I recently purchased an old EPROM programmer. A Digelec 824.A wonderful old machine manufactured in the USA.
Anyway, I got to wondering about what might fail on the old girl. I thought I might get the details for the UV bulb and give the power supply the once over. Lucky I did. A couple of the caps were about ready to die and possibly take some other components with them.
Notice the caps opening like evil flowers.When I examined the underside of the board I noticed some previous work. The blue cap is a replacement from earlier days. Close call.
The bulb is thankfully still available as aG4T5 Fluoro Tube.
The Digelec 824
The main logic is based around the i8085 cpu. Typical US quality from back then, nearly every chip in a socket. Well engineered to last a lifetime...which it almost has. It can be used 'stand alone' or connected to a PC via a serial port. The manual gives a complete rundown on the serial commands and I have nearly finished a 'windows' version of the software. However, apart from storing binary images to disk, this thing is almost easier to use via the keypad and the Alpha Numeric display. The UV eraser is a slide out draw in the bottom of the unit.Although the modern USB units can do a greater range of chips faster they lack the class or that mysterious something that the Digelec has.
Softlink Software for the Digelec
