nesdev.org

EPROMs are certainly cheaper, but I can't ever seem to find a small UV eraser for a decent price on like Ebay that isn't shipped from Asia and wants 220v AC. I heard it's not very hard to build one, but when it comes to UV light, I don't think that's something I want to muck around with.

I once looked into alternate sources for UV, like the sun, but they say it can take upwards to a week or more for that to do it, if even then. And fluorescent light can take ages longer. So it looks like I'm stuck with eeproms as well. Finding a place that doesn't stick you on shipping is the key. I just browse Ebay till something interesting pops up.

UV is nothing to be scared of, if you glance at it for a few seconds its not going to do any more harm than what the sun does.

Just get a cookie tin and drill a hole in it (for power).

Some light can leak out, but you can always tape up the edges with electrical tape to fix that.

Works great.

drk421 wrote:UV is nothing to be scared of, if you glance at it for a few seconds its not going to do any more harm than what the sun does.

Just get a cookie tin and drill a hole in it (for power).

Some light can leak out, but you can always tape up the edges with electrical tape to fix that.

Works great.

Umm, the sort of ultraviolet required to erase EPROMs can severely damage your eyes and skin (severe sunburn, instant cataracts) - not exactly the sort of stuff you want to mess around with.

http://nesdev.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=14226

Hmm, depending on the intensity, I doubt a 4 watt bulb would do much harm.


http://205.158.110.70/ubbcgi/ultimatebb ... 0&t=000490

Out of curiosity, is the ozone produced by such a device harmful at all? Would you want to vent one like solder fumes?

uhm dudes.... isn't it true that old P1 (pentium 1) computers use such roms?
cause if so:
- why not remove the first 16 bytes of a rom (it's header)
- save the output as a .BIN files and flash the BIOSrom with a tool like AWDflash and get that in a nescart?

In theory that should work.
I can get P1 machines for free.

I'm not sure if those old motherboards use the more modern style Flash memory. You might have to use like a 28F style, if I'm thinking correctly. It also might just depend on the motherboard in general as to which you'd need.

The only possible problems I can think of off the top of my head in regards to using the program there to do it is like a CRC check it might do to make sure you don't mess up your bios.

FyberOptic wrote:Out of curiosity, is the ozone produced by such a device harmful at all? Would you want to vent one like solder fumes?

Um, UV light produces ozone...? Perhaps you're confusing that w/ electrostatic precipitation (one of these things)?
What chemicals are present in solder fumes?

Yes, UV light (especially UVC) is energetic enough to break oxygen apart and cause it to recombine into ozone (though in rather small quantities).

I heard about it when looking up stuff about eprom erasers before and the safety of the UV light. Apparently the combination of it and oxygen can produce it. I dunno the details.

But according to various newsgroup postings, maybe there's not anything significant produced. And I've seen other people mention it even depends on the bulb used, so who knows.

Quietust wrote:Yes, UV light (especially UVC) is energetic enough to break oxygen apart and cause it to recombine into ozone (though in rather small quantities).

Arrrgh! Yet another failure to think thoroughly enough before posting!

*regains sanity* I really have to learn that negligible != 0; (I also need to be more careful about when I judge something to be negligible.) The problem was that I had that Ionic Breeze thing stuck really deep in my head, and I know that in such a device (specifically, the Ionic Breeze GP Professional Series model), the electrostatic precipitation creates far more ozone than the UV bulb. I've never done serious electronics hacking, so maybe I should stay out of this discussion.

I've heard of people using PC mainboard to Flash ROMs. You need to swap the chips while the system is running though (and enable BIOS cache or shadowing in the BIOS menu, so it copies to RAM when it boots). And obviously if you don't have a second chip, it would be a one-time shot, heheh.

85cocoa wrote: What chemicals are present in solder fumes?

Specifically it's not the solder, but the fumes from the burning flux. Usually solder has rosin flux in it (made from pine tree sap). I also use water-soluable flux, which has a seemingly noxious chemical smell even when it's not burning.

Memblers wrote:I've heard of people using PC mainboard to Flash ROMs. You need to swap the chips while the system is running though (and enable BIOS cache or shadowing in the BIOS menu, so it copies to RAM when it boots). And obviously if you don't have a second chip, it would be a one-time shot, heheh.

That's no problem if it's a one-time shot.
if I can just flash em I should do fine.
I can get P1 systems all the time, so I might wanna check this out

loopy wrote:As far as I know, it's exactly the same as the original, except for missing FDS sound in the endgame music.

There are 2 other significant differences I ran across:
1. All of the spring-boards are red, even the super-strong ones - the latter are supposed to be green.
2. All of the piranha plants are green and don't come out of the pipes when you're next to them. Somewhere around world 4, they're supposed to turn red and ignore your position when coming out (unless you're standing directly on top of the pipe, I think).

downloader wrote:uhm dudes.... isn't it true that old P1 (pentium 1) computers use such roms?

Oh boy. Well, I've have the chance to brick a computer (specifically the one im on right now amongst others ), but this isn't too difficult.

First, get the target computer, rip the holo. sticker off the top of the BIOS (or the firmware revision if not somthing spiffy).

Check that number that it has.

common for penium 1/mmx boards is the x010 series chips, providing 128KB (1Mbit) of EEPROM. Somtimes an x020 is used, and that'd obviously provide double.

If the BIOS has a window, you're SOL (27x512 and 27x256 generally are windowed and only found on 386/486 board anyways).

Prep a floppy for flashing.

Win9x boot disk (you had one to make sure the mobo worked in the first place, right?)

uniflash software -- CHECK SUPPORTED HARDWARE/CHIPS SECTION PLEASE ---

Also consult your mobo manual to check if a write-protect dip is enabled or a congruent arrangement (like a 5v/12v toggle) is present. I've seen both (and both on the same board)

You'd in this case take your code and mirror across the entire chip (dos command copy /b rom.bin+rom.bin+rom.bin+rom.bin flash.bin) <--Assuming 64KB (256Kbit) code size on a 256KB (1Mbit) chip.

Also, if you do this, salvage your flash chips from other devices...It's absolutely stupid to brick a Pentium computer for the sole purpose of utilizing it's EEPROM.

copy uniflash files and "flash.bin" to the boot floppy. Boot it.

Uniflash is pretty straighforward, and has saved my ass several times, so I'm not really going to go into detail.

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