Re: prom programmers

On Mon, 11 Jan 1999 11:03:25 -0800 (PST), Matt Rossiter - Verio Southern
California <matt@rossiters.com> wrote:

>The website is www.arlabs.com. I've been scoping this out too. They can
>provide schematics for you and you can actually build your own adapters
>for pretty cheap. The cost is about $289. The adapters are extra $$$ -
>http://www.arlabs.com/adapters.htm - but are pretty cheap if you put them
>together yourself.

I own this one. The packaging is nice, plugs into a parallel port, so you can
carry it to a friends house to get rom dumps.

It's biggest drawback is the software *really* SUCKS! Never let hardware
engineers write software!

The PROM adapter at $99 is worth buying (it'd be a real pain to build from
scratch). The other adapters (2532, 2564, etc.) are a piece of cake to build.

It's not quite as convenient to use as the Needhams, you have to set a bank of
switches to go between different types of EPROMs (where the Needhams is fully
software controllable, just select the part and put it in the socket). However
the software does tell you how to set the switches for each part so you don't
need to lug around a reference manual.

It's biggest advantage is that it will read and write the ole triple voltage
parts. It's hard to find any new programmer that can do that.

Did I tell you the software REALLY SUCKS!!!! It will most certainly be the
worst piece of software you'll be forced to use. It's like an early 80's (jr?)
high school project entitled: "My First Program".

The programmer went back and forth between calling the BIOS and DOS when polling
for user input, so it's nearly impossible to even automated it with one of those
simulated keypress programs used in batch files.

It makes Needhams software look like Win98 in comparison!

-Zonn

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Received on Tue Jan 12 15:32:43 1999