New Product Idea, Simple EPROM/EEPROM Burner

[ShelGame]

I had a new idea for a BoostButton product and wanted to see if there was much interest in it at all. Basically, it would be a very simple, low cost, 28-pin EPROM/EEPROM burner. It would be designed to work only with the 27C256 and 27SF512 (and should also work with the 87C257 used in the SBEC). It would write, read, verify those chips as well as erase the 27SF512's. It would be completely powered from the USB port of your PC, and I would like to make it plug directly into the USB port - no wires. I have talked to Morris about adding programming support to MP Tuner, so you could create your bin and program your chip from the same software package.

I would like the cost to be $30 or less.

[shackwrrr]

Yes, very interested. Need something to burn a chip once I am done with the ostrich tuning.

[CNH320]

Rob, i would take one and i know a few others that would at that price. This would allow me to get away from my DOS based EPROM Burner at a very nice price.

Thanks,
Chris

[RoadWarrior222]

$30 sounds very optimistic, unless you're producing the boards on a small scale yourself and selling them as a kit.

Plus USB powered? That means DC-DC convertor required for 12V programming voltage, which would probably suck 200mA at 5V... so nothing else on board better want 300mA combined.

[RoadWarrior222]

Another thought on design issues, USB port spacing is highly varied, some side by side and stacked configurations won't let you put 2 devices in at the same time. Well yes with slimline plugs, but a fat ended plug and/or cordless mouse dongle, or wireless dongle or flash stick might not co-operate at once... Those are all kind of available enough to shop around for to make sure you can get pairs that fit in tight situations...

So, this programmer could be a PITA to get plugged in, unless it has a thin "neck" on it, in which case it's putting strain on the port from leverage.....

[plymouth]

I would buy one

[shackwrrr]

Another thought on design issues, USB port spacing is highly varied, some side by side and stacked configurations won't let you put 2 devices in at the same time. Well yes with slimline plugs, but a fat ended plug and/or cordless mouse dongle, or wireless dongle or flash stick might not co-operate at once... Those are all kind of available enough to shop around for to make sure you can get pairs that fit in tight situations...

So, this programmer could be a PITA to get plugged in, unless it has a thin "neck" on it, in which case it's putting strain on the port from leverage.....

Extender cable would work for that. but if you are working with a laptop you wouldnt have any issue

[RoadWarrior222]

It's laptops I'm thinking of, they have USB ports real close to the power sockets, side by side with barely a paper thickness between them. I've seen some under a bit of an "overhang" as it were, so if the device were tall "right side up" it wouldn't go in...

[turbovanman²]

Wow, I'd get one if I didn't already have the Burn2 chip burner/reader from Moates, and RW, its USB powered,

[cordes]

I may be able to find a big enough pry bar to buy one of those eventually at that price. That's saying something.

[sdac guy]

I might be interested in one also.

I have a USB chip programmer by Batronix that I've used for a few years now. I just tried to get it to work on my Sony VAIO laptop yesterday. No go. Vista couldn't find a driver for it when I plugged it in the USB port. After trying many things I sent Batronix support an email.

They replied that there aren't any drivers for it that can be used on 64 bit versions of Vista. I can still use it on my main PC (XP Pro) but I am trying to get everything I need for cals/chips onto the laptop and that was a major setback.

The good news was that my Ostrich worked like plug & play on the laptop. Next is to get MPTuner loaded and running on it.

Barry

[ShadowFromHell]

I would buy one of these. Right now, car parts are not in the budget, but this is something I REALLY want to be able to do. I looked at buying a burner a couple years ago but they were expensive, and from what I read people had problems with them working 100% of the time.

Would this burn chips for all TM's? LM/SMEC/SBEC? I have one of each... lol

[zin]

$30.00 is a great price, so long as it is easy to use, which it sounds like it would be...

I guess the idea would be to use an Ostrich to dial in the program, then use this burner to program a "permanent" chip and install that into the ECU until changes are needed... Or at least that's what I envision...

What does the limitation on the chips that can be burnt mean? I realize there are different socket configurations and that we wouldn't need all the possibilities a more generalized unit might, I guess my concern is that if/when these chips become NS1 that could rendering the unit useless...?

Mike

[ShelGame]

Well, it should be relatively easy to make a burner that can burn only 27c256 pin-compatible chips. Since the address and pinout is the same. Even the program pin is the same. I can avoid a bunch of circuitry by not having to also program a PIC microcontroller, for example.

If/when these chips become obsolete, so do our computers! Well, we'd at least have to go to a memory module of some kind. But, it is getting more difficult to find memory in the configuration we use. The 87C257 for the SBEC is already gone. I did happen to find a source for some - I just wish I could afford to clean them out...

[Aries_Turbo]

just saw this now. id buy one.

brian

[TommyT]

I don't yet have a chip burner so this would be an easy choice for me. Sounds like it would be simple to use with MP Tuner, too.

[Under pressure]

interested , PM sent

[RoadWarrior222]

I may have given the impression I think it's a bad idea, it's a GREAT idea, just think you'll run into cost issues. $30 or under would be an AWESOME price and I'd probably jump on it at that price but I can see the price doubling by the time low volume production and component sourcing issues are resolved.

[ShelGame]

Well, I think it will really depend on how much time it takes me to assemble them. The board itself will be about $7, the chip and other circuitry will be maybe $5, the ZIF socket, however, is pricey and near $10 (I wish I could find a cheaper source for these). So, if I can assemble them in 15 minutes or so, I think I can sell them for $35. If I can find the ZIF sockets cheaper than $10, I can bring that down.

[RoadWarrior222]

I can do a tad better...
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...l&name=A347-ND