Author Topic: EEVblog #411 - MiniPro TL866 Universal Programmer Review (Read 1557959 times)

Amarbir[Lynx-India] · « **Reply #50 on:** January 20, 2013, 01:58:25 pm »

Quote from: UPI on January 17, 2013, 02:33:15 pm

I sure wish it supported the AM27S291.

I can't see spending the big bucks for a Xeltek SuperPro 5000E just for this one application.

Sir ,
i forwarded the datasheet you send me .Sir says he could not find much useful info in it .But he says if you can send him one sample he can try and add the support .

@ All ,
Could you please pass on all the chinglish issues .I will solve them in the future updates please .

@ dave ,
Could you please post in the blog and youtube that people can pass chinglish issues to my email id sales[At]lynxdealerstore.com .

Note : Replace [at] With @

baoshi · « **Reply #51 on:** January 20, 2013, 04:10:09 pm »

Hi,
Can anyone having this programmer check if the AVR mega and tiny programming is in HVSP mode? If that is the case this will be very useful for rescuing those dead chips because of wrong fuse setting.

thanks

Bob

notsob · « **Reply #52 on:** January 20, 2013, 08:28:47 pm »

aoshi, if you have a few 'dead' ones, there is this, not sure if he still sells pbs

http://mdiy.pl/atmega-fusebit-doctor-hvpp/?lang=en

baoshi · « **Reply #53 on:** January 21, 2013, 08:02:29 am »

Quote from: notsob on January 20, 2013, 08:28:47 pm

aoshi, if you have a few 'dead' ones, there is this, not sure if he still sells pbs

http://mdiy.pl/atmega-fusebit-doctor-hvpp/?lang=en

Looks interesting, but I didn't find any costing info.
Another one I know of is the HV rescue shield from Mightyohm. However, although the cost is only $20, shipping charge is $16+ to my country

Anyway I already ordered a Tl866cs from China, about same price as Dave's

Amarbir[Lynx-India] · « **Reply #54 on:** January 21, 2013, 10:30:51 am »

Quote from: baoshi on January 21, 2013, 08:02:29 am

Quote from: notsob on January 20, 2013, 08:28:47 pm
aoshi, if you have a few 'dead' ones, there is this, not sure if he still sells pbs

http://mdiy.pl/atmega-fusebit-doctor-hvpp/?lang=en

Looks interesting, but I didn't find any costing info.
Another one I know of is the HV rescue shield from Mightyohm. However, although the cost is only $20, shipping charge is $16+ to my country

Anyway I already ordered a Tl866cs from China, about same price as Dave's

Hi ,
Please share The Link With Others .

baoshi · « **Reply #55 on:** January 22, 2013, 03:48:38 am »

Quote from: Amarbir[Lynx-India] on January 21, 2013, 10:30:51 am

Hi ,
Please share The Link With Others .

Well it is from Taobao aka Chinese eBay. The actual link is below. There are couple of sellers selling TL866CS at RMB258 bundled with several SOP adaptors. However order from them directly may be problematic for many peoples here because you need a China bank account, communicate with them in Chinese and most sellers do not ship overseas.

But I understand in many countries there are agents doing concierge services from Taobao.com. I'm using www.sgalipay.com in Singapore. Ian of dangerousprototype had one blog http://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/10/02/shopping-taobao-our-first-steps/ on how to shop from US.

The shop link is: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.5.0.41.rz3cTZ&id=12823433153
As I'm not affiliated to any particular shops, here is the "search" link that gives you all shops
http://s.taobao.com/search?q=TL866CS&searcy_type=item&s_from=newHeader&source=&ssid=s5-e&search=y

diogoc · « **Reply #56 on:** January 22, 2013, 08:38:47 am »

Quote from: MickM on January 19, 2013, 08:44:18 pm

edit - will installing the ICSP connector make the CS into an A?
Dave ?

No, it is limited in firmware

MickM · « **Reply #57 on:** January 22, 2013, 10:55:34 am »

Hi diogoc;
thanks for the answer.
Now I know what to order.

Mick M

olsenn · « **Reply #58 on:** January 24, 2013, 07:22:07 pm »

Quote

Can anyone having this programmer check if the AVR mega and tiny programming is in HVSP mode? If that is the case this will be very useful for rescuing those dead chips because of wrong fuse setting.

According to the official website: autoelectric.cn, the MiniPro does indeed program Atmel AVR IC's in your choice of ISP or parrallel (HV) programming. However, I'm not sure if this still applies to the TL866CS or just the TL866A.

amiq · « **Reply #59 on:** January 26, 2013, 07:58:02 pm »

Quote from: Amarbir[Lynx-India] on January 20, 2013, 01:58:25 pm

@ All ,
Could you please pass on all the chinglish issues .I will solve them in the future updates please .

@ dave ,
Could you please post in the blog and youtube that people can pass chinglish issues to my email id sales[At]lynxdealerstore.com .

Note : Replace [at] With @

When running the application on any of the laptops that I have access too (all Dell's with Intel Mobile series 4 chipsets and running XPSP3) a bug in the gui is apparent - the application window does not scale itself correctly. Since you cannot manual adjust the window size the scroll bars have to be used to view the contents of the window.

doktori · « **Reply #60 on:** January 26, 2013, 11:21:27 pm »

Hi - just received a TL866 off of Ebay. I am having the same GUI issues as a recent poster.
I used the MiniPro 5.80 software & 3.2.59 hardware on a desktop AMD - WinXP
and an Intel i3 laptop with Win7 - 64 bit. Changing the program start properties from 'Normal Window' to 'Maximized' helps the display some but many items are still shown in the wrong locations.

I have tried changing display resolutions, compatibility settings, reload the software, etc. and still a screwy GUI.

The programmer works fine but you can't select anything in the IC CONFIG MENU because the VPP-VDD-VCC-DELAY all appear in the middle of the data table.............

I hope this gets fixed in a new release because I'm stumped...

Doktori

abzman · « **Reply #61 on:** January 27, 2013, 09:46:53 pm »

I just got mine yesterday. I was playing around dumping old bios roms that I had salvaged a long time ago when I was pleased to find that the "Logic IC" does, in fact, test 74xx, 40xx, and mc14xxx chips. When he heard that my friend bought one on the spot! I would be really excited if I can send in bugs that I find and chips that I would like to see supported to the software developers. I have yet to try out my ICSP header I soldered in, but I plan to later tonight or tomorrow, the software doesn't seem to know what model it is. The pic18f87j50 (if they are all the same) has a programming header right on the board, I may try dumping and backing up the firmware just in case they try to remove ICSP functionality on future firmware updates.

I was able to check all the logic ICs on my 'SD systems z80 starter kit' except the 21L02 sram, 2316 prom, 75452 nand gates, and the mc14538. With a little more support for discreet logic chips I can see this programmer as an invaluable tool in debugging vintage computers. The one thing I was surprised about was the lack of 74xx595/597 support. Isn't that one of the most common hobbyist 74-series chips used today? I could totally see myself using this programmer weekly for years to come if support is continually added as it looks like it might be.

MickM · « **Reply #62 on:** January 30, 2013, 02:45:20 pm »

Hi abzman;

Did the ISP header work?
Also were you able to read the PIC?

I have not ordered one yet - awaiting your results.

Mick M

OZ1LQB · « **Reply #63 on:** January 30, 2013, 05:08:17 pm »

Hi all..
i bought one of these because of david's video..
I am very happy with it..
I tried to put the ISP header in and it told me that the tl866cs is a limited version
so for me no luck..

abzman · « **Reply #64 on:** January 31, 2013, 10:36:27 am »

friend hasn't gotten his in yet, and I got a bit sidetracked working on something else, will attempt hopefully tomorrow

spagamoto · « **Reply #65 on:** February 01, 2013, 06:05:51 am »

Just playing around with the software, considering purchasing this thing.

For all y'all experiencing GUI issues, try this tool. It lets you resize any window.
ResizeEnable
http://www.digitallis.co.uk/pc/downloads.html

Works pretty well. Just resize it so the scrollbars go away. I still get some GUI oddness but I can fix most of it by switching tabs using those skinny buttons on the top right. I had thought it was a resolution problem but I've tried a bunch of resolutions right up to 1920x1200 to no avail. Annoying.

Amarbir, any chance for a bugfix? I'm on XP SP3.

[EDIT] Actually, I can't get all the parts of the UI to show. Was about to buy this thing but until the software gets fixed I'm going to keep looking...
[EDIT2] Decided to mess with this more. Seems to be an XP problem. Issue happens under my other WinXP machine, but not on my Win7 laptop. I however need it to work on my WinXP machine.

Amarbir[Lynx-India] · « **Reply #66 on:** February 01, 2013, 07:16:42 am »

Quote from: spagamoto on February 01, 2013, 06:05:51 am

Just playing around with the software, considering purchasing this thing.

For all y'all experiencing GUI issues, try this tool. It lets you resize any window.
ResizeEnable
http://www.digitallis.co.uk/pc/downloads.html

Works pretty well. Just resize it so the scrollbars go away. I still get some GUI oddness but I can fix most of it by switching tabs using those skinny buttons on the top right. I had thought it was a resolution problem but I've tried a bunch of resolutions right up to 1920x1200 to no avail. Annoying.

Amarbir, any chance for a bugfix? I'm on XP SP3.

[EDIT] Actually, I can't get all the parts of the UI to show. Was about to buy this thing but until the software gets fixed I'm going to keep looking...
[EDIT2] Decided to mess with this more. Seems to be an XP problem. Issue happens under my other WinXP machine, but not on my Win7 laptop. I however need it to work on my WinXP machine.

Correct ,
This issue is only in some machine .My IBM thinkpad running XP does not have it my HP Nx6325 Has It .

Note : By Adding Headers CS Can Never Become A

SeanB · « **Reply #67 on:** February 01, 2013, 03:07:41 pm »

Just got mine. Thanks Frankie, arrived in one piece, nicely packed and with all the adaptors ( could have used the PLCC extractor last week, but a screwdriver worked well enough to get the prom out, must look at the old one to see what the difference is in the versions in that phone) and with some nice looking stamps.

Tried it out after updating Wine, but Mmmm, no comms. Must look into getting it to work, might have to install a VM to use it. Rebooted into the original Win7 ( wow, so long since the upgrade to Ubuntu, must edit out all those old kernels from it, to get the boot menu all onto one page again) for the second time. Installed the software and plugged it in. Do test and it wants to upgrade the firmware, so did it.

Dug out some old eproms, and they do read, and are blank ( should be, they were erased a few times in the eraser some years ago, and were new anyway) so wrote them all to 00. Verified and they pass. Tried an old used eprom from a fax that was wacked by lightning, and it read it. Then wrote all to 00, and it did it.

I see the windowing issue, but it works fine with Win7.

abzman · « **Reply #68 on:** February 01, 2013, 08:29:45 pm »

ok, I knocked together an icsp header cable for the atmega328 and indeed the software reports 'TL866CS ICSP Programming is limited!'

new plan, my tl866cs reports
ID 04d8:e11c Microchip Technology Inc.
in lsusb on linux, anyone have a tl866a and want to see if it's different?

SeanB · « **Reply #69 on:** February 26, 2013, 07:07:32 pm »

Finally got cheesed off with rebooting and installed Virtualbox from Oracle ( not the one in the repository, though I tried that first then uninstalled it as I needed the Oracle USB abilities as well) and it works well. Found a still in box copy of Win98 ( must have missed installing it on a machine some years ago, still has the stickers and the boot diskette in the package) and a copy of XP as well. XP installed a lot faster on the VM than what I remember from doing it on bare metal, hardware sure has changed from installing it on a 128M 450MHz Celeron, now it has a core or two to use, and is blissfully unaware it is on a VM. Gave up on passing files to it ( might look it up later to get stuff out, but I can mount the VM as a disk when it is off) and made an ISO to pass the 2 files I wanted to pass to it, then mounted it and installed the minipro software, driver and it connected first time, passed self test and worked. Pared it down by getting most of the bloatware off it as well.

zaphar · « **Reply #70 on:** February 28, 2013, 11:24:42 am »

Quote from: SeanB on February 01, 2013, 03:07:41 pm

Tried it out after updating Wine, but Mmmm, no comms.

You've used a virtual machine to get it running, but is Wine a definite no-go? I'm considering getting one of these but would really like to stay in Linux to use it.

radioman · « **Reply #71 on:** February 28, 2013, 04:42:47 pm »

For all experiencing GUI issues try this:

1. Insert your Windows Xp installation CD.
2. Go to Control Panel->Regional and Language option and select Languages tab.
3. Check Install files for East Asian languages. Reboot computer.
4. Go to Control Panel->Regional and Language option and select Advanced tab.
5. Select Chinese(PRC) in the Language for non-Unicode programs dropdown combo. Reboot computer.
6. After reboot select English (or whatever you have) in Language for non-Unicode programs dropdown combo. Reboot again.

These operations will install all necessary fonts and files for chinesse language.
Enjoy!

olsenn · « **Reply #72 on:** February 28, 2013, 05:38:18 pm »

Linux sucks! Install Windows 7 or XP and be done with it

SeanB · « **Reply #73 on:** February 28, 2013, 06:09:25 pm »

Quote from: zaphar on February 28, 2013, 11:24:42 am

Quote from: SeanB on February 01, 2013, 03:07:41 pm
Tried it out after updating Wine, but Mmmm, no comms.

You've used a virtual machine to get it running, but is Wine a definite no-go? I'm considering getting one of these but would really like to stay in Linux to use it.

wine is still a work in progress for USB direct communications, so I used a sledgehammer. As a plus now I can use a few of those DMM and other programs that are windoze only, and I did, after some digging, find a XP install disk. Anybody want a copy of Win98, got a few of those coasters around still, even got a few CD's of the service packs and all the updates as well.

zaphar · « **Reply #74 on:** February 28, 2013, 11:21:53 pm »

Quote from: olsenn on February 28, 2013, 05:38:18 pm

Linux sucks! Install Windows 7 or XP and be done with it

Meh, if you use anything beyond point and click, you might take the opposing view.


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Author Topic: EEVblog #411 - MiniPro TL866 Universal Programmer Review (Read 1557959 times)

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