Batboard

i was curious as to what kind of eprom burner and chips would i need to get to burn some v5.34 maxtrac chips. i am in the process of putting a few vhf and uhf maxtracs together for the ham shack and the second car. i have the parts to put the radios together but not the chips. thanks for any help.

Hello:
First you need a reading from a 5.34 chip to burn a duplicate.
The chip your needing would be a 27c256 .
There are many maufactures making this popular chip.
DigiKey has them fairly cheap.
As to a burner / reader i use a Willem burner kit.
I have had mine since 2005 and the webb site to look at then was :
www.mcumall.com
If you run into any troubles on locating a 5.34 prom = i have them still in my inventory new from M.
The 5.34 chip is no longer available from M.
Good luck
Satelite

I echo what Satelite said. The Willem programmer can program damn near anything, is easy to use, and pays for itself very quickly. I own one, and while I don't use it often, I don't bother to worry whether or not I can program a device as the Willem supports such a wide range of devices it's a no-brainer.

Also, I have one of the willem 5.0 chinese clones from ebay worked great till i goofed it up. Gotta say, they fixed/replaced it for me for just shipping back to them. Said its a lifetime warranty.

eetools.com

Another alternative, though a bit over the top for a 27C256

thank you all for the great info. i will start hunting down the necessary items now....
now if i can keep it dirt cheap...lol

I don't know how many EPROMs you intend to burn, but wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a few new ones for under $4 each, send them to someone who already has the eraser, burner, software, and reliable computer, and have them burned elsewhere? By the time you spend $100 for a burner and $40 for an eraser, you could have someone else burn an awful lot of them, including shipping. I realize that there are some people that would charge for the 15 seconds it takes to write and verify an EPROM, but it's not what I'd do.

Bob M.

I don't know how many EPROMs you intend to burn, but wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a few new ones for under $4 each, send them to someone who already has the eraser, burner, software, and reliable computer, and have them burned elsewhere? By the time you spend $100 for a burner and $40 for an eraser, you could have someone else burn an awful lot of them, including shipping. I realize that there are some people that would charge for the 15 seconds it takes to write and verify an EPROM, but it's not what I'd do.

From a purely economic perspective, I have to agree, however, speaking for myself, there's nothing worse than to be in the middle of a project and have to quit because I don't have what I need to finish the job. There have been times that I would have gladly paid several times that amount just to be able to finish the job and get on to another one. Also, just to be able to "do it myself" is worth something, as well. I bought my programmer on the Bay for very little. It will make up to eight copies and verify them without even having to turn on the computer. Of course, with the computer, you can view and/or edit data to write to any or all of the "slaves". Though I don't use it very much, its kinda fun and handy when I need it.
Tom

I agree. It came time to do a software update in one of my base station controllers recently, and just today in fact I pulled out the burner and did the software upgrade (which involved splitting a .HEX file on the PC into two EPROMS).

And then, when I finished that, I realized I had a few new (to me) pieces of equipment that I hadn't backed up the EPROMs and EEPROMs in. Some of this older equipment is nearing it's lifespan with regard to retention of data in E/EEPROMs, and as a result, even though I have yet to have an actual failure, I do have peace of mind knowing that the data in these old E/EEPROMs is safely stored elsewhere, like the hard disk drive and USB stick (and eventually compact disc).

It's one of those things you tend to find uses for you never really thought of. I wouldn't say I use mine often or regularly, but I've certainly used it enough to have it have paid for itself long ago.

Hello:
I too agree that having a reader / burner on hand is just the way to go.
I have been fortunate enough to have run accross the 99 ch Maxtrac that canada hydro division had made for them and was able to reproduce that chip to make another .
There just too handy to not own one if you have a need now and then.
Satelite

Satelite wrote:Hello:
I too agree that having a reader / burner on hand is just the way to go.
I have been fortunate enough to have run accross the 99 ch Maxtrac that canada hydro division had made for them and was able to reproduce that chip to make another .
There just too handy to not own one if you have a need now and then.
Satelite

i have heard the 99 channel hydro maxtrac requires a special rss. is this true?
i am weighing my options right now on which way to go with the eprom reader writer. i know a few people that would love to get some auto computer chips altered so i may have more than one use for it...

Hello:
Yes the 99ch hydro maxtrac did use a special program.
When the late Monty was still around he and another were working on making the max 99 program expand the freq ranges into the VHF and UHF band as i recall.
During that process as i recall Monty passed away from a heart attack.
But the other individual did finish the project and sucessfully converted a american VHF maxtrac to 99ch operation.
I know for a fact it got done because i personally have seen that 99 ch VHF maxtrac.
But the owner bought it off ebay several years back and doesnt recall who the seller was.
So other than knowing and seeing it we dont know who that other person was that accomplished this feat.
Maybe someone here on the bd was the other person and can help us out with the balance of the details ?
Satelite