need advice for buying a new Programmer

[eng.jaudat]

Hello,
i need to buy a new programmer.
can you please advice me which the best programmer i must have?

[peste]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

that's hard to say..depends on how much you use it, and what you want to schedule, and what money you have..etc..the choice is everyone's ..

[silentbogo]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

Depends on your daily tasks. If, for example, all you need is something that can flash SPI/I2C chips on mainstream electronics, then your best bet is Flashcat USB with some adapters. I've been using an older variant as a daily driver for nearly 5 years. Later got a "Pro" version from devs for a little favor, which was even more solid and flexible. It also does JTAG and NAND (but kinda clunky). All new versions support 1.8/3.3/5V and can do QSPI as well.

Buspirate is also pretty cool, but I haven't had a chance to play with it personally.

Both are under $30. Flashcat is available in US, but they do ship worldwide.

For some serious work you may want to look at TL866-seires programmers. Got me a TL866-II Plus last year, and been using it ever since. The reason I bough it , is because I needed something that can work with old parallel EEPROMs (my friend brought a few LandRover ECUs that needed a bit of work and tweaking).
There's also a newer T56 version. Supports a ton of various devices with wide range of voltages (including old chips w/ high-voltage programming, and newest 1.2V parts). Everything is automatic, easy to use, and intuitive. I think the most useful feature is pin check before programming, so you won't have to wonder why programming failed or why your chip ended up corrupted.

If you work on phones and tablets, then it might be a good idea to invest into a decent dedicated EMMC/UFS programmer. I don't use one, so I can't really tell you much about those.

[qayyum786]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

Hello,
i need to buy a new programmer.
can you please advice me which the best programmer i must have?

SVOD 3 is the best programmer wich is support almost all chip and SIO ec bios
without any trouble

[jasko_jacker]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

Only for bios, I use EZP2010, many say it is not recommended (I don't understand why). Personally I have programmed hundreds of bios without any problem, even the low voltage ones. For the EC I use a vertyanov (the old version) and except with some ITE (often the error depends on the bios installed) also with this I have not had problems.

[silentbogo]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

I use EZP2010, many say it is not recommended (I don't understand why).

It boils down to quality and "best bang for the buck".

Here's a quick snips of the internals (there are more equally crappy versions of this, but that's the only one I found):


Basically, if you ignore that dubious "offline copy" feature, it doesn't do anything that you can't accomplish with a $2.50-$3.00 CH341 programmer.

It doesn't have proper TTL control : only drops VCC/RST to a ballpark of 3.3V (whatever Vdrop on that diode and tranistors, basically), and the rest is handled by current-limiting resistors on data lines, which is not good...

Basically it's the bottom of the barrel, but costs almost as much as a semi-decent serial programmer.

I mean, if you already have it - you can make it work. For example, you can mod the 1.8V adapter to do all voltages w/ proper TTL conversion on I/O, disintegrate that questionable diode and replace it with an LDO etc.

But as a new purchase ...

[jasko_jacker]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

It's an old story the same as for example the hantek 6222BL oscilloscope / logic analyzer VS saleae logic analyzer same controller prices are remarkably different, both very limited, but if you have to check a clock they are more than good. But what is the most important thing? for me it is that it does its job, and it does (unsoldered bios chips, not reliable with chips in place) and it costs 10/14 Euros (EZP2010 old model not new models that I don't know)
For me it all depends on the type of use, in the end the bios chips are always the same with some exceptions.

[RethoricalCheese]

Re: need advice for buying a new Programmer

I still find Raspberry Pi to be the most reliable programmer when it comes to only programming bios chips. For 1.8V and/or WSON8 I use adapters. For 3V3 soic8 I just use clip and 99% time program on-board without problems.

Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W are very cheap (used to be 5€ and 10€). Havent seen a bios chip which was unsupported. Only downside is that since it is not a true programmer, it is not that convenient to use (I need to transfer files between windows PC and raspberry). Plus raspbian and CLI might scare some people
But it has made automation possible. Instead of unlocking 1 HP in an hour or so I can now unlock most models in just a few seconds and thus far without an issue.

With CH341A, MiniPro, SmartProg2 and EasyJtag and others I have had reliability issues sooner or later.