Is it wrong to love my new EPROM burner?

Scucci

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My new (to me) EPROM burner came in the mail today.

Needham's EMP20...

Supports my 2532s with no adapter...

Verified my "ruined" chips from my Willem (was giving me errors left and right)... showed they were empty... loaded the files I wanted, told it to burn them... took about 2 mins (a little slow)... but burned and verified them. ZERO problems, no voltage adjusting, no nothing.

Is it wrong to love a piece of hardware?... if it is... I don't want to be right.

As for the "slow" burning... it took me about 10 mins of fiddle'ng and adjusting to get the Willem to do 2532's (when/IF it felt like it)... so I'm actually coming out about 8 mins ahead of the game.

I LOVE this thing!!! Wilson, you're my hero!
 
How much are those EMP 20's going for nowadays? I have a Needham PB10 but I have to keep an old computer around just to be able to use it.
 
How much are those EMP 20's going for nowadays? I have a Needham PB10 but I have to keep an old computer around just to be able to use it.

I too have a computer dedicated to my PB10. That thing rules! Needhams makes good stuff.
If only it did bipolar PROMs....
 
How much are those EMP 20's going for nowadays? I have a Needham PB10 but I have to keep an old computer around just to be able to use it.


I have no idea what they go for... I did $70 shipped for this one, and regardless as to whether I could've gotten a "better" deal or not, don't care. Love it. Worth EVERY penny. I think that just in saved 2532's alone it's well worth it. FWIW, I think it was an amazing deal (all around) and I'm super happy to have this guy. After seeing it work, I'd've gladly paid more for it... but, too late now! lol

This one works on XP (according to the software) and 98 (which is what I just used). I don't really need an old computer for it, I just have a dual-boot setup and reboot into 98 when I need to. If I could get the LPT port working under Wine (I'm on Linux), I'd be really happy, but I'll take what I can get.
 
You got a good deal. ;) Glad you're liking it.

I always used it in Windows XP. To use the emp20 on XP be sure to install the NT port driver...the software is DOS based. :)

With the older parts it will take longer. And if they're over erased...even longer. You may be able to change the programming algorithm too. (option "J" I think) There may be only one choice for the 2532. For the 27xxx the default one is stupid slow so I always chose one of the others for rapid development work. About 5 seconds for a 27c256, IIRC. But if you are doing the final burn and want long term reliability it's recommended to use the default for your device type.
 
Glad to hear it. Nobody believes me when I tell them that the Willems are a piece of sh*t for the old ROMs. Remember anger, fear and loathing are tools of the dark side. A ROM jedi's strength flows from the force and a decent ROM saber.

Congratulations on turning from the dark side.

ken
 
I don't burn much, but I've got a pocket programer II that kicks ass. It does everything I've ever tried to do with it, so for the hobbyist or the casual eprom burner lol I think it's a good machine. I test eproms with it all the time, it's really fucking fast. It'll do those old pac chips 2516 I believe? In just a few seconds. When it verifys, it goes so fast I do it 3 or 4 times just to make sure it didn't glitch. Like half a second to verify a chip, something insane like that.
 
"Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his
But in your head baby I'm afraid you don't know where it is

Don't you want an eprom burner to love
Don't you need an eprom burner to love
Wouldn't you love an eprom burner to love
You better find an eprom burner to love... "
 
I have a BP Micro EP-1 on the way, so I may be "loving" this, also. Not sure if I need special drivers for it, too. I have tiny XP on my shop computer. Anyone know?
 
I don't burn much, but I've got a pocket programer II that kicks ass. It does everything I've ever tried to do with it, so for the hobbyist or the casual eprom burner lol I think it's a good machine. I test eproms with it all the time, it's really fucking fast. It'll do those old pac chips 2516 I believe? In just a few seconds. When it verifys, it goes so fast I do it 3 or 4 times just to make sure it didn't glitch. Like half a second to verify a chip, something insane like that.

Yeah, I was just getting my Ms. Pac back up and going with it. 2532's.

I'll stick to the defaults, if they work... they work. An extra minute or so isn't going to kill me. It verifies in a split second.

The hard part about Willems is keeping the components cool enough... it's ridiculous. I would literally have to either put a big fan onto the PCB or if I didn't have a fan nearby, I'd have to blow on the PCB to keep the VR cool enough so that it wouldn't just shut off and ruin the burn. Even then, it just started failing more and more until it got to the point where if the EPROM wouldn't program at 12V, then your in for a looooooong painful session of moving jumpers around and try'ng to keep the thing cool enough so that it didn't fry.

I'm sure it was still good for newer chips... but screw that. Not worth it for me since most of what I work with is late 70's early 80's. Almost all of my games have XX16, XX08, XX32, or XX64... the 64's were the only things that were rock solid with the Willem... everything else? Good luck.

Granted, I got my money's worth out of the Willem... but after you get your money's worth (AKA it starts acting up), it's just a pain to keep around. I'll still recommend them if you need a bunch of newer chips done, for cheap and in a hurry. But other than that... screw 'em.
 
I have a BP Micro EP-1 on the way, so I may be "loving" this, also. Not sure if I need special drivers for it, too. I have tiny XP on my shop computer. Anyone know?

I've got a BP-1140 running on xp with nothing special whatsoever - running bpwsoft v3. Not sure if that works with the ep-1 or not, though. The software runs flawlessly, it is a bit old school though and not as user friendly as the newer stuff, but i've found it to be dead reliable.
 
I've got a BP-1140 running on xp with nothing special whatsoever - running bpwsoft v3. Not sure if that works with the ep-1 or not, though. The software runs flawlessly, it is a bit old school though and not as user friendly as the newer stuff, but i've found it to be dead reliable.

That's the same setup I have. According to the BP Micro site bpwsoft v3 will drive an EP-1 and looking in the details of several chips, they list EP-1 as a supported burner. So Mod should be good.

ken
 
I love my Needham's PB-10. Never used the EMP series - I rather like the fact that it's an ISA card, no parallel port to worry about. Programming is always fast and reliable.

-Ian
 
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