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Old 10th May 2021, 1:11 am   #69
ortek_service
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Default Re: Early EPROM programmer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post
I'm guessing that if you can take a shot of the underside of the PCB, we'd probably like that one in the same super hi-res as top view.

As Owen said, if you can positively identify the +5V and 0V supply rails you can probably power it up to the extent that it will produce a UHF RF signal which can be tuned in on an analogue TV. That's assuming that you don't have the actual power supply for it of course.
Quote:
Originally Posted by onewatt View Post
I'm visiting site on Monday to collect books and paperwork from a lifetimes interest in electronics. I'll probably have to filter afterwards and it may take me until next weekend, but I'll see what I can find on softy2.

Some more pics which hopefully work for all.
Back to the original post - On what turned out to be a Softy-2:

I've been having a look over the PCB Photos, and found a few things.

1. The DC Power input DIN-Socket is actually 3-pin (even though it looks like a 5-pin one), as there's actually only 3 pins on underside of the PCB (Front 2 are shield ground). If you look carefully, it appears there's only 3 contacts in the holes (unless they used a 5pin one and cut the PCB-pins 4&5 off).

To ensure the correct pin numbers are referred to, I looked for a 5-pin etc. DIN socket picture on the 'net, with the Correct-view ones on it - which was surprisingly difficult to find (Wikipedia etc. doesn't show any numbers, and many are actually the mirrored opposite-view into mating-pins end of plug even though they say it's the socket). But this one does seem right: https://connector.pinouts.ru/5_pin_DIN_female/

2. The middle of the '5' (actually 3?) contacts (Pin 2) is Ground (0V)

3. Pin 1 (The top-right, when looking into socket, with board the correct way-up) goes into the emitter of TR5, whose collector (& Tab) goes to IC13 (7445) Pin16 (Vcc=+5V). So this must be a PNP transistor, and appears to be used in conjunction with TR1/2/3/4 & DZ2(4V3?) to form a (Low-dropout) +5V regulator. So I would guess that voltage on the connector Pin1 would be around +6V - Trying +5.5V to start with and monitoring voltage on the +5V rail should be fairly-safe. Or alternatively, just connecting +5.0V directly to TR5 tab etc. should also be OK.

4. Pin 3 (The top-left, when looking into socket, with board the correct way-up) goes into the input of a 100mA voltage regulat (VR1), whose 'Gnd / Adj' centre-pin goes to cathode of DZ3(20V?) with DZ4 anode to ground. I'm not sure what this regulator type is, as I the photos don't show the right view, but if it was a standard 78L05 this would give +25V output for use as the Vpp programming voltage. So I would guess that voltage on the connector Pin3 would be around +28 to +30V (But should only be required for actually programming EPROM's with it).

So hopefully it should be possible to power it up, even if the original PSU can't be located.

Last edited by ortek_service; 10th May 2021 at 1:21 am.
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