Search results

Tracing out the board to get connectivity to the CPLD, I tracked the ADC 16 bit bus to the 2 FIFOs (2k x 9). FIFO read port goes directly to the 8051. Unfortunately, there I came unstuck. I found 3 sequential data lines shorted together. Lifting the respective FIFO, the shorts remained. The...

Well, there's the excuse to upgrade my 8ch USB logic analyser to a 16ch one.

Not entirely unexpected, the read protect is set.

I've got a Xilinx platform USB cable on order plus a few blank CPLDs. Unless you have some sacrificial devices to play with, I would be wary of trying it out on an irreplaceable B&W programmed part, but if you are really feeling lucky.... There is a very dirty parallel programmer shown here...

Nope. I came unstuck when I couldn't find any of my Xilinx programmers, or a laptop with a real parallel port, so easiest route was asking if anyone had a scrap board, with in all likelihood the IC being protected anyway. I'd traced back the programming header (pic attached). Given that...

Nice work Richard, Tempted to try a micro, but was really looking for path of least resistance to get one of these running again. My experience in more hardware than software so C coding isn't fast and isn't pretty. Given some time with a logic analyser I could probably recreate the CPLD...

Paul, I'd put money on U401 - XC9536 CPLD having gone short. These are still available, but need programming. I haven't yet tried to read one from a good board, but I'd also put money on B&W having set the code protection bit to prevent read-back. Very decent little spectro for the price...

Thanks for the reply. I'm afraid I'm UK based. I'd get one off eBay, but the listings for these appear to have dried up. Do you have an alternate source?

Bit of a long shot, but hoping someone here may be able to help. Anyone have any scrap B&W spectrometer PCBs from one of these units, perhaps with mechanical damage or missing / damaged optical assembly? Specifically I’m looking to recover one or two pieces of U401 IC, Xilinx XC9536. This is a...