Hi,

just wondering if anyone has encountered a bulk EPROM programmer (35 way)
called AccessProgrammer.
It was made in 1990 by a company called Videcom in the UK I believe.

I'm looking for an idiots guide to see if I can get the thing working


Cheers

"me" <m...@mine.com> wrote in message
news:1...@ananke.eclipse.net.uk...
> Hi,
>
> just wondering if anyone has encountered a bulk EPROM programmer (35 way)
> called AccessProgrammer.
> It was made in 1990 by a company called Videcom in the UK I believe.
>
> I'm looking for an idiots guide to see if I can get the thing working

Well well well. That is a blast from the past. I used to work at Videcom and
have just talked to the designer of this unit. Unfortunately she cannot
remember exactly how it worked. If you can post a photo of it (not here,
this isn't a binary group) I can email this on and see if it jogs any
memories. But my best guess is that you'll need to get hold of the manual or
to talk to someone that remembers using it.
Incidentally, where did you pick this up?

Hi,

thanks for the response...

here's the photo:
http://www.ianparr.eclipse.co.uk/eprom/a1_1.jpg

Picked it up on Ebay, it's a huge beast (mostly power supply).
Interestingly I had a peek inside and the Eprom on the mainboard has an Elan
sticker over the Window. Whether the two companies merged at some point I
don't know - they both seem defunct now though.

Can't get it to talk to the PC via the serial port tried post of the common
baud,parity, stop bit and handshake options in Hyperterm), the unit goes
through a rather attractive self test on power up so if nothing else I have
a heavyweight Christmas decoration.

Any help would be usefull.

Ian

"Graeme" <g...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c1daid$1h63of$1...@ID-154333.news.uni-berlin.de...
> "me" <m...@mine.com> wrote in message
> news:1...@ananke.eclipse.net.uk...
> > Hi,
> >
> > just wondering if anyone has encountered a bulk EPROM programmer (35
way)
> > called AccessProgrammer.
> > It was made in 1990 by a company called Videcom in the UK I believe.
> >
> > I'm looking for an idiots guide to see if I can get the thing working
>
> Well well well. That is a blast from the past. I used to work at Videcom
and
> have just talked to the designer of this unit. Unfortunately she cannot
> remember exactly how it worked. If you can post a photo of it (not here,
> this isn't a binary group) I can email this on and see if it jogs any
> memories. But my best guess is that you'll need to get hold of the manual
or
> to talk to someone that remembers using it.
> Incidentally, where did you pick this up?
>
>

me wrote:

> Can't get it to talk to the PC via the serial port tried post of the common
> baud,parity, stop bit and handshake options in Hyperterm), the unit goes
> through a rather attractive self test on power up so if nothing else I have
> a heavyweight Christmas decoration.

Can you beg/borrow/steal an RS232 tester to plug into it, to see what 
lines it's lighting up? Since getting one of these little gadgets, RS232 
unresponsiveness hasn't been a problem for me since I've always been 
able to find out whether Rx and Tx are reversed, or if hardware flow 
control is being a pain, or if (as was once the case) it's synchronous 
RS232! It's Just a bi-colour LED on each line so you can see what is 
driving what.

> Any help would be usefull.

If you're in the London area, I can come over with my RS232 tester! :-)

> 
> Ian
> 

ABS

"me" <m...@mine.com> wrote in message
news:1...@ananke.eclipse.net.uk...
> Hi,
>
> thanks for the response...
>
> here's the photo:
> http://www.ianparr.eclipse.co.uk/eprom/a1_1.jpg
>
> Picked it up on Ebay, it's a huge beast (mostly power supply).
> Interestingly I had a peek inside and the Eprom on the mainboard has an
Elan
> sticker over the Window. Whether the two companies merged at some point I
> don't know - they both seem defunct now though.
>
> Can't get it to talk to the PC via the serial port tried post of the
common
> baud,parity, stop bit and handshake options in Hyperterm), the unit goes
> through a rather attractive self test on power up so if nothing else I
have
> a heavyweight Christmas decoration.
>
> Any help would be usefull.

The photo does bring back memories. This unit was originally just built to
copy EPROMs, and it seems that (with the evidence of the Elan sticker) the
programmer has undergone some further work (to make it hook up to a PC)
since the original engineer worked on it.

The unit was made to duplicate EPROMs back in the days when Videcom actually
manufactured terminals used (mainly) in airport check-in systems. Videcom
stopped making real hardware several years ago. Their 'sister' company
Access Keyboards (www.accesskeyboards.co.uk) were probably the users of this
programming equipment. Both companies still exist, and you could try an
email to them. You never know, someone might still remember this unit.