Eprom/prgrammer question

FWIW, I have a cheap little Willem... I'm not sure what "model" it is... got it last year and there are no identifying marks on the board.

It will handle 2732's and using an adapter made from 2 sockets and a ZIF, it'll handle 2532's. It's a little touchy as far as programming goes and you do have to keep an eye on it to make sure it's not dropping it's VCC... but all in all, it's safe to say I've gotten my $30 bucks back and then some. First thing I did with it was convert a Two Tigers board back to Tron, then a few Robotron replacement chips, some VS games, etc etc. It is cheap, and built pretty cheaply... but, it does get the job done. So far I've done 2764, 27C64, 2732, and 2532s... that pretty much will cover every game I have now.

Plus, it's been very valueable to me as far as identify'ng boards... pop a chip, read it, RomIdent it, done.

That said, I haven't had a chance to mess around with any other chips yet... those might be the only 4 it can write and I just lucked out since those are what I was looking for.

IF you have the money, get something better though... that's for sure. Keep an eye on Ebay, a Stag Gang Programmer just went for @60 bucks a few days ago. There are deals to be had out there, you just have to be patient... I'm not, hence the Willem. lol
 
It requires an adaptor to work with 2732's (note that it says adaptor after it) and a voltage modification by you (note that it says "Vpp12.5V (21Vpp Modify Circuit))".

So translating the bad formatting -- essentially their claim is by default it only works with 2764's on up with 12.5 volt programming levels only. If you want 21vpp you'll need to modify the circuit, there's virually no chance of 25vpp levels that earlier chips need, and anything smaller than a 2764 will require a 24 pin adaptor made.


Most Willem sales copy and paste the very same OLD list from the old v 3.x boards and you see this exact list everywhere. The sellers don't know what they're selling and promise you one thing and you don't get it. Do yourself a favor and if money is worth more than time, go read the Willem discussion boards and find out for yourself all the problems with voltages and old eprom chips. There's a couple experienced users that post pretty terse info on how to modify it but that's about it. People don't buy willem's to do pre 90's stuff.. they get them for the big roms and the flash chips and what-not that program at much lower voltages and electronically erase, not UV erase.

Also there is no way you'll get a stable voltage increase from 5VDC @ 500ma to 21-25VDC off the USB wire. You'll need a 9-14 volt power brick attached to it as well after doing whatever mods are needed.
 
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Pac-Fan said:
It requires an adaptor to work with 2732's (note that it says adaptor after it) and a voltage modification by you (note that it says "Vpp12.5V (21Vpp Modify Circuit))".

So translating the bad formatting -- essentially their claim is by default it only works with 2764's on up with 12.5 volt programming levels only. If you want 21vpp you'll need to modify the circuit, there's virually no chance of 25vpp levels that earlier chips need, and anything smaller than a 2764 will require a 24 pin adaptor made.


Most Willem sales copy and paste the very same OLD list from the old v 3.x boards and you see this exact list everywhere. The sellers don't know what they're selling and promise you one thing and you don't get it. Do yourself a favor and if money is worth more than time, go read the Willem discussion boards and find out for yourself all the problems with voltages and old eprom chips. There's a couple experienced users that post pretty terse info on how to modify it but that's about it. People don't buy willem's to do pre 90's stuff.. they get them for the big roms and the flash chips and what-not that program at much lower voltages and electronically erase, not UV erase.

Also there is no way you'll get a stable voltage increase from 5VDC @ 500ma to 21-25VDC off the USB wire. You'll need a 9-14 volt power brick attached to it as well after doing whatever mods are needed.
Click to expand...

Ohh, thanks for letting me know that.

I'd really like to know if this one would work well or not as it's in my price range:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150373382717&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

and if it would work for older eproms, would it work for newer ones as well?
 
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This is pissing me off, I cant find any info on this old shit and I don't want to spend an extreme amount of money.... I don't mind paying 100$ but I don't want to pay 300.
 
endrien said:
This is pissing me off, I cant find any info on this old shit and I don't want to spend an extreme amount of money.... I don't mind paying 100$ but I don't want to pay 300.
Click to expand...

You don't have to spend tons of money. But you must also remember that these chips we use for these games are obsolete. The devices that program these chips are also obsolete. Currently available, current production devices are intended to work with devices of this era - not the old games. Finding an EPROM programmer that will work for you will take a while.

For example, I use an old Needhams PB10. The company that made it is out of business. Even then, this programmer was obsolete years before Needhams went under. In my mind, this is the perfect programmer for me, it handles all the old arcade chips, and all the stuff I use. But other people might hate it. For one, it's an internal card, not an external device. Somewhat less than portable...

You can also build your own EPROM programmer - that's what I did before I had the Needhams. It was slow, and it was ugly, but it worked.

Also, take a step back - why do you want an EPROM programmer. What will you use it for? Do you have games that need ROM replacements?

-Ian
 
RetroHacker said:
You don't have to spend tons of money. But you must also remember that these chips we use for these games are obsolete. The devices that program these chips are also obsolete. Currently available, current production devices are intended to work with devices of this era - not the old games. Finding an EPROM programmer that will work for you will take a while.

For example, I use an old Needhams PB10. The company that made it is out of business. Even then, this programmer was obsolete years before Needhams went under. In my mind, this is the perfect programmer for me, it handles all the old arcade chips, and all the stuff I use. But other people might hate it. For one, it's an internal card, not an external device. Somewhat less than portable...

You can also build your own EPROM programmer - that's what I did before I had the Needhams. It was slow, and it was ugly, but it worked.

Also, take a step back - why do you want an EPROM programmer. What will you use it for? Do you have games that need ROM replacements?

-Ian
Click to expand...

I'll use it for:
Fixing any arcade boards that will need rom replacements down the road
Making repro game carts
programming my own game carts
etc etc.
 
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I should be getting 150$ tonight, I'd like to order one that will work arcade, atari etc eproms tonight as well.....
 
That last Willem you posted should work... but I thought I remember reading you don't have a parallel port (printer/lpt port). If I'm not mistaken, the USB port on those is only for "power", I wouldn't put my USB port through that mess and you're not going to get high enough voltage from the USB port to comfortably flash some chips that take higher voltages.

Mine is alot like that one (got it from MCUMall.com, based in Canada). I have to use an external 12V power supply. The software for it only works in Windows (which sucks for me because Wine in Linux doesn't give me access to my parallel port... ugggg). And even though that's a newer version, I still don't think they've fully fixed the heat problems with the boards... the little 7805 on the board heats up so much after a few minutes of being plugged in that if you don't do something to keep it cool (I just blow on it) while you're programming at higher voltages (21V, 25V) it will over heat and cut off VCC to the chip in the middle of programming it. Also, for 2532's I have to program them several times to get the code to stick... all other chips seem to be fine though (2732, and 2764). But, they do work, if that's all your interested in.

I still say if you don't need it right now, it would probably be better to hold off and keep an eye on Ebay or the For Sale section here and keep an eye out for something more professional (AKA better).
 
Scucci said:
That last Willem you posted should work... but I thought I remember reading you don't have a parallel port (printer/lpt port). If I'm not mistaken, the USB port on those is only for "power", I wouldn't put my USB port through that mess and you're not going to get high enough voltage from the USB port to comfortably flash some chips that take higher voltages.

Mine is alot like that one (got it from MCUMall.com, based in Canada). I have to use an external 12V power supply. The software for it only works in Windows (which sucks for me because Wine in Linux doesn't give me access to my parallel port... ugggg). And even though that's a newer version, I still don't think they've fully fixed the heat problems with the boards... the little 7805 on the board heats up so much after a few minutes of being plugged in that if you don't do something to keep it cool (I just blow on it) while you're programming at higher voltages (21V, 25V) it will over heat and cut off VCC to the chip in the middle of programming it. Also, for 2532's I have to program them several times to get the code to stick... all other chips seem to be fine though (2732, and 2764). But, they do work, if that's all your interested in.

I still say if you don't need it right now, it would probably be better to hold off and keep an eye on Ebay or the For Sale section here and keep an eye out for something more professional (AKA better).
Click to expand...


I'll get myself a cheap/free win95/98 pc with a parallel port. If I get that williem I'll make a enclosure for it with a fan. and put a heatsink on that chip I guess.

Edit: That williem only looks like a 32 pin :(
 
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The one I linked to cannot burn TMS-2532's, however I'm not sure I would need to burn those anyways.
I wish I could find something cheaper though.
 
Actually I don't want to spend the 235 shipped it will cost.

Will any of the the cheap programmers(Not williem though, I don't like them) support:
Atari
Nes
Snes
etc

I don't see myself using anything lower then 2732(Which Is what atari 2600 uses I believe) as I have no plans on owning any old old arcade games such as donkey kong, pac-man etc.
 
I know there are a lot of Atari roms at 2k in size, so 2716's.

NES/SNES are much much larger. Don't recall exactly as I've never gotten into them.


2532's are needed for Pac-Man, RallyX, Galaxian era games. But if you can burn 2732's at 21/25V then you can wire an adaptor for less than $1 in parts to swap the 3 pins needed for the 25xx's.
 
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