Prog-Express 1.2.4

[czoran]

Hello,

Thank you for new version of prog-Express. I can see that Macronix MX28F1000* chips are supported now. Great! That was very fast update.

Is there any chance that you quickly add Macronix Serial Flash chips MX25*?
I can see them lately on newest computer motherboard as BIOS storage.
And I got 2 of these boards to reflash/repair...

Where is my notification via e-mail about new software version (1.2.4)?
I made subscription.

Thank you.

[André Bauer]

Dear Czoran,

we will try to support the Macronix Serial Flash chips MX25* as soon as possible. Please note that we have public holidays on monday and tuesday next week, therefore I think that it will take some days longer as last time. Additionally we will need to get samples for this chips first, because we didn't support any 25* chips with the BX programmers until now.

Regarding the update notification: We don't want to mail to often to our subscriptors because we don't want to load their email accounts to much (there are enough spammers out there)... Therefore we send the update notifications only if there are some new features / bugfixes of general interest. If there are only some new chips supported, we only inform the customers which asked for the chip support.

Regards,
André

[czoran]

Hello,

Thanks again for quick reply. I am glad to see that you care not to spam users with unnecessary mails. Other companies are sending hundreds of mails every day not in any connection with particular product. That is one of the worst things on Internet.

I wish you pleasant holidays and great time to spend with your dearest.
Enjoy!

Regards,
Zoran

[André Bauer]

Dear Zoran,

we have uploaded a new Prog-Express version (1.2.6) which supports the requested MX25 chips.

Regards,
André

[czoran]

Hello,

Thank you for update. I will test it today and post results.

Regards,
Zoran

[czoran]

Hi,

Just to inform you that MX25L1005 was written good.
So, thank you for good update.

Is there any chance for future update for 25* chips from other manufacturers? For example:

Atmel AT25*
Microchip 25A*, 25C*, 25LC*
SGS Tomson ST25P*, M25P*
SST25VF*

Seems that they will be matter of choice for all motherboards manufacturers in future.
Also, ST25P* can be found on newer Western Digital harddisks.

Regards,
Zoran

[André Bauer]

Dear Zoran,

Thanks for your confirmation!

We will add the requested series also. Please let me know if you need any specified devices from them quickly. Otherwise we will try to add the complete series as soon as possible with one of the next Prog-Express updates..

Regards,
André

[czoran]

Hello,

Thank you for support.
There is no urgent need for me to have any of these chips supported, but it would be great if you can start with st25p10 and sst25vf040 in your next update.

And, of course it is great to hear that you will work on support for other serial flash chips.

Regards,
Zoran

PS
One more thing. Is it possible that one of your next SW updates contain possibility of automatic (incremental) generation of filename based on chipname for every consecutive read operation?
For example, I am reading 5 same chips named chipX, each with different content. And inserting them one-by-one and pressing "read". SW offers me filename named chipX_1.bin, chipX_2.bin,...chipX_5.bin.
That is mainly to avoid overwriting previous file chipX.bin if found in same directory.
Or, at least, please clear editfield for filename whenever new chip is selected or autodetected. Maybe this is faster for you and easier too. And satisfactory for me.
Sorry for long post.

[André Bauer]

Dear Zoran,

We will support the ST25P10, the SST25VF040 ans as much other chips from the requested series as possible with our next update.

Regarding the new function: How do you think about the following idea: We can allow special characters in the filename field like *, <, >, ? or |. These characters are no valid filename characters and we will replace them automatically. For example we can replace the ? by the chipname you selected and the * with an auto incremented number. In that way you can type "C:\DataFiles\Read-?-*.bin in the save field and the software will replace it by "C:\DataFiles\Read-SST27SF010-1.bin". When you will read and save the same chip again, the filename will end with "-2.bin" and so on.

Regards,
André

[czoran]

Hello,

Thank you very much for support. Your idea about filenames and special characters is very good. I agree completely.

Regards,
Zoran

[André Bauer]

Dear Zoran,

We have added the requested Atmel AT25*, Microchip 25A*, 25C*, 25LC*, SGS Tomson ST25P*, M25P* and SST25VF* with our actual Prog-Express version 1.2.7 update.

Additionally we build in the requested filename feature.

In the “Save File” field you can use the following special characters which will be dynamically replaced:
? The question mark will be replaced by the name of the selected chip.
* The star will be replaced by the number 1 or higher. If there is a file with this name already, the number will be increased by one until there is no file with this name.

Example: You read the data from an AT27C010 and enter the filename “File-?-*.bin” in the “Save File” dialog. The data will be saved with the filename „File-AT27C010-1.bin“. If you read and save the same chip again the data will be saved with the filename “File-AT27C010-2.bin“.

Regards,
André

[czoran]

Hello,

Great to see that you were so fast in implementing support for all these chips. I will make tests as soon as I get home and inform you afterwards.

Thank you.

Regards.

[czoran]

Good evening,

Just jumped in to inform you about results of my testing of new features in ProgExpress.
First, 25p10av read and written fine. Although my chip could not match any from your library. Auto detect is unable to find chip by signature (ff ff ff ...). So, I choose m25p10-avmn3 for first try and avmn6 for second. Both way content of chip was the same. Therefore it does not matter for me. It is important that it is working and I am satisfied. Next week I will be able to test other newly added chips.
Second, whatever I tried I was unable to make different filenames based on newly added wildcards. Whatever I enter as a filename ProgExpress is always opening "my documents" with empty inputbox for filename. And in that dialog I can not use your wildcards any more. It is standard windows "save" dialog which has own rules.
Could you please check behaviour again?

Thank you.

[André Bauer]

Dear Zoran,

Thanks for your verification of the chip programming. Please note that the signature bytes of these newly added 25' chips aren't supported until now and therefore the auto-identify function can't work for them. We will add this feature for these chips in one of the next updates.

Regarding the new file name function: Please note that you need to enter these special characters directly into the file name box of Prog-Express. The file selection dialog is a standard windows file dialog which won't accept these special characters.

Regards,
André Bauer