Relatively Universal ROM Programmer Makes Retro Tech Hacking Accessible

There’s treasures hidden in old technology, and you deserve to be able to revive it. Whether it’s old personal computer platforms, vending machines, robot arms, or educational kits base…

A Low-Cost ROM Programmer With An AI Twist

There are 0x10 ways to look at ROM programmers: they’re either relatively low-cost tools that let you quickly get about the business of programming vintage ROMs and get back to your retrocomp…

Generator Control Panel Unlocked With Reverse Engineering Heroics

Scoring an interesting bit of old gear on the second-hand market is always a bit of a thrill — right up to the point where you realize the previous owner set some kind of security code on it.…

Fixing A Tractor Dashboard From Over 10,000 Miles Away

[BuyItFixIt] is well known as a dab hand at, well, fixing things… and presumably buying them, too. Recently, they received an email calling for help of the former kind. One of their Australia…

Erasing EEPROMs Isn’t Always As Easy As It Seems

When is 14 volts not actually 14 volts? Given [Anders Nielsen]’s recent struggles with erasing an old-school EEPROM, it’s when you really need it that things tend to go pear-shaped. A l…

How Do You Test If An EEPROM Can Hold Data For 100 Years?

Data retention is a funny thing. Atmel will gladly tell you that the flash memory in an ATmega32A will retain its data for 100 years at room temperature. Microchip says its EEPROMs will retain data…

Using EPROMS And EEPROMs As Programmable Logic With Lisp

That EPROMs, EEPROMs and kin can be used as programmable logic should probably not come as a major surprise, but [Jimmy] has created a Lisp-based project that makes using these chips as a logic arr…

Stuffing A 32-Pin Chip Into A 28-Pin Socket

What’s the difference between a 64k ROM in a 28-pin DIP and a 128k ROM in a 32-pin DIP? Aside from the obvious answers of “64k” and “four pins,” it turns out that thes…

Dead EEPROM Dumped With Help Of Body Diodes

[Jason P], evidently an enjoyer of old reliable laser printing tech, spilled a drink (nitter) onto his Panasonic KX-P5400 SideWriter. After cleanup, everything worked fine — except that the P…

Stress-Testing An Arduino’s EEPROM

Every time one of us flashes an Arduino’s internal memory, a nagging thought in the backs of our minds reminds us that, although everything in life is impermanent, nonvolatile re-writable mem…

Kia Recalls Cars Over Airbag Controller Assembly Issue

Last month Kia Motors announced a large recall due to possibly defective airbag controller units (ACU). The recall spans many models and model years — in the United States alone it covers ove…

Pi Pico Emulates ROM For Speedy Retro Hacking

If you’ve ever worked on a system that loads its software from a ROM or EPROM, you know how much of a hassle it can be to make frequent changes to the code. Pulling the chip, flashing it, and…