Machine Code - getting Machine code into an EPROM

[dataman19]

Hi,
First of all let me stat - I am a new member here.
Please bear with me...
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My Project:
I have a "Project Rodney" Brain from David Heiserman's "Build your own Self Programming Robot". Yes I know this is a really old project - but it was a fun Project. And yes I do know that is is exactly the same brian used in the Roomba Automated Floor Sweeper.
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I have always loaded programs with the front control panel: 8 Data Toggle Switches, 12 Data Toggle Switches (The 8085 based Robot brain only uses 12 address lines of the 16 available), a Program/Run Switch and a Load Switch.
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The panel has LEDs for the Address and Data Bits, and an LED for <PROGRAM> and one for <RUN>.
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For those who think David Heiserman's book was a joke - it wasn't. But he (David Hesierman) did put a lot of bugs in the books programming. Maybe it was just to see if the reader actually understood what was going on - or that he was sabotaging their efforts (a third scenario is: The copy editors were not computer geeks and screwed up the programming codes).
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My goal is to revive my Rodney project and instead of loading all those individual bytes and lines manually, to load them into EPROMs and load them from the EPROMs.
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In the Project Rodney book, there is an EPROM that is used to control the cassette data interface. It shows the limited source code for the EPROM. My EPROM came from David Direct (an option in the early Rodney Robot days - but not now). So I never really loaded the EPROM.
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So can someone point me in the direction of converting Machine Language to an EPROM code to load the EPROMs. I was thinking of using an EMP-10 EPROM Burner, but an associate suggested I get a GQ-4X from MCU Mall. com .... Either way - I need to get the data into a file to actually burn the EPROM. This is where I need assistance. Computer and Logic Hardware is not my problem - I have always been a hardware and hardwire kind of Tech (heck I cut my Data Teeth on a wire wrap UNIX System). Oh yea - My background goes back to the IMSAI8080A Computer - the one that came in a box of parts and once you got it all put together had ASCII trash instead of working video - because the original kits were shipped with a faulty trace bridge between the Composite Video Sync and Raster Level (which caused the Video Display to be jumbled) - my fix was a simple razior blade (which also made me a hero among the builders/geek clubs who were trying to get their machines up and working)... Ah, the late 60's and 70s... it aws a fun time...
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So any suggestions or help available? Concerning my Machine Language to EPROM conversion.
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I could list some of the source code here - but I think my post is too verbose as it is... But If necessary I could type it in so that you can see what I'm dealing with. This EPROM Burning/Authoring s new to me. Yea I know - SPOILED (yes I AM SPOILED - I have always bought my EPROMs and wired the logic to point to the EPROM start address).
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A lot of my old Rodney Project is posted on an old web page - but I do not think the source code was "ever" posted. Just the mechanics and bug fixes in the project.
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Thanks Gang - Dave

 

[Headroom]

This may be a stupid question, but where in your project are you going to use a Teensy ?

 

[dataman19]

This may be a stupid question, but where in your project are you going to use a Teensy ?

Don't know what a Teensy is......
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This is a twenty year old project..
I recently dug it out of storage and was going to get it going again..
I am planning on re-purposing it....
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Project Rodney was a self programming robot that learns the room and learns how to get around on its own...
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As I understand it - the Roomba is based upon the same design... but Project Rodney used 8085CPUs... I think the original Roomba used Z-80 CPUs...
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I need to get machine code from paper to an EPROM..
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As I believe I already stated - Machine Code is not my strong point... And I really hate setting Address switches, then Data switches and loading code one line at a time....
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My thought was to load the lines of code into 8Kx8bit EPROMs and just inserting the EPROMs that fit the task at hand.
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I have an idea for a USB reader - but then I need to get the lines of data onto a USB flash drive...
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So back to the task at hand...
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Getting an EPROM Programmer and getting the lines of machine code loaded...
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Dave

 

[nlecaude]

And why do you post on a teensy forum if you don't know what a teensy is ? (interesting project by the way)

 

[PaulStoffregen]

EPROMs became obsolete about 15 years ago. Most of companies who made EPROM programmers went out of business or moved on to other products in the late 1990s to early 2000s. There are still some chips and programmers out there, but this stuff is so ancient, you really should not even consider using it for any new design.

Even now, parallel bus flash memories are starting to become obsolete. Newer chips using external flash are going to quad-SPI.

I have always loaded programs with the front control panel: 8 Data Toggle Switches, 12 Data Toggle Switches (The 8085 based Robot brain only uses 12 address lines of the 16 available), a Program/Run Switch and a Load Switch.

Even in the 1980s, this was a horribly old and antiquated way of doing things, inspired by early computers from the 1960s and 1970s.

The very best thing you could do is step into the 21st century and leave all these ancient methods behind. Yes, this does involve some pain to learn new things. Even if you only make a single project for your own use, this effort to learn the way things are done now will repay itself many times over. Things really are so much quicker and easier today. In the time you could compose several dozen opcodes and enter them using switches, you could easily load a few examples in Arduino, copy and paste chunks of code together, and try running several iterations and maybe even get a basic project working.