Looking for a good\cheap EPROM programmer...

Holy balls if that thing is decent I just found a new piece of gear. At first glance I might be able to use it to dump the rombs for the SFIICE bootleg I have that's not in MAME. Anyone actually used one and can comment on whether or not it will kill children and house pets?
 
I used one of the cheap Chinese programmers when I got started in doing repairs.... TOP-2004. It worked VERY well but didn't do many esoteric EPROMs.

The tough part was it was only powered from the USB port so you had to do a "power test" on the port from the programming software to determine on a scale of 1 to 10, how much power the port could provide. The older parts such as 2716 took much more power to program than say a 27C010.

My desktop PC powered it at a "7" and I never had issues programming the older chips. Software updates were a bit dodgy as you had to go to some Chinese website and cross your fingers they didn't trojanize it.
 
I wouldn't get that one if you're planning to program 2716, 2532 or 2732. If you're looking for something cheap I would go with a Willem. They have the same problems but at least there is a community of people who use them and have solved those problems. At least with the Willem you know what you're getting into.

I have had a "pocket programmer" for about 10 years and I've programmed everything under the sun with it.

EDIT: Also, a USB hub with external power supply should solve any USB bus power problems.

Just my $.02CDN

EDIT2: You know what... I've been looking for a cheap programmer to do the EEPROM and GAL stuff that my old pocket programmer can't do and this one does them all. If I didn't have my pocket programmer I would probably look elsewhere but I just bought one of these. I'll try to remember to do a review of it when I get it. Thanks, Robran68 :)
 
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EDIT2: You know what... I've been looking for a cheap programmer to do the EEPROM and GAL stuff that my old pocket programmer can't do and this one does them all. If I didn't have my pocket programmer I would probably look elsewhere but I just bought one of these. I'll try to remember to do a review of it when I get it. Thanks, Robran68 :)

You're welcome Lindsey...well I bit the bullet and ended up getting a Willem GQ-4X at $100.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310229807944&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

After searching some threads here I noticed alot of peeps on here use this model and are happy with it's results. Hopefully I made the right choice cause I've been needing to get some chips updated!

Thanx Joe for offering up burning some chips for me but I don't want to have to bug somebody all the time. I'm sure we've all ran into the situation where you needed to burn a EPROM at 2am while wrenching on a project! :p
 
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Logic probe with audio first!

I use it 50x what I use my scope.
 
I picked up a GQ-4X last week and it works great.

GQ-4X is a fairly reliable entry level programmer but I found the V5 software a bit flaky compared to the older V3 and V4. One thing I can say is that the company continues to update the software and device list while the other cheaper Chinese models do not.

The GQ-4X does not do pal/gal, test TTL or JEDEC but it is a good all around better than entry level programmer. IIRC it requires external power for the early TMS series eproms, the 2532 are listed as "TEST" and it does not support the 2708. However, you may not need any of this for games made 1980 and beyond.
 
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