- George S posted:
cjack posted:I see that the chip (691ZWPCS01) is unavailable now. I always wonder if the original stock was on the short side of how many older ZW-Cs there were. The updated mother board is also unavailable (691ZWPC100). Also, I'm curious if the chip could be copied and made available if needed. I like the ZW-C and live if fear that I would be force to use a ZW-L some day which does not have the feature of the power on B and C going to the lever settings when simply applying power to the unit. I realize Lionel wants to sell the new one, but it turns out the old version was in some ways superior. I think I would probably go the TPC direction which at least has the TRK 1 Boost feature of bringing up the power for TMCC or Legacy operation.
Hi Chuck,
I totally agree.
The chip on the board is a 16C65A PIC, which is a programmable EPROM with 192K of programmable capacity. Here is the spec sheet. http://ww1.microchip.com/downl...DeviceDoc/30234E.pdf So, if you could get your hands on the upgrade chip and you could find someone with an EPROM reader and writer, then this is doable. EPROM readers / writers are not that expensive based on a quick search. You would copy the code off the Lionel chip and upload it to the new chip. It should be relatively straightforward, but I have not done this myself.
The good news is that that looks like the most sophisticated part of the motherboard. If we could write one for archive purposes, we should be able to keep these running for a long time.
George
Does anyone have a suggestion as to the best EPROM reader/writer to use to upgrade the ZWPC_S01.HEX chip? I found this one on amzon and don't know if it is what I need.
https://www.amazon.com/Signste...B9D7BPRXSJB6PTHD8X43
Thanks,
Greg
