A native GNOME application for reading, writing and verifying EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash and microcontrollers with an XGecu T48 programmer. All of the work on the chip is done by minipro. This application chooses minipro's arguments, follows its progress, explains its results, and adds the image handling that a retro computer ROM needs before it can be burned.
The current application:
- finds the programmer at startup and watches for it being unplugged or connected while the start page is showing;
- offers every device in minipro's database for the connected programmer, some 27,600 names for the T48 in minipro 0.7.4, through a search that accepts any part of the name;
- reads a chip to a raw binary, Intel HEX or Motorola S-record file;
- writes an image with erase and verification, and asks first, naming the chip and the image;
- verifies a chip against an image, blank checks it, erases it, and reads its ID;
- exposes every minipro option: programming, write and verify voltages, pulse width, SPI clock, memory section, size mismatch policy, protection, ID checks, and in-circuit programming;
- takes the voltages and clocks it offers from minipro for the chosen chip, so a value minipro would refuse cannot be selected;
- passes each option only to the operations that accept it, so a programming voltage chosen for a write never reaches a read;
- identifies Amiga Kickstart, Atari TOS and Acorn sideways ROM images, tests a Kickstart checksum, and warns about an image that is encrypted or already byte-swapped;
- says before a write whether the image fits the chip;
- guides a retro computer ROM from the image to verified chips: it asks which ROM, machine, chip and image, shows the answers as breadcrumbs that can be pressed to change them, then splits the image across HI and LO chips, cuts it into banks, byte-swaps it for a 16-bit EPROM, fills the chip, and burns and verifies each chip in turn;
- puts several Acorn ROMs in one chip, in 16 KB banks, and shows what each bank holds;
- decrypts an Amiga Forever Kickstart with its rom.key, and accepts the key only if the result passes the Kickstart checksum;
- tests 74-series and 4000-series logic and static RAM, detects 25-series SPI flash by its JEDEC ID, and runs the programmer's self test;
- shows live progress for every stage and cancels safely, asking first when the chip would be left half written;
- explains minipro's failures in plain terms and keeps its exact output in a diagnostic log;
- checks for a newer release when asked, from the Help menu, then downloads the package for the same system, verifies it against the release's checksums, installs it and offers a restart;
- works offline, with a banner that says so, for everything that does not need the programmer, and comes back online when one is connected; and
- includes a user guide, opened with F1.
It is developed against minipro 0.7.4, the release the package bundles, and against a newer build from minipro's repository. The two print a chip's details differently, and the parsers are tested against text captured from each. Beyond that, the whole chain from the window to the process is tested against a simulator that reproduces minipro's behaviour, including its carriage-return progress line and its exit statuses.
It has not yet been run against a physical T48. The first session with real hardware should start with a read of a known chip, compared by CRC-32 against a known image, before anything is written. minipro itself describes its T48 support as mostly complete. Its pin contact test is implemented for the TL866II+ and the T76 only, and the application says so when it is asked for on a T48.
The TL866A, TL866CS, TL866II+, T56 and T76 are detected and driven in the same way, because minipro presents them identically, but the T48 is the target.
See docs/INSTALLATION.md. In short, the Debian package contains the application, minipro 0.7.4 built from source, its chip database, and the udev rules that let you use the programmer without root:
sudo apt install ./T48-Programmer_0.1.1_ubuntu24.04_amd64.debTo run from a checkout, install PyGObject, GTK 4 and libadwaita from your
distribution, put minipro on your PATH, and start the launcher:
sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gir1.2-adw-1
./t48-programmer- Press Choose and search for the exact part number printed on the chip.
The package matters:
W27C512@DIP28andW27C512@PLCC32are different entries. - Press Open and select the image. The start page identifies it and says whether it fits the chip.
- Press Write, read the confirmation, and confirm.
- Wait for the result page. A write that verifies has been read back from the chip and compared byte for byte.
When the image is smaller than the chip and goes into it a whole number of times, as a 16 KB BBC ROM goes twice into a 32 KB AT28C256, the confirmation offers Fill the Chip as well as Write Once. Filling repeats the image so that it is found whichever part of the chip the machine reads, which a BBC Micro needs, since it reads the top of a chip larger than 16 KB. The filled image becomes the current image, so a later Verify compares the whole chip.
A UV EPROM cannot be erased by the programmer. Erase it under an ultraviolet lamp and run Blank Check before writing. Programming can only change a 1 to a 0, so a write over old data fails verification.
The most expensive mistake is selecting the wrong chip, because the programming voltage follows the selection. Read the part number from the chip itself.
File, Guided ROM Burn, or Start on the start page, takes a retro computer ROM from the image to verified chips in one pass. It asks five things in order, and each answer becomes a crumb at the top of the page. Press a crumb to go back and change that answer. Whatever the change does not invalidate is kept, so choosing a different chip does not lose the image.
- ROM. Amiga Kickstart, Atari TOS, or an Acorn MOS, BASIC or sideways ROM.
- Machine. The machines are grouped by the ROMs they take, which is not always how they are grouped by age.
- Chip. The chips known to fit the socket, by the name minipro uses, or any other chip from the full search, whose size is checked against the board.
- Images. One file. It is split, swapped and filled for you.
- Burn. Every chip of the set with its label and checksum. Burn and Verify writes the next chip that is waiting, reads it back, compares it and marks it done. The guide always verifies. A chip that fails stays waiting with the reason beside it. Save All Parts writes the files to a folder instead.
| ROM | Machines | Image | Chips | What is done |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kickstart | A500, A500 Plus, A600, A2000, CDTV | 256 KB or 512 KB | one 27C400 | byte-swapped, and a 256 KB image written twice |
| Kickstart | A1200, A3000, A4000 | 512 KB | two 27C400, HI and LO | split by 16-bit word, byte-swapped, each half written twice |
| TOS 1.0x | ST, STF, STFM, Mega ST with six ROM chips | 192 KB | six 27C256 | split into even and odd bytes, each cut into three banks |
| TOS 1.0x | ST, STF, STFM, Mega ST with two ROM chips | 192 KB | two 27C010 with pin adapters | split into even and odd bytes, remainder left erased |
| TOS 1.06 to 2.06 | STE, Mega STE | 256 KB | two 27C010 | split into even and odd bytes |
| Acorn | BBC Micro B and B+, Master, Electron | 8 KB or 16 KB each, or a 128 KB Master MOS | 8 KB to 256 KB | placed in 16 KB banks |
The A600 has one ROM, like the A500. It is the A1200 that has two. The A1000 loads Kickstart from disk and has no ROM socket to fill. The Acorn Atom is not covered yet.
Acorn machines page their ROMs in 16 KB banks, so a 32 KB chip has room for two, a 64 KB chip for four, and a 256 KB chip for sixteen. One image alone is repeated into every bank and works in any socket. Add more and each takes the next bank up from the bottom of the chip. An SST39SF010A, for one, takes eight 16 KB images.
The order of the images is the order of the banks. Drag an image by its handle onto another to move it there, or use the arrows on its row, which keep the keyboard focus so that an image can be walked up or down with Space. Each row shows the bank it will occupy, which is a range for an image that takes several, such as a 128 KB Master MOS.
A plain BBC Micro socket holds the upper address pins high, so it reads the top bank and nothing else. Different ROMs in one chip appear only where something drives those pins: a switch, a ROM board, or a Master socket linked for 32 KB. The last page shows what every bank holds, from the top of the chip down, and marks the one a plain socket reads. The 128 KB and 256 KB parts have 32 pins and need an adapter in a 28-pin socket.
An encrypted Kickstart from Amiga Forever is decrypted with its rom.key. A key
beside the ROM is used without asking, and otherwise you are asked for it. A key
is accepted only if the result is a Kickstart whose checksum adds up, so a wrong
key cannot produce a chip full of noise. The ROM file is never changed. The
decrypted copy lives in a private temporary folder that is removed when the
window closes.
docs/ROM_SETS.md explains why each step is needed and how to add another board, which is one row in a table.
ROM images are not included and are not downloaded. Kickstart, TOS and the Acorn ROMs belong to their owners.
When no programmer answers, the application works offline and says so in a banner on every page. Only the commands that need the hardware are disabled. Opening and identifying images, checking them against a chip, taking a ROM through the guide and saving its parts, searching the chip database, chip information and the user guide all work as usual. On the last page of the guide the Burn buttons are disabled and Save All Parts remains, so a set can be prepared on one machine and burned on another.
The application looks for the programmer every few seconds while the start page is showing, and Reconnect looks at once. When one answers, the banner goes and the commands return with the chip and image still selected.
Help, Check for Application Updates asks GitHub for the latest release and
shows the answer in the About window. Update to downloads the package made
for the same system as the installed one, checks it against the release's
SHA256SUMS, installs it after the system asks for your password, and offers
a restart. The package is checked a second time by the root-side installer, on
a copy only root can touch, so it cannot be swapped while the prompt is open. It checks only when asked, and nothing else in
the application uses the network. An update is never installed while a chip is
being read or written, because the package replaces the minipro that the
operation is using. A copy run from a checkout cannot update itself and is sent
to the release page.
The application contains a simulator that stands in for minipro. It keeps the contents of an imaginary chip in a file, so a write followed by a read returns what was written, and a second write over a used UV EPROM fails as it would on the bench. The guide stands in for the person swapping chips, by giving the simulator a blank one before each burn.
T48_PROGRAMMER_DEMO=1 ./t48-programmerTo use a particular minipro, such as one built from a checkout:
T48_PROGRAMMER_MINIPRO=/path/to/minipro ./t48-programmerPYTHONPATH=src python3 -W error::ResourceWarning -m unittest discover -s tests -v
ruff check src tests tools
ruff format --check src tests toolsThe interface tests drive the real window against the simulator and need a
display. They skip themselves without one, unless T48_PROGRAMMER_REQUIRE_GTK=1
is set, which is how CI makes sure they ran.
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md describes how the code is divided,
CONTRIBUTING.md the rules for changes, and
ROADMAP.md what is planned and what has been left out on
purpose. The screenshots in this file are drawn from the running window by
tools/capture_screenshots.py, so they can be regenerated whenever it changes.
GPL-3.0-or-later, the same licence as minipro. minipro is the work of Valentin Dudouyt, David Griffith and its contributors. Every operation on a chip is theirs.