Help for Sprint plus programmer

[petrus bitbyter]

So I have an old Sprint Plus EPROM and PLD programmer. To use the latest
software I need an SMP module for it. As the programmer is not supported by
its manufacturer, DATAIO, they cannot help me. Anyone can help me to get the
module or can tell its contents so I can build one myself? No need to say
that any help will be appreciated.

petrus bitbyter

 

[[email protected]]

Data I//O are a bunch of hard-ons and AFAIK no one supports them on a
third party basis.

 

[Ken Smith]

So I have an old Sprint Plus EPROM and PLD programmer. To use the latest
software I need an SMP module for it. As the programmer is not supported by
its manufacturer, DATAIO, they cannot help me. Anyone can help me to get the
module or can tell its contents so I can build one myself? No need to say
that any help will be appreciated.

Where I work we also have a Sprint. It was not made by DATAIO. They may
have been bought. Can you discribe what you need since SMP means nothing
to me.

 

[petrus bitbyter]

Where I work we also have a Sprint. It was not made by DATAIO. They may
have been bought. Can you discribe what you need since SMP means nothing
to me.

The Sprint Plus programmer was ever manufactured by a German company SMS,
which was bought by DATAIO. DATAIO says it was discontinued before they
aquired SMS and gives no support at all.

SMP stands for something like "Software Maintenance Package". FAIK the
module consists of a PAL and a small PCB with an EEPROM. There is an empty
socket on the board that should hold it.

petrus bitbyter

 

[Ken Smith]

SMP stands for something like "Software Maintenance Package". FAIK the
module consists of a PAL and a small PCB with an EEPROM. There is an empty
socket on the board that should hold it.

You may be done for.

Until this year, I would have suggested that you buy the BP Microsystems
programmer to replace it. BP, however, no longer has a DOS version of
their software so they are now suspect.

 

[Rene Tschaggelar]

petrus bitbyter wrote:

The Sprint Plus programmer was ever manufactured by a German company
SMS, which was bought by DATAIO. DATAIO says it was discontinued before
they aquired SMS and gives no support at all.

What a pity. The Sprint was one of the finest
programmers available. While I went through a stack
of el cheapos, the Sprint of a colleague worked well
for over a decade.
The el cheapos somehow didn't like static electricity,
while the Sprint had a solid metal case.

I was never able to afford one.

Rene

 

[Keith Williams]

petrus bitbyter wrote:



What a pity. The Sprint was one of the finest
programmers available. While I went through a stack
of el cheapos, the Sprint of a colleague worked well
for over a decade.
The el cheapos somehow didn't like static electricity,
while the Sprint had a solid metal case.

I was never able to afford one.

I've always thought DATAIOs were horribly over-priced, even though I
work where there are deep pockets. I've had a couple of BP-
Microsystems (http://www.bpmicro.com/) programmers and have been very
impressed. BPM nas very good support and their stuff is only
moderately over-priced. ;-)

 

[Rene Tschaggelar]

I've always thought DATAIOs were horribly over-priced, even though I
work where there are deep pockets. I've had a couple of BP-
Microsystems (http://www.bpmicro.com/) programmers and have been very
impressed. BPM nas very good support and their stuff is only
moderately over-priced. ;-)

Well, yes, it was perhaps overpriced, but it worked.
And there were software updates, such that it was always
current.
The el cheapos stopped working quite often and I had
to repair them. Sometimes at customer sites. Lost an
hour here another one there.

Rene

 

[nospam]

I've always thought DATAIOs were horribly over-priced, even though I
work where there are deep pockets.

The Sprint programmers were not cheap.

I have a Sprint Expert which became unsupported while the Sprint Optima
(basically the same thing with a parallel port interface rather than
dedicated ISA card) continued. Data I/O graciously offered to effectively
sell me the programmer I already had again at a horrible price less 40%.

The Expert still works fine for parts that were around in 1999 when they
stopped supporting it.

Does anyone know Data I/Os price for a basic Optima?

I recently purchased a Xeltek SP3000U which I am pretty impressed with. A
bit cheap, cheerful, and Chinese but with a lot of bang for your buck.

It is an impressive modern design with USB interface, standalone mode with
'projects' held on Compact Flash. Truly universal pin drivers which are
partly driven by Xilinx FPGAs (which I am sure are dynamically reconfigured
to suit the part you are programming). Support for 18k devices and
counting.

 

[Keith Williams]

It is an impressive modern design with USB interface, standalone mode with
'projects' held on Compact Flash. Truly universal pin drivers which are
partly driven by Xilinx FPGAs (which I am sure are dynamically reconfigured
to suit the part you are programming). Support for 18k devices and
counting.

The BP Microsystems programmers claim over 18k devices as well. They
seem to be all parallel port devices though. I wonder how long that'll
take to change?

 

[Franc Zabkar]

So I have an old Sprint Plus EPROM and PLD programmer. To use the latest
software I need an SMP module for it. As the programmer is not supported by
its manufacturer, DATAIO, they cannot help me. Anyone can help me to get the
module or can tell its contents so I can build one myself? No need to say
that any help will be appreciated.

petrus bitbyter

Have you been here?
http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/131.htm

The site shows you how to convert a C/96 SMP to C/99.


- Franc Zabkar

 

[petrus bitbyter]

Have you been here?
http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/131.htm

The site shows you how to convert a C/96 SMP to C/99.


- Franc Zabkar

Mailed Matthieu already. Thanks.

petrus bitbyter

 

[nospam]

The BP Microsystems programmers claim over 18k devices as well. They
seem to be all parallel port devices though. I wonder how long that'll
take to change?

18k devices at what price? Like Data I/O they appear not to publish prices
which I always take as "If you have to ask you can't afford it".

 

[keith]

18k devices at what price? Like Data I/O they appear not to publish prices
which I always take as "If you have to ask you can't afford it".

Yeah, I don't like that either. The last one I bought was an 1148 (or
some such model) and went for about $1200. Buying through one of their
sales people was a PITA, since they weren't on our approved vendor list.
We had to have it marked up once more. Dumb, dumb, dumb, but that's life
in the fast lane.

 

[petrus bitbyter]

Yeah, I don't like that either. The last one I bought was an 1148 (or
some such model) and went for about $1200. Buying through one of their
sales people was a PITA, since they weren't on our approved vendor list.
We had to have it marked up once more. Dumb, dumb, dumb, but that's life
in the fast lane.

I ever used DATAIO. It was pretty good and very expensive. Nevertheless the
boss payed.. for a short time. As soon as he could find a cheaper solution
it was over. But the Sprint *I* (no boss involved) have now requires that
SMP. I found out that the oldest version consists of a PAL16R4 only. So does
anyone knows the contents of that PAL or can someone help me with another
SMP? Maybe from a discarded programmer?

petrus bitbyter