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Old school Eprom & Prom programmer.

Muttley Black

Muttley Black

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2019
Messages
104
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Greece
Hello everyone!

Does anyone have experience with that kind of eprom & prom programmer?

I have the "NSP 512 EPROM & PROM PROGRAMMER" but no info about it. Seems to work but with no manual i can't do much with it.

It has two din ports for rs232 and tape connection but again, i miss the cables.

If anyone have some info about it or can explain how it is work i will appreciate it!

Here some photos:

50FAFFFF-4B1C-4E6A-A3F5-15D7E9621AD6.jpeg
EA189536-E760-413F-98BC-374E8C8E58F5.jpeg

Thank you!
 
By the look of it , it looks like you would load the file to be written, into the memory buffer IC's (probably those ones with no labels)

The unit is Z80 CPU based with a RAM and ROM nearby.

For reading ROMs they would be loaded into the buffer and that would be sent the other way to the computer say via the RS232 link.

Looks like a cool unit. It could be completely reverse engineered, the Firmware too.
 
It will operate by pressing Sin and transferring a file from the PC, likely a text file in intel HEX but its guess work on baud rate, connections etc.

Then press prog to program.
Looks like you have managed to select an EPROM type, did you just type 17 ?, if so finding a valid EPROM might be difficult without a table.

Funny how these old programmers seem to have vanished without leaving any traces. Can't find a scrap of info on mine, but its LCD gives just enough info to make it useable
 
Hugo Holden said:
By the look of it , it looks like you would load the file to be written, into the memory buffer IC's (probably those ones with no labels)
Click to expand...
Hello!

This 8x ic's that looks like have no label, they have. Just the photo not helping. All 8x IC's are "SANYO LC3664NL-12"

Gary C said:
Looks like you have managed to select an EPROM type, did you just type 17 ?, if so finding a valid EPROM might be difficult without a table.
Click to expand...
Hello!

No i didn't type anything. In the keyboard there are two keys. "INC" & "DEC". With those keys i move up or down to menu. 1,2,3,4,5...etc. Every number saws a different type of eprom.

You can see a sort video from the menu here:


So, in case that find cables to connect it with PC, need the software for it yes? Can i use it as stand alone eprom programmer? Can i copy an already programmed eprom on a new same type eprom? I see the key "COPY" and i believe i can, i just didn't test this yet.
 
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Ok, so you can select the type, thats a good start.

You should be able to use teraterm to transfer files from your PC to the programmer, but you will need a Serial port/USB to serial adapter.

On the programmers 232 port there are only three pins of interest (probably). If you have a scope you could press Sout and see if you can send a file and using the scope see which pin is active.

I imaging the centre pin is earth but its a non standard serial connector so there are no guarantees.

Next you will need to determine the baud rate, if you can get Sout working you could start at 9600 and tweak it up and down until you get sensible data.

Then you need to work out what file type it needs, binary or Intel Hex for example.

But one step at a time, what happens if you press Sout ?

And put a plug on it before you kill yourself :)
 
Thank you very much!

Also thank you for the guy you find on Linkedin! The problem is that I don’t have Linkendin and the message are locked…

I think I will find a solution! :)

I will post later about Sout!
 
That's telling you that the serial baud rate is 9600 baud. If you can connect a terminal or terminal program to it it may display a menu, but more likely there are short commands which you can issue to it to load and send code files to it, choose the device type, read, program, verify.... unfortunately the syntax of these serial commands is the thing you are really missing. Hopefully the contact Gary found will be able to provide this information.

You had '2532' selected, well, many modern programmers do not have programming support for those but they are important because they are suitable as drop in replacements for some of the 24 pin ROMs used in old computers. The ability to program PROMs (especially bipolar fusible link PROMs) is even rarer and quite sought after, so you definitely should not throw that unit away.
 
If i press enter all screen on programmer get full of "EEEEEEEEEEEE"

By the way yes I have scope but i am new to it and to be honest with you I don’t know what I suppose to see.

Here is an activity in one pin when I press SOUT and Enter after that:

FC27EE41-0C33-4C5D-9BA3-67070A2DC50E.jpeg 23CF7B8C-E96E-4528-BD93-CD7B9A2B202D.jpeg


Also i just realize that i can change the baud from the programmer:

 
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That programmer looks similar (a rip off?) to an EPROM programmer one of our sites has. I am up there on Thursday, so I will take a look.

I suspect to set a PROM type you press the PROM key and then use INC or DEC to select the type you want and then press ENTER.

S-IN and S-OUT will be serial IN and OUT respectively. T-IN and T-OUT may either be TAPE or TELETYPE?

FILL should fill a memory range with a defined value.

CSUM should perform a checksum.

The top line of keys should be self evident.

Have a play around, document what keys you press and what prompts you get when you press the various keys.

When you press the ENTER key, you may have to enter a hexadecimal address and then enter hexadecimal data. The only way out of this will probably be to press the EXIT key. ENTERing data may cause the address to increment, it may not. If not, I would guess that the INC key would increment the address and present you with the next data byte.

There is an interesting range of old devices indicated. Some of the devices may require an adapter - as they are 0.3" wide devices and will not fit into a 0.6" wide IC socket.

Dave
 
So, looks like you have found the Tx and GND of the serial port. The pin on the other side (in mirror image) is likely to be the Rx line.

You will need a serial cable and suitable connection to a PC, which might need making up yourself.
 
I do suspect the setup of the scope though.

Its showing that each square is 20V with that wave having 80V peak to peak measurement which is not right for 232, which should be + or - 12V

Is your probe selected to x1 with the scope thinking its x2 ?

Or thats not 0V your connected to.
 
That programmer looks similar (a rip off?) to an EPROM programmer one of our sites has. I am up there on Thursday, so I will take a look
Click to expand...

It wasn't (isn't) unusual for the same programmer to be sold in different markets with different brand names. For example the high-end Elnec BeeProg2 (the original unit, from Slovakia) is sold in the UK badged as the Dataman 48Pro2, and under possibly two other brands/models in other parts of the world as well. It would be very helpful to know if this NSP 512 programmer was also sold badged as a STAG or something like that.
 
Gary C said:
I do suspect the setup of the scope though.

Its showing that each square is 20V with that wave having 80V peak to peak measurement which is not right for 232, which should be + or - 12V

Is your probe selected to x1 with the scope thinking its x2 ?

Or thats not 0V your connected to.
Click to expand...

Hello!

Here is a video with my scope . My probe set x1. The video start in normal situation, after some seconds i press the S-OUT (small activity), then ENTER and at the end i hit EXIT.

 
I am happy because the first attempt to copy an 2532 Eprom was successful !!! Take me some time to figure out the way to be honest.
After i made a copy, i put both Eproms to minipro via 2532/2732 adapter and verified them. 100% same! Every time you need to copy different Eprom first you have
to do blind copy with no Eprom in ZIF Socket to clean the Ram on the programmer. Then you put the Eprom you need to do a copy and do a fresh copy with COPY Key. You can test if you want the contents with CHECK Key. After the Copy is done you hit PROG, you put an empty Eprom and Hit ENTER. Thats it!

Here is a video:


Now i have to focus on RS232 connection to be able to transfer files to the programmer! :)

Thank you ALL till now for all you help! I really appreciate it !!!
 
The serial data looks fine, Im just confused why your scope seems to say the signal is 80V peak to peak which is nonsense for RS-232. It should be 12V positive to 12V negative giving at most 24V peak to peak.

Not sure what a serial port would make of 80V peak to peak, but I suspect its just the scope reading wrong. If it gave a nonsensical DC bias then I could see how that could happen, but peak to peak, it must be 24V max.

A cheap serial to USB interface should do the job but make sure its compatible with your OS, as ones using the PL23xx seem to have windows 11.
 
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