Re: Old programmers (was: CBM-II Character Set and Colour Expansion)

On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 7:27 PM, Mia Magnusson <mia@plea.se> wrote:
> Den Wed, 18 Jul 2018 12:53:43 +0200 skrev Francesco Messineo
> <francesco.messineo@gmail.com>:

>
>> 2)  Always verify the programmer is working well wiith respect to
>> voltages and timings.
>> For example, my old Hi-Lo uses an ISA card and would never respect the
>> required timings if
>> installed on a 486 class machine (yes, it's old) with a regular DOS
>> installation.
>> I had to run it under linux/dosemu that allowed me to configure a
>> lower clock speed.
>> Where procedures and manuals were available (like on the Data I/O
>> units) I completed the test and calibration procedures making sure all
>> voltages are in spec. Of course I've also checked for bad capacitors
>> and other electronic faults when I acquired them.
>> Particularly bad is the Digelec 824 because no manual or schematic
>> could be found for it, so I can't find why it fails on some types and
>> works on others.
>
> Oh, the speed of the computer must be the problem then. I'm running it
> on a Pentium 166 MMX which actually runs Windows XP, and I'm using
> patched versions of the DOS software with a special driver allowing the
> DOS software to access the I/O ports directly.

I don't know about the newer Hi-Lo softwares, but the old EPP-xx series would
not calibrate the timings on anything faster that 10 MHz, at least
that was how I setup the emulator to make it work.


>
> Maybe I'll just have to place it in an older computer. I don't have
> much left that's older than a 486 though, except a Panasonic Senior
> Parther portable 8088 machine with CRT and built in printer (!). Maybe
> I'll have to have a look at dosemu+linux.

I'm thinking since some time to move the Hi-Lo with the ISA board to
an Olivetti M24 with native DOS installation, so  I could get rid of
the very old Linux+dosemu.
Newer versions of dosemu are practically useless when it comes to
access the  hardware, I can't even make a serial port to work inside
dosemu anymore (and it's not me, I'm sure).

>
> Or preferable repair my broken Unisite. First the hard disk (!) in it
> died, and when I tried replacing it something else broke which resultet
> in it almost only saying some kind of bus error message on the terminal
> port. Probably due to me not observing ESD handling procedure :/

well, that can happen... I think there's a lot of documentation around
for the unisite, there's also a data i/o group on yahoo where one can
ask for help and informations

>> I started in the '80s with a locally made clone of the C64 based
>> Promenade C1, it worked (and still does) fine. What I liked about it,
>> is the complete configurability of voltages and algorithm, but you
>> must read the part datasheet before deciding what program options you
>> should use.
>> It never failed a programming (unless a part was bad).
>
> Interesting! I wish I had an eprom programmer back in the days, or knew
> how to build one. Today it seems trivial and I might actually had
> succeded building one back in the 80's if I had todays knowledge :)

I couldn't make my own in the '80s for sure (I was 11 y.o. when I
first had a VIC-20), but sometimes in 1985 some friends had the the
opportunity to borrow a Promenade C1 programmer for a few days, we
took detailed pictures, measured continuity on the tracks that ran
under the ICs to make sure we could redraw it and etched a few boards
:)
The worst PCB (that we forgot too long in the etching bath) become my
own, since nobody felt like repairing the weak tracks and I couldn't
afford to buy another blank PCB and all the parts.
I fixed the few broken tracks with patience and it worked well since then.
A few years later I could even buy a textool socket for

Frank