[LinuxBIOS] Willem EEPROM Programmer

Luc Verhaegen libv at skynet.be
Mon May 14 06:55:34 CEST 2007


On Sun, May 13, 2007 at 09:28:39PM -0700, roger wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-05-14 at 00:02 -0400, Corey Osgood wrote:
> 
> > BTW, anyone have experience with using a Willem EEPROM programmer under
> > linux? I haven't been able to get the darn thing to work through wine,
> > nor will it work on Vista. I'm starting to wonder if it's just a bum unit.
> 
> I believe there is something called firebrand that will write using the
> parallel part.  And contacting sales at the main store selling those
> things, I was recommended using the parallel port one vs the usb one --
> probably because the only s/w support is firebrand.
> 
> The only reason I needed a Willem programmer was in case I couldn't get
> the i440bx board flashing flash parts in Linux.  Another idea, I got
> working, was a FreeDOS LiveCD bootdisk with the popular "UniFlash"
> DOS/Pascal based flash writer.  (Hated the time wasting idea of
> rebooting though.)
> 
> Other then this, my impression is the Willem Programmers are basically
> bricks until somebody adds some code to firebrand for USB support.
>  
> --
> Roger

I don't have too good an experience with willem.org.

* It's not a registered company, there's no VAT number. Since the 
proprietor is dutch, he should have a VAT number, yet he doesn't. This 
is really selling things out of the back of a truck here.

For your average consumer, this makes little difference. But for me, i 
paid dutch VAT which i can't reclaim, this money also comes out of
taxed income now, so not fun at all.

The overhead to create and run a small company in a country like .nl 
shouldn't be too great. But this person just installed oscommerce and 
thought that that was it.

One day .nl VAT/taxes will catch up with him.

* It took a very very long while for my programmer to be delivered, in 
the end, another model was sent. Paid 28/01, received 12/03. Eindhoven, 
where this person is based, is about 120kms away.

As for the hardware:
* usb is at most only there as a powersupply. Which is not correct as 
the amps drawn should be negotiated between host and endpoint. There's 
no means to negotiate anything. Yes, people abuse usb like this a lot.
* As far as i understood the willem, from a quick look at it, you still 
shift in a bit at a time, which makes the willem _extremely_ slow.

To be honest, i haven't needed it yet, hotswapping is much much faster
anyway and hasn't gone wrong yet.

So don't bother. You're only throwing money away. Just buy some roms.

Luc Verhaegen.




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