EEVblog #411 - MiniPro TL866 Universal Programmer Review

[eLAB]

Programmer arrived, immediately checked TSOP-48 adapter,  reporting V3, so it is genuine !

This seller is also good and verified personaly ...probably this will help someone.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TL866CS-programmer-17-adapters-TL866-AVR-Bios-PLCC-MCU-Flash-EPROM-IC-Programmer-/191103978753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c7eaf4d01

[mserifov]

Hello to evrybody.  http://autoelectric.cn/MiniPro/minipro_setup.rar

Link is not working. Please can some one upload for me and rest of people the V6.00

Thank you in advance.

[braselectron]

I also notice that today the http://www.autoelectric.cn is down or high load too.

I downloaded a few days ago.  I uploaded it to the following cloud drive:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/73yg5p47qy8ci80/MiniProV600_setup.7z

Notice that if you need a update/upgrade of firmware when you first run, you will need to wait their site be available again.

I found a english manual here: http://mediafire.com/?ufx1kkk4jtyjove

Have fun!

[amer70]

hi

can the minipro  tl866 support nand flash in open source software
https://hackingbtbusinesshub.wordpress.com/category/hamming-code/
http://hackaday.com/2012/09/20/reading-bare-nand-flash-chips-with-a-microcontroller/
http://www.ejtag.ru/images/shop/usb-nand.jpg

[le_stauss]

Hi,
Thanks radioman for your wonderful work

I hope like @amer70 that one day, the tl866 can work with big flash !

thanks

[rastro]

Finally got my MiniPro working with Mac OS 10.92 Mavericks and VirtualBox/Windows XP.
Previous Post: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-411-minipro-tl866-universal-programmer-review/msg377895/#msg377895

Initially I had the following error:
Failed to attach the USB device www.autoelectric.com MiniPro TL-866 Programmer to the virtual machine ...

This Was The Fix:
=======================================================================================
Virtual Box  4.2.10 R93012 with extension pack
Host: Mac Mini Maverick OS X 10.92
VM:   Microsoft XP (very basic installation)
MiniPro TL-866: assumes that vendor ID = 04D8; product ID = E11C

Select Windows XP virtual machine and open settings => ports => USB
- Check 'USB Controller'
- Check 'Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller'
- Add a new USB filter by selecting plus "+" icon on the right of window.
- Edit the new filter
-- Name: ... your choice
-- Vendor ID: 04D8
--Product ID: E11C
--Remote: NO
-- NOTE ... leave all other fields blank

Leave MiniPro TL-866 unconnected from USB while starting the WIN-XP virtual machine.
After VM is completely booted and logged in plug in the MiniPro.  My system then came up with a window that shows a new USB device was detected.  Proceded with the normal MiniPro install and verify operation.

I was not able to get this to operate with WIN2000 but I do not think this was a VirtualBox issue since is was able to pass through the USB device.

Happy Programming
Rastro

[BravoV]

Hey Rastro, thanks for the tips on Mac OS, cause I've been bugged "a lot"  by a friend which is a hobbyist that uses Mac OS and experienced the same problem, and I just can't help him cause I don't know anything about Apple platform at all. Yes, its my own fault that introduced this Minipro to him from the 1st place.

Forwarding your tips to him now. 

[nova100]

Now I have v6.00

Ok. you don't have the 5.91 version, download it here: Minipro V5.91  and unzip it somewhere in a folder.

then download my firmware updater here: TL866 firmware updater and unzip it.
In my firmware updater folder you will find a exe file called TL866.exe; run it!
Once the firmware updater starts, browse for a file called update.dat in the above downloaded 5.91 minipro folder.
Click the reflash button!
Done. You should have now the 3.2.61 firmware version. Just use minipro.exe from the 5.91 folder to work.
If you will later want to use the 6.0 version of minipro you will be asked to reflash the firmware and obviously the minipro 6.0 version will upgrade the firmware again to 3.2.62 version.

Do I need to determine the type of programmr cs or a

and one thing i did Updated to version v6  with a bios chip in zip soket Does this damage the tl886cs
 and thank for all of u and Special thanks to radioman

[Bryan]

What is the difference between the TL866CS and the TL866A ?

[le_stauss]

@Bryan,
make a little effort, read some pages of this thread and you can find your answer.
This is a very interresting thread.
bye
good week

[Bryan]

So the A version supports ICSP whereas the CS does not. But the CS version can be modified via firmware update and a header installed to convert to a A model if one desires?

[linux-works]

yes, you have to hack the cs into an a-version.

I bought the a-version since it was not much more expensive, no hacking needed and no danger of having to 'keep up' with any hacks if they change the firmware structure in the future.  the cost difference was just not enough to care about, for me, at least.

[Bryan]

Think you are right, probably better just to go for a A version. I tend to play around with Atmel and Arduino projects and they MCU's typically need a crystal attached, so the ICSP may be a better option.

[ficho]

@radioman
It would be interesting to hear your approach figuring out the flash decryption routing ...
Since it is a 8bit micro controller it should use some simple decryption routines or some look up tables as you have written in some of your post's.

Regards ficho

[radioman]

@radioman
It would be interesting to hear your approach figuring out the flash decryption routing ...
Since it is a 8bit micro controller it should use some simple decryption routines or some look up tables as you have written in some of your post's.

Hi @ficho and welcome to the forum! well, this can be a long forum post explaining how the "encryption" works but instead you should read the source code of the firmware updater here https://github.com/radiomanV/TL866. You right it uses some kind of lookup table for decryption. 

Right now i'm quite busy working on the linux version of minipro software. Many TL866 users using Linux as their primary OS use VirtualBox only to run a simple windows executable; while this can be a solution, a better approach is to run the minipro.exe directly under linux through wine! Unfortunately while the application is running normally it can not access the hardware directly due to the different platform implementation. And here i am, developing a simple bridge between the minipro software and linux usb hardware as a simple wine library; you copy a simple .dll file in the minipro directory and you're done!

The first tests sounds promising (Xubuntu 13.10):

[ficho]

Hi radioman,
I checked your project https://github.com/radiomanV/TL866 very nice work you have done there , creating a Linux project is interesting and needs a lot of time and work.
Implementing new algorithm's would be also interesting, as I can see no Motorola mcu's are included in support list.

Regards ficho

[Bryan]

Have been looking at the offerings on Ebay and have seen a number of TL866A's advertised. When looking at the pictures, the back of the units show TL866CS. Seller modifying them and pawning them off as A's?. Or do they all say TL866CS.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TL866A-MiniPro-USB-Programmer-EEPROM-SPI-FLASH-AVR-GAL-PIC-with-ICSP-Function-/131167866552?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e8a36ceb8

[casinada]

Probably the pictures got mixed up as the ICSP port is open and it has the connector is there. If you're considering to purchase from that seller you should ash them first.

[Bryan]

I asked but so far no response from the seller. Not sure how easy it would be to modify a CS to a A as to where it would be practical in terms of selling. Not that much of a price difference. Curious if others have a "A" model but the bottom sticker is marked "CS"

[tsmith35]

I bought the bigger pkg that sunwenjun has (went for the A model and it seems there is a 'black zif socket' version, now).  has anyone seen the new magical black socket?  are we trading one color of fake for another or is this really a better made socket?

Did you ever get the tl866a? Anything special about the black socket?

[linux-works]

yes, I got it a long time ago.  it seems to be fairly decent.  the green ones seem a bit cheaper to me, but I don't have the green one that is the alternate for this seller.  its hard to know if this is anything special or not, but I don't have a problem with the black one that I got.  does not seem to be too bad and I've seen worse before.

[tsmith35]

I have one on order (black socket), but I've been using an Andromeda Labs EPROM+ for years. Rock solid, but it uses parallel. I still have access to parallel on my PC and laptop (via dock), but I thought I'd check out the TL866A anyway.

[Jose Luis Collado]

Hi ! Having problems with the TL866CS trying to program an ATMEGA328: reads OK, but when loading and HEX file to program I get the mesasge "Invalid Format". Am I missing something ? Using Arduino's bootloader HEX file, so I know it's valid and the same chip can be programmed with this same file using an AduinoISP.

Any help appreciated. Thanks and Regards.

[tsmith35]

Hi ! Having problems with the TL866CS trying to program an ATMEGA328: reads OK, but when loading and HEX file to program I get the mesasge "Invalid Format". Am I missing something ? Using Arduino's bootloader HEX file, so I know it's valid and the same chip can be programmed with this same file using an AduinoISP.

I found this post on EEVblog...

Also sounds like someone ran into something similar here. And here.

[linux-works]

I have a spare 328 chip here and that programmer.  which hex file are you trying, and I'll see if it works on mine.