nothing more than a UV lightbulb and a timer that turns it off.




Here's the eraser I ordered:
http://cgi.ebay.com/UV-Eprom-Eraser-Ultraviolet-Light-Timer-Erase-Erasable-/170527862964?pt=BI_Electrical_Equipment_Tools#ht_2269wt_911

EXTREMELY cheap IMHO, less than 19 US dollars shipped ! Will be about 15 euro's....

So waiting for the PSU mainly now. Hope to set-up the laptop this evening.

[level42]

Ahhhh, in some way, it's almost soothing.....(even though I've always hated MS-DOS):

First booting with a bootable floppy (!) with Freedos on it.
All well but why can't I change to the C: drive....mmmm let'st list all the DOS tools on the disk.....ah, let's run FDISK
Ah there's the problem, the HD partition is NTFS and of course DOS can't (normally) handle that.
So using Fdisk I remove the NTFS partition and make a FAT32 one.
CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot...
Then FORMAT C:/S to make the harddisk DOS bootable.....it's so funny that I still remember all that stuff....

I still think the Atari DOS versions for their 8 bit computers were light years ahead (menu drive) compared to MS-DOS (commane line driven).

I hate it that I don't have the correct PSU for the programmer yet, everything is set up on the laptop ! (copied the EPROM programmer software to HD, ready to rock

Now, how am I going to copy files onto that machine, I can't use floppies. CD is a possibility but not too handy. Let's see if I can find a DOS driver for a USB memory stick....

[inuyaksa]

You can use this peace of software:
http://www.freedos.org/freedos/news/newsitem/149.html

[Etienne MacGyver]

ndis drivers maybe ?

then you can use network for file copying

or setup a TFTP, and use PXE, could work too

or install windows 3.11 with a TCP/IP stack, thats easy too

[level42]

That's the one I was thinking of inuyaksa, thanks for that reminder !

Etienne, I want this be simple and stand alone and DOS only.

And what is TFTP (I know what FTP is) and PXE ?
 

[level42]

Here's another good page of info AND the latest (and last) software for the Neeham's EMP-10:
http://www.seanet.com/~karllunt/emp10.html

[Etienne MacGyver]

PXE Wikipedia dutch
PXE Wikipedia english

I use that always to boot the clients when i use Symantec Ghostcast server
in a nutshell; you boot from lan, and the tftp server supplies the boot image
in this boot image you can incorporate your application and roms in this case

but like you said you want it simple, there is maybe a driver to get a usb drive going in dos...
otherwise you will be stuck on floppy's i think

[level42]

The weird thing is that the floppy disk drive I'm using now IS a USB one, but I guess that one is handled by the BIOS.....

I tried the suggested USB dos driver but it seems that the PC doesn't run config.sys when starting ....weird

[Etienne MacGyver]

you can try to boot from USB stick with all the files in there

http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

[level42]

Woot ! It works !

Found my trusty 230V to 110V converter (bought it long time ago for my US Dreamcast) and hooked everything up.

So far I can only read stuff because I don't have the eraser yet (and I don't have many EPROM's to "play" with either).

But I could read the three ROMs that are on my Video Pinball.

[Muerto]

wow cool!
Thats a start! - i hope you don´t have as much trouble getting your Video Pinball working as the poor guy on
Though, he bought the coolest E-Prom burner!!! i would like to have one of those baby´s! - and a crash course on how to use it! 

[baritonomarchetto]

Andrè, you have the same EPROM eraser i have  

but i paid 25 euros for it (it didn't look the piece of plastic it is from the photoes on the site i bought it from)

... anyhow, it works  

[level42]

Yeah as mentioned it screams "China" all over, but what the heck.... as long as there is no UV light leaks (or else I'll put it in a box )

Can't wait for it to arrive. I've done a LOT of reading EPROMS tonight (why? later !) and it works excellent but I would like to test-burn an EPROM now.....

I also received the 230V to 12 VAC adapter from RS online but the plug is JUST a little bit larger than the original one, will have to fix that
Very happy. The external (LCD) monitor is a bit clumsy with the laptop but this will end up in my work-room anyway. I should have set this up a long time ago, but I have to say it was _exactly_ on time for all the EPROM reading tonight

[liquidx]

I have the same eraser except it has Chinese characters on it.

The small hole on the drawer shows the UV light so you can see if it's on.
It works fine for the little use I have anyway…

[Superully]

I've done a LOT of reading EPROMS tonight (why? later !) and it works excellent

i wonder what that dutch guy is "brewing" again is his magic cauldron