I am looking into making a PROM burner and just curious if anyone has made one and had it work with windows software such as TunerPRO, C.A.T. Tuner. Thanks

 

An *EPROM* burner is seperate from any tuning software. It will need it's own software to program chips; the tuner software will make the files.

Just curious, but with the myriad of cheaper alternatives out there, why would you want to do this? We made the Prominator Standard cheap enough to be competitive with pretty much any commercial programmer out there; not to mention, it will be supported in TunerPro and possibly TunerCat here soon.

 

Sounds pretty good, but why isn't it approved to use on an emission controlled vehicle?? Plus how would I get the factory settings thats on the original prom to the PROMinator?? I have seen any factory BIN's for my vehicle on the internet.

 

Same reason none of the other equipment is; you're making the changes - how can we control if it's emission-compliant or not?

As for reading your current EPROM, you will need a BIN file already. I believe Craig Moates might have something to help you? Take a look on his website, too.

 

Ok I think i understand on the emissions now. Basically you can't control how the consumer tunes his car therefore the car may not pass emissions?? I was just about to check moates site out. Do you think he might have a $16 Definition file or do you know where I could find one?? 128322 ALCD 4.5L TBI

 

Your definition file might be a tough one, but the .bin can be read from your stock chip when you remove it.

 

I've made a chip burner, and managed to get it to work with TunerPro. Or was it the other way around? It's all a blur...

 

This topic gets discussed on this forum every now and then when some blokes hope there is a cheaper way... Only masochists (or chip-heads) do this.

I've made my own burner too (though from a kit, not from scratch like Clever-duds Craig- go Craig!). I wouldn't do it again. I'd get myself a job cleaning sewers for three days (not quite as much a masochistic high, but more time-efficient) and then use the proceeds to by a PPII or a Moates Flash and Burn.

John

 

With the Atmel 29C256 Chip, can I burn directly to the chip through the ALDL while it's in the car?

 

Now, thats sweet! What kinda software/hardware you need for that?

 

My vote goes to installing something along the lines of autoprom or a prominator. I played the chip game last year and it really was no fun having the ECM dangling around on the passengers feet most of the season. That and constantly removing, flashing, burning and re-installing chips was kinda time consuming. I picked up a prominator and never looked back. That was money very well invested.

 

What is a Prominator, what does it do, and how does it do it????

 

The Prominator is a programmable permanent replacement for a PROM or EPROM. It solders in place of your EPROM/PROM, and is programmable by your laptop's parallel port. This eliminates the need to remove/install chips, as well as purchase any kind of eraser or programmer.

Take a look at www.prominator.com - or there's a lengthy thread on this forum as well about it.

There are two versions - Standard and Pro. The Standard you have to pull over to program, and the Pro you can "tune-on-the-fly."

Hopefully soon we'll have software support within TunerPro and possibly TunerCat also.

 

Checked out the site yesterday. It looks like the way to go. If I send him my computer, I wonder if he can do an inital burn off of a custom chip I have onto the Prominator or am I going to have to invest in a prom reader anyway?

Since I still have to check the adapter wiring harness (someone built years ago) that adapts a 165 to my 870 harness. I figured I would send it off to have the conversion done to save me the time. If I had the time, I love to do stuff like that.

Currently, I have church three times a week. Prayer meeting on Monday evening. I teach a young minister's class on Sunday afternoons, and lead an outreach team meeting every two weeks. I also teach home bible studies two nights a week. Not to mention working 12 hours a day on my "Day Job". Oh, let's not forget sermon preparation. Sound system upgrades and repairs, etc....

 

If you already have a custom chip, I'm sure we can just copy it to a BIN and you can put it on the Prominator yourself.

What ECM do you have?

 

I am currently running the 870 ECM until I have a chance to check the harness connections on my adapter (870 to 165). I now have the wiring diagrams for both the 870 and the 165 so I can do it with no problems as soon as I can find the time.....

I want to run the 165 since it is much faster and it has more memory. This is also the ecm that has the custom 89 No Vats chip that TPIS burned for me.

I have had a problem lunching A/C units since I switched to the adapter and the 165 computer. I'm not sure if there is a difference on the switching for the high pressure switch in the A/C unit. Someone mentioned that the 85 A/C high pressure shut off switch (870 ecm) is normally open and the 89 A/C high pressure switch (165 ecm) is a normally closed switch. I don't know who said it but I would love to hear from an expert because I don't want to fry another A/C unit. I'm down to 12 cans of R-12.

A guy at a shop hooked up his scanner on my car and said the A/C shows that it's running all the time even though it was off at the time..... Plus it was running way lean all the time (had a stock 89 No Vats chip in it at the time) That's why I want to check out the harness first and go from there.

The car has way more low end with the stock 85 Vette chip than the 89 custom chip, but the 89 Custom chip has way more top end power than the 85 chip. I have a buddy with a chip reader that can read the 85 chip (we're hoping, now that I have TunerPro). I want to possibly use the 85 chip fuel curve for 0-3500 and the aftermarket chip from 3500 to 5750. I know I can't just dump a partial file in it since they are so different in file size. But I should be able to get an idea if it's richer or leaner than what the custom 89 chip is programmed for. Too bad his card reader/burner won't work with the larger chip.... but since I'm going Prominator, I don't guess it matters anyway....

To download the custom chip to my laptop computer it sounds like I'm going to install it in the Prominator first and upload the bin file to my computer; then install the flash prom and burn the file to it???? Does that sound about right?????

 

No, what you'll need to do is find someone with an EPROM programmer (reader) that can read in the custom memcal you currently have to a BIN file.

Once you have that BIN file on your computer, you simply upload it to the Prominator, which is permanently installed onto a memcal adapter.

If you send the memcal to Bill, he should be able to read it in and send it back to you with a Prominator-equipped memcal adapter so you don't have to worry about it.

 

Thanks for the good info!!!!!!



I was looking through one of my 870 to 165 pinout lists and it says:

"Depending on what '165 bin file you use, be sure to check that it's programmed for the correct A/C pressure switch in your application, either normally-open (N/O) or normally-closed (N/C). An incorrect setting will cause the Radiator Fan to run continuously."

I wonder if it causes problems with the compressor other than just a fan running contiuously..... I also hope this is something I can change with TunerPro and the Prominator.... Especially since it's a new switch and there's no way you can install both at the same time.....