[Amps] Alpha 87A Alphamax upgrade

[Roger]

kk2ed at comcast.net wrote:
> Kind of hard to tell, as I had to put the original eprom back in just to get the amp to start up properly.  I took the Alphamax eprom and read it with my eprom reader/burner, and saved the image.   After looking at the image, I discovered my problem - a number of blocks in the eprom are at "FF"  (aka blank).  Especially the region that contains the settings for the bandswitch positions.  Either the chip was programmed incorrectly from the get go, or it lost its memory from sitting. It was stored in the protective anti-static chip tube all along, but crazier things have occurred! 
>
>   
It's not crazy. IIRC EPROMS and particularly the earlier ones had a life 
of expectancy of 10 years or less if they were not in use. It's likely 
the chip just lost its programming.

73


Roger (K8RI)
>
> I need to obtain an image of an Alphamax V1.00AT eprom and erase/reburn mine. Anyone have an Alphamax eprom lying around, and also have an eprom reader, and willing to capture an image for me? 
>
>
>
> Eric 
>
> K2WD 
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dick Green WC1M" <wc1m73 at gmail.com> 
> To: kk2ed at comcast.net, amps at contesting.com 
> Sent: Monday, January 4, 2010 12:34:36 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
> Subject: RE: [Amps] Alpha 87A Alphamax upgrade 
>
> What hard fault are you getting? 
>
> 73, Dick WC1M 
>
>   
>> -----Original Message----- 
>> From: kk2ed at comcast.net [mailto:kk2ed at comcast.net] 
>> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 9:15 PM 
>> To: amps at contesting.com 
>> Subject: [Amps] Alpha 87A Alphamax upgrade 
>>
>>
>>
>> Good Evening, 
>>
>>
>>
>> I recently purchased an Alpha 87A, and the original purchaser provided me 
>> with the Alphamax upgrade kit, which Alpha sent him, but he never installed. 
>> It consists of a PAL (U8) and an eprom (U7) which are to be changed out.   I 
>> replaced the PAL and eprom, and installed the berg jumper, as per the 
>> included instructions.  However, when completed, the amplifier hard faults 
>> off within 10 seconds of power up. 
>>
>>
>>
>> I immediately pulled the new eprom, and reinstalled the original eprom, then 
>> removed the new berg jumper, and re-assembled the amp.  It works perfectly 
>> with the old eprom once again. As per the instructions, the new PAL can 
>> remain in place if/when reverting to the older software eprom. 
>>
>>
>>
>> Just to be sure, I tried the procedure again, with the same results. The 
>> worst part is the eprom's location, so it requires pulling the front panel 
>> each time! 
>>
>>
>>
>> The only thing I can guess is that the eprom lost some "bits" from sitting in 
>> a box the past 9 years or so.  Or, the eprom was programmed improperly from 
>> the get-go. 
>>
>>
>>
>> I have eprom burning equipment here in my shop, so burning another eprom (or 
>> erasing/re-burning this one) would not be an issue, but the bin image file is 
>> not available online anywhere as far as I can tell. Therefore, even if I 
>> read the current eprom I have in my hands, I can't verify it's contents. 
>>
>>
>>
>> Of course, this had to happen on a weekend, so I can't even call Alpha 
>> (now RFC) until Monday. 
>>
>>
>>
>> Would anyone happen to have an image of the 87A's Alphamax-capable eprom 
>> contents, or at least know the CRC checksum? 
>>
>>
>>
>> Anyone else experience a similar situation? 
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks, 
>>
>>
>>
>> Eric 
>>
>> K2WD 
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
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