Looking to buy an inexpensive eprom programmer that can burn 2716, 2732, 2764 chips etc. Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Scott

that depends where you are located.

There is a member in Ottawa and one in Collingwood who do this

I think he's looking to buy the programmer, not find someone to program eproms for him

Quoted from Pinballed

I think he's looking to buy the programmer, not find someone to program eproms for him

That is correct but thanks for the response.
Scott

I have just recently looked into getting my own eprom programmer and did a fair bit of research (along with help from Steph here on maaca -- the operator of http://www.hobbyroms.com). In fact, I just successfully burned my first rom today! And you know what... it was a complete pain in the a**!

I've been ordering roms from Steph every couple of months or so for years. Steph provides great service, but constantly having to order roms adds up over time. When I started having some custom code written for a couple of old Sterns, it made sense to look into doing the burning myself, especially when beta testing buggy code.

I ordered this:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/EPROM-UV-ER.....;hash=item27b1d559fd

It seems to do erasing just fine.

Then I borrowed this from my good pal Menace:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Willem-Univ.....;hash=item2eae1325da

I grabbed a 12vdc power supply I had kicking around and, combined with the parallel cable connected to my computer and the software that came with the programmer, I was able to successfully burn my first rom after about two hours of dicking around and trying to figure out how the software works, how the burner works, how to figure out if the roms are blank or not and other general tom-foolery.

I was a little concerned using the Willem because I've heard people say that they have a tough time burning 2732's and 27128's with it. I believe this issue is likely because they were using the USB cable for power instead of an additional power adapter. With the aid of the adapter, I don't think there would be much problem burning just about whatever is needed (within reason).

Hope this helps.

Corey

Willem is for experimenting. There are many version of the .98 software (I think it stopped at .98j) that supported the PCB3B. Now you would think later versions would add further functionality but often features were removed or simply show up (greyed) unsupported in the later versions while other issues were added or fixed. You have to remember which version works for what. Couple that with having to move around jumpers, play with a voltage regulating trim pot and ultimately not having enough Vp to burn some chips and you may find your better served by buying something more expensive and less problematic.

It's cheap and you get what you pay for.

MCUMall sells a bunch of this stuff in Canada.

http://www.mcumall.com/comersus/store/LeftStart.asp?idCategory=27

Quoted from Pinballed

I think he's looking to buy the programmer, not find someone to program eproms for him

lol, sorry I can not read. Bulging disk in my back and hydromorphone in my belly = me no read so good

I've been successfully using a PCB3 Willem for years. With an external power supply I've had very few issues burning 2716/32/64/128/256/512 chips. The majority of the problems come in determining the proper programming voltage and making sure the jumpers are set on the programmer correctly. Beyond that, the chips themselves can frequently erase fine, but simply refuse to program.

This has just been my experience, YMMV.

I've never really heard anything good about Willems...

A "few" people will say they are OK, but far more complain about never-ending problems.

I've got 11 different programmers for different uses
and I find the best bang for the buck is an older programmer made by Modular Circuit Technology (MCT).
Specifically the MCT MOD-EMUP .

It can do most eproms, bipolar proms, PAL/GALs, CPU, etc...
... but it needs an a older PC with an ISA slot ( ie. circa 1995).
With any luck, you can find one on eBay for about $60-80

Here is a pic of the MCT programmers I own.
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24535&d=1264341870

That said, many people like the Pocket Programmer II.
I've never used it myself, but I've heard alot of people give it praise.
That one goes for about $150-$200.

If you have access to Google Groups, you can read an programmer review I wrote several years back.
http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting/msg/3192413964f3aac9?hl=en

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Steph

Thanks for all the great info guys  
Regards,
Scott