FS: Full Service PROM Modification

[Omikron]

A fellow member recently contacted me to let me know there was a guy on eBay selling SST37 chips for crazy cheap prices: LINK

Of course, as soon as I saw "Used" in the description alarm bells went off in my head, and I advised the member as such. When it comes to PROM's it doesn't really make sense to risk so much to save literally about a dollar on a chip. Nevertheless, this member did purchase a batch and sent them to me to program a few for him and test the rest.

FAILPROM.JPG

The results were far worse than I could have ever expected. Out of 125 SST37 chips, only 11 appeared to pass verification. I say "appeared" because several of these chips would pass only most of the time, and would still fail intermittently. That's pretty bad. That means that I wouldn't trust a single one of these in my own TiVo.

I post this as a warning to other members. If the price is too good to be true, that's because it is.

Caveat emptor.

[jhatfield]

Happy PROM day!!!

[Bilboz]

Yes it is.. hope my THD made it there in time

[Omikron]

Instead of going to sleep tonight (last night?) I decided to build a few of the TiVo HD TTL adapters that people have been asking me for.

Unfortunately, they cost me about $10 in parts and almost 2 hours of labor for each one. The result however, is very professional looking once installed and gives you a proper serial jack to connect to without having to open up the case or mess with poorly supported USB-TTL adapters from China.

The price is $50 each, and the package will also include one of the "Serial" stickers that I had made for labeling the serial jack (see first post for photo).

First come, first serve.

P.S. I still owe someone on this forum a TTL adapter from last year but I no longer have the PM. If you see this message, please let me know. I'll know the name when I see it so don't try sneaking anything by me guys. ;-)

[Omikron]

Wow. Already almost out of TTL adapters. Only a couple left.

[Omikron]

Only 3 TTL adapters left.

[Omikron]

I would have thought that something like this would be obvious, but sometimes I assume too much:

If you live outside of the continental United States, then clearly shipping is going to cost more. Quite a bit more, in fact. You have to TELL ME these things when you request service. Leaving this bit of information out of communications does not result in cheap PROM service. It only results in an unhacked TiVo.

[adams46]

I received my eprom kit the other day. I have not installed it yet, I appreciate the eprom holder. It should make replacement, if necessary, a piece of cake. Thanks, for the great service.

[Omikron]

In case anyone is interested, I now have only 2 TiVo HD TTL adapters left.

[philhu]

I'll take BOTH ttl adapters!

[Omikron]

TTL adapters are now gone. ;-)

[StanSimmons]

I have one more successfully hacked TiVoHD. Thanks Omikron!

[Heinrich]

Me too - torture-tested, excellent work.

[Omikron]

For those who are curious, I still have some DIY PROM's available, which usually ship the next business day.

[zigner2]

Omnikron,I know you claim to be "retiring" from the prom hacking business due to the competition, but in reading the other thread from the new competition, it looks to me the the new person does NOT sell the modified DYI proms like you used to do!!