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I have a couple of 960 Netplex progressive displays for my S2000.
The problem with one of them is I get a scrolling "BAD PGM" running across the display panel.
However, when I swap the display panel with the other known good one - it works fine.

It's when I try to use the piggyback board with the problem unit - I get the "Bad PGM" message scrolling across the screen...>>>



I took them both apart to see what makes them tick...

As far as I can tell, both displays are fine but I only have one good working piggyback board.
There are 3 socketed chips (U2, U6, and U12 locations) onboard these things.
Would anyone know which chip carries the "PGM" ?
I'd like to remove it and re-flash it with my reader/programmer...
Thanks for any help you can give me with this!



CLICK on photo below to enlarge if you want to make them bigger...>>>

it is the small 32 pin chip with SDF 100 or 104 depending on which version you have, I hope you have right adapter
 

Bunker, I licked on the photo to enlarge and all I got was shocked :(

I thought it was just me, I have been licking too but the picture didnt get bigger...    :50- :96- :50-

 :72-  sorry guys... typo mistako on my parto...    :182- :5-


Thanks for the info Foster!
I'll read the dummy chip 1st
and see if I get anything unusual from it.

I'm using the adapter kit that came with my GQ-4X programmer...
should be okay if it's supported on the McUMall website.
I have to check and see if it is or not.

Okay,
Upon closer inspection... :209-
I determined that the 960 Netplex display's U12 PLCC socketed chip is marked as:  
708 170 00
03/27/02
(1-64k)

It's an XICOR X28HC64 PLCC chip at 70ns
I inserted it into my adjustable voltage PLCC adapter for the GQ-4X,
and pulled the 5 volt jumper so it would read at 3.3 volts.

The data appears fine as I see corresponding dates
and found that it is an SDB100 boot chip made on March 25th/2002 with a cs1985.
I changed 3 bytes of the code on address line: 1800 at 09,0A and 0B to "50,49, and 47"
and adjusted the checksum back to 1895.

I then re-installed the PLCC chip back into the piggyback board socket on the Netplex display.
I turned on the machine and instead of "BAD PGM"...I now get the words "BAD PIG" scrolling across.... :72-
Now I know that chip is fine...  :97-

So which chip is the "PGM" chip? It can't be that one...  :103-

Wrong Chip. it the one in U2 a SST 29EE512 in my spare driver board, you best restore that other chip to what it was.
My SDF 104 backup is 64K x 8 and 28HC64 is too small to hold it.

No! Don't do that!
I will try to determine what devices the other two socketed chips are
and see if I can get past the data protection.
My code de-scrambler is down and off-line at the moment...
I'll dig into it more tomorrow.

Well, I dug more into this tonight...   :5-

I learned something new.
There are 3 SMD light emitting diodes ( otherwise known as LEDs ) on the piggyback board of the Netplex display.
They are in locations DS1,DS2, and DS3.
The DS1 is a green diode while the other two (DS2 & DS3) are amber diodes.

I was observing them as I played a few games
and what I noticed is that:

1). The green one stays on all the time.
      It's for sensing that there is 5 volts of power going to the board.

2). The DS2 amber light flashes very slowly and steadily like an airport beacon.
      It's sensing the output Tx signals.

3). The most interesting one is the DS3 amber light.
      It flashes super crazy and intermittently but....get this!!! ...>>>
        the darn thing flashes in perfect unison with a winning line payout "ding, ding, ding" sound.  :72-
      It's marked as sensing the input Rx signals.

With this in mind,  I will safely theorize that the DS2 will flash in unison
with a Progressive payout winning "ding, ding, ding" sounds...lol

This digging around, of course, brings up a question...>>>
Why would a Netplex Progressive display want to keep track of the machine wins?

OKay,
I pulled out the U2 PLCC chip.
It's an ATMEL AT29C512.
I "read" the known good chip and saved it as backup.
Then I read the bad chip and it does indeed look different even though both are SDF107.
They have vastly different checksums though and the "bad" one looked a little crazier than the good one.

I erased the bad one but it wouldn't accept the stuff from the known backup.
Apparently, there's some sort of SDP and it needs a 3-byte command sequence in order to write?
I get goobly-gook each time I try to write to it and it doesn't completly erase - something is left on address line:00002004 c=0x0O or something like that...all I see is "FF".....arghhh!  WTF is that?!?!?    :7-  :72-
All I'm trying to do is save my display!  :8-
Basically,  I'm screwed unless I can find some re-writeable AT29c512's or something...   :58-

Below is a link to the chip and it's characteristics...>>>

http://datasheet.octopart.com/AT29C512-90JC-Atmel-datasheet-111345.pdf (http://datasheet.octopart.com/AT29C512-90JC-Atmel-datasheet-111345.pdf)

For now, I give up...I'm going to bed....  :294-

the one in mine is a SST 29EE512


Erase the chip
blank check it,
program it, the GQ-4X software most likely does the above 2 steps again

the LED flashing sequence is just a coincidence, remember if the ones on the Spectrum are flashing then most likely the ones on the VFD, printer, and BV could be flashing at the same time.
All devices on the netplex bus are wired in parallel to each other, but each has an address or such so it only responds to data meant for it.

I sent you some mail and more info Foster.
I didn't want you to take your topper apart
but thank you very much for checking out yours for me!  :131-

I would order replacement chips
chips on my spare driver

U2 - SST 29EE512-70
U12 X28HC642-70

For GQ-3X/4X programmer
SST 29EE512 use any of these adapters ADP-062 ADP-005 PLCC32-DiP32
X28HC64J you will have to use the data sheet and see if the PLCC32 adapter will work
you might have to compare the dip versions as well.

if you can make an adapter if you cant seem to use one that you already have. also they are 5V devices.

I have 4 different kinds of PLCC adapters.
I'm sure one of them should work.
Two are voltage adjustable via pin jumpers.
I have two PLCC blanks coming in.

Is your SST PLCC chip have the SDP enabled?

The U2 PLCC chip on both of mine are identical Atmel AT29C512's.
These are the ones that have the SDP enabled and I cannot write to them.

There is nothing wrong with my U12 chips as I've pointed out earlier.
I have no problems changing data as I please, with those.

I am not sure if it is or not
Currently waiting to purchase a new programmer.