Eprom programmers

[ChrisJC]

Afternoon All,
For reading / writing EPROMs, I use a MicroMaster 1000E. This is an old piece of kit, almost contemporary with the Beeb itself! It requires a PC with a Parallel Port to run.
Currently, my desktop PC has a parallel port (a real one), so I simply run a VMWare Virtual Machine hosting FreeDOS, which is sufficient to run the software for the MM1000.

I am considering ditching the desktop PC for a NUC, which does not have a proper parallel port. This gives me a couple of options:
1. Try a USB Parallel Port with the NUC, and see if the MM1000 + VMWare + FreeDOS combination still works
2. Buy something a bit more modern, maybe even USB based?

What do other folks do to allow them to read / write EPROMS in this day and age?

Thanks,

Chris.

[cmorley]

I mostly use in machine reprogrammable EEPROM but when I do want some quartz window nostalgia I use my Wellon VP598. I have a TL866CS as well but the Wellon is 10x better so the 866 stays in its box :/

For erasing I have one of the generic Chinese UV erasers. I chopped off the Chinese/US plug and fitted a UK plug - much better than using a death adapter.

[nicolagiacobbe]

I can only put forward an educated opinion.
Being the device as old as our beloved beeb quite certainly has the parallel port under direct control i.e. is not using it to talk to another CPU but to latch 8 bit data or, even worse, shifting data in/out: both options need a strict timing control on LPT signals, something that is unattainable using an USB<>LPT converter, for at the bare minimum the USB latency will be at least 1ms.
My personal suggestions, mediated by the fact that I am not the brightest of the crew:
To avoid problems and just going back to reading/writing EPROMS: buy a new cheap chinese programmer
To learn a lot: use a Raspberry PI / Beaglebone with a dos emulator and patch it to access the I/O pins directly
I am still using a WIN98 laptop for those issues but I remind myself *very* often that I should *really* go for the latter route.

(Also, I should repair that poor watford EPROM programmer that has been the past 21 years in a drawer)

[BeebMaster]

I still use my Morley V2 EPROM Programmer to read and write EPROMs. It will do up to 27256. I also have an SC84 programmer, which I use occasionally to duplicate ROMs. It has a serial interface so that it can be controlled by a computer, but I've always used it as a standalone unit. That will do up to 27512.

[roland]

I am still very satisfied with my TL866II Plus programmer. I suggest you don't buy a Genius G540 (clone) since the software does not work correctly. At least, that's my experience with that programmer and that's why it learned to fly