EA EPROM Programmer Kit Mk1

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1993 Electronics Australia EPROM Programmer

Contrary to popular belief I did NOT design the EPROM programmer published in EA in Sep/Oct 1993, I did however write driver software for it that became the defacto standard, and was subsequently reviewed in the Nov 1994 issue of EA. This software was also supplied with kits sold by Altronics.

Many many hundreds of copies of this software have been sold, and so has proved very popular.

UPDATE:

As of the 1st Jan 2000 I am no longer selling or supporting this software, and have decided to make it available for FREE to individual users, you can download v1.15 here. It is NOT in the public domain and I still retain full copyright over it, I am just allowing individuals to download it for personal use. Feel free to email me and tell me what a fanstastic and generous person I am! :->

Here is the complete working Version 1.15

The EPROM programmer hardware was designed by Glen Pure, I had no input into it's design what so ever.

NOTE :

There is a new modification in the Jan 2000 issue of EA that describes a hardware modification to support EPROM's up to 1Mb. Whilst my software can cater for sizes up to 16Mb, I have no idea if this hardware modification is compatible with my software, and I have no plans to try it myself or even look into it conceptually, nor update my software to support it.

In my humble opinion the whole design is WAY past it's used-by date (even was back when it was published) and needs a complete redesign, not just some ad-hock upgrade to an already unreliable design.

Other programmer designs :

Check out another programmer design by Andrew M.
Lewin Edwards has several freware EPROM Programmer designs on his web site.
An old ETI serial port design, with excellent info.
Another simple programmer
Another simple free design.
My very own Mk2 design
Tech Edge Programmer

Screen shot of the main screen

Errata :

There are a few known hardware problems with the Mk1 EPROM Programmer

The four 1K resistors on the output of U6 are too high in value for some parallel ports. Change these to 100ohm. Some LSI based parallel ports use active pull-up resistors and these are lower than the nominal 4K7 which causes a voltage divider effect. A bad design mistake.
The eight LED dropper resistors are too low in value and cause pikes on the power rails which can effect the rest of the circuit. Change these resistors to 1K or greater. Another bad design mistake!.

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