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Topic: Suggestions? SPI flasher ('universal' flasher ideally)?

The content of this topic has been archived on 31 Mar 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Hi all,
Working with TP-Link's atm and finding I'm in need of yet another bit of gear.. a flash programmer.
Immediate application is for working with SPI's found on common soho SoC router platforms we all love
However I've had plenty of times where I could have used a 'universal' flasher for other breeds of SPI flash, traditional EEPROMs and also want to get into AVR/PIC'-type micro's.

If there's a cheap, well-supported programmer which only supports the SPI's found in routers, esp with WRT-oriented software support, I'll just go for that.

But if there's a more 'universal' programmer that can handle uC's, eEPROM's as well, and if the software side of things is the same, I'd be keen to make an investment there.

Key points are

-low cost, good availability
-USB
-wide compatibility and frequent updates if req'd,
-good software support,
-community familiarity/support,
-and if I understand things right, in-place read/write and/or tracing/capture as nice-to-have instead of BusPirate etc.

I've done some crawling but there's no real leads on what would suit, as with JTAG where things are clearer.

Thanks all
Ben

I think you should start with the software and then get a flasher which is supported.

I am about to evaluate "Lai's Green Tool", I got it on eBay.

benryanau wrote:

Hi all,
But if there's a more 'universal' programmer that can handle uC's, eEPROM's as well, and if the software side of things is the same, I'd be keen to make an investment there.

Key points are

-low cost, good availability
-USB
-wide compatibility and frequent updates if req'd,
-good software support,
-community familiarity/support,
-and if I understand things right, in-place read/write and/or tracing/capture as nice-to-have instead of BusPirate etc.
Thanks all
Ben

I do have a few universal low cost programmers - the good price and easiest to use I found my USB MiniPro Model: TL866CS. Good support, frequent updates - new software and more IC support. It can program more than 12700+ chips etc. but no community support sorry it's proprietary: link. It's a little bit slow for my test sometimes but never failed me once. Auto-detection of Flash chips is on very nice function...
Software is in English/Chinese. There are other companies as well that produce universal programmers with this chip.
You can find it on ebay one example full set, you can find it a lot more cheaper without all "bells and whistle"...

I'd always wanted to try out BusPirate. But have not yet done so can't say anything about it, but it looks like nice tool - but certainly will require more "work" than a universal programmer to get the job done, but also will be as well more flexible!

So good luck with the choice!

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