Willem EPROM Programmers

[Pinball Fixers]

Considering the price of the Willem EPROM programmers, many people have bought them (including myself)...

There are a few sellers on eBay selling these units, but if you look closely, they are not the same... furthermore, because the Willem programmers were/are an open project, there are many derivatives now available.

Of the "official" Willem programmers, the version 4.1 is probably the best for programming ROM's for use in Pinball Machines from the early electronic ones right through until Stern changed their system to use a USB Flash Drive to update the software. Unfortunately, the 4.1 is no longer available new from the Willem site: www.willem.org, but the 4.5 may also do the job fine (I have not tested this unit though).

The "Advanced Willem EPROM Programmer" PCB45 or PCB50 by Sivava (www.sivava.com) is probably the most common one on eBay (seller: sivavath), and at around AU$50 plus shipping, it is not a bad price. Well, so I thought... This unit claims to program 2716, 2532, 2732, 2764, 27128, 27256, 27512, 27010 (271001), 27020 (272001), 27040 (274001) and 27080 (278001) - along with the "C" versions, eg: 27C512 (among MANY other EPROMS, PIC's, etc...). It does program everything from 2764 onwards without too much pain - once you know the tricks - but the 2716, 2532 and 2732's are pretty much un-programmable with this unit... DAMN!

Considering I do a lot of work on older pinballs, it was starting to look like I was going to have to spend at least US$300 on a much more decent unit, just so I could program the older ROM's.

But, after doing some research, I realised that the Sivava Programmer was actually a modified Willem PCB 3b... Interesting... 

There is some info on the web about modifying the Vpp (Programming Voltage) section of the PCB 3b unit to make it more reliable when programming the old chips, but the PCB45 and PCB50 from Sivava are a bit different...

Once I figured out the differences, I modified my programmer to suit... it worked a treat! 

The next post will describe what to do if you own one of these programmers (or are thinking about buying one)...

[Retropin]

Interesting!!!

I have a "paperweight" of the Willem right here. Bought it for 2732, actually got it to a point where it said it had programmed them, but it didnt work.

Would love to know what you did, having a working programmer would be a refreshing change!

[Pinball Fixers]

OK, so you want your Advanced Willem EPROM Programmer to actually program the older chips? This can be achieved...

There are only a few parts that need to be replaced for the programmer to work with the 2716, 2532 and 2732's, and this will not affect programming the other ROM's.

Below is a pic showing the unit, and marking the components to be replaced:




The above pic does make it a bit difficult to see what needs replacing, so here it is again, but upside down (this is the pic I will be referencing):



OK, still not 100% easy to see, but hopefully this will give you the idea when you are looking at your own.


Anyway, there are not that many parts that need replacing... and the parts are pretty cheap overall.

Using the bottom pic as the reference, I will work from right to left...

R9 - This resistor is a 2k2 1/8W, change it to a 1k2 1/8W.
Q4 - This transistor (second from the bottom) is a BC557, change it to a BC327.
R10 - This resistor (second from the bottom) is a 3k8 1/8W, change it to a 2k2 1/8W.
C3 - This capacitor is a 22uF 35V electrolytic, change it to a 47uF 35V electrolytic.
D3 - This diode is a 1N4148, change it to a BYV26, BYV95C or another Ultra Fast Shotky Diode (I used the BYV26E) - you may need to drill out the holes slightly for the legs to go through.
C2 - This capacitor is a 220pF Ceramic, change it to a 1nF (1000pF) Ceramic capacitor.
R17 - This resistor is a 0.5ohm 1/4W resistor (it is hidden underneath the inductor), change it to a 0.33ohm 1/4W Metal Film resistor.
L1 - This inductor is a 100uH 35mA inductor, change this to a 100uH 300mA+ inductor.

As you can see... they are mostly common and easy to get parts, except for the Diode, Inductor, and maybe the 0.33ohm Resistor.


When buying the parts necessary for my programmer, some of the parts needed to be ordered in multiples of 5, so I bought enough to modify 5 complete programmers. 2 parts kits are already sold, but I have 2 left for sale if anybody is interested... Depending on the interest, I may order more parts to make more kits up... PM me if you are interested.


Next post will be about the different programming voltages for the ROM's... (this may take some time to gather all the data... )

[Pinball Fixers]

Interesting!!!

I have a "paperweight" of the Willem right here. Bought it for 2732, actually got it to a point where it said it had programmed them, but it didnt work.

Would love to know what you did, having a working programmer would be a refreshing change!

There are a quite a few different versions as I mentioned, but if you have the one that I have, then this should work for you.

I have a few tricks that I will be sharing about programming specific ROM's on this programmer soon...

[Pinball Fixers]

This is not what I thought was going to be the next post... but here it is anyway...


Many of the cheaper EPROM Programmers do not program 2532's as default. This is frustrating, as there are a lot of pinball and arcade machines that use these ROM's.

But, there is a trick...

2532's and 2732's are basically identical... except for the fact that some of the pin's are in different places! 


There are only 3 pins that need to be changed...

2532 pin 18 -> 2732 pin 21
2532 pin 20 -> 2732 pin 18
2532 pin 21 -> 2732 pin 20

If you make this into an adapter board, you can program as many 2532's as you like using the 2732 setting.

This works well on the Willem programmers, which do not have a 2532 setting at all.

[Strangeways]

Terrific Guide Owen.. There's a really great programmer that has been recommended to me that does just about all the chips on older boards, including 2532..

http://www.elnec.com/products/device-programmers/memprogl/

However - it is quite expensive..

I've heard about the Willems and I'll be watching this thread with interest..
 

[Retropin]

The advanced Willem @ $50 is a bloody bargain, however it didnt work on the 2732's and so was pretty useless to me.

But now - thanks to Owen it will! Awesome stuff!

[Pinball Fixers]

Terrific Guide Owen.. There's a really great programmer that has been recommended to me that does just about all the chips on older boards, including 2532..

http://www.elnec.com/products/device-programmers/memprogl/

However - it is quite expensive..

I've heard about the Willems and I'll be watching this thread with interest..
 

I haven't seen that programmer before, but it does seem to be able to program all the required ROM's.

For most hobbyists, the cheap Willem is probably the best option if you do not need to program many ROM's. But it does have some issues programming ROM's... It will not always program successfully, even after the power upgrade I described. If you can allow for that, then it is fine for the job.

[Pinball Fixers]

The advanced Willem @ $50 is a bloody bargain, however it didnt work on the 2732's and so was pretty useless to me.

But now - thanks to Owen it will! Awesome stuff!

No probs Gavin... after buying the Willem and finding the same thing you did, I was disappointed... But now it works most of the time (that's better than none of the time  )

[Pinball Fixers]

One of the things you need to know about each ROM you are going to program is the Vpp Voltage (Programming Voltage).

Here's a great chart on the different Vpp's needed for the different chips, by Manufacturer...

http://web.telia.com/~u85920178/eprom/eprom-dat.htm

One that is not listed is the TMS2532... It uses 25V for Vpp.

Also, the 27010 -> 27080 (271001 -> 278001) use 12.5V for Vpp regardless of the manufacturer.


Pay special attention to the "A" and "B" that is after some of the chip numbers... ie: Intel 2732, 2732A and 2732B... these 3 chips are the same, but use a different Vpp for programming!


There are other parameters to consider as well, which I will explain shortly...

[Pinball Fixers]

The other programming Voltage to worry about is the Vcc...

This is not the +5V Vcc that is used to power the IC's on the programmer, it is the Vcc that is used for the ROM when programming.

Here is what I have been using for the Vcc on the different chips:

2716 - 5V
2532 - 5V
2732 - 5.6V
2764 - 5.6V
27128 - 5.6V
27256 - 5.6V
27512 - 5.6V
27010 - 5.6V (271001)
27020 - 5.6V (272001)
27040 - 5.6V (274001)
27080 - 5.6V (278001)

Note1: I have omitted the "C" from the ROM numbers. the voltages are the same for either type of chip - ie: 27512 and 27C512 are the same for the purpose of programming
Note2: The numbers in brackets are the alternate part numbers for the same chip.


You may need to alter the Vcc setting if you are not getting successful burns... For the AMD 27C020 I have found that Vcc at 5V works better than at 5.6V.

[Pinball Fixers]

Another thing to be wary of when using Willem programmers is the "twP" setting.

For the most part, you can use the default setting for this, but the older ROM's don't like the defaults...

For 2716, use 50mS for twP
For 2532, use 12mS for twP
For 2732, use 12mS for twP

Using the settings above will give you a much higher success rate when programming the older ROM's.

[Pinball Fixers]

The advanced Willem @ $50 is a bloody bargain, however it didnt work on the 2732's and so was pretty useless to me.

But now - thanks to Owen it will! Awesome stuff!

Hey Gav, have you installed the update kit I sent to you? Just wanting see if it worked for you.