I have worked for the Danish distributor of Sunshine equipment (BR Electronics Aps) since 1984 and over the years I have serviced our customers whenever they had any technical problems with the equipment or software. Because I am solving the technical problems that our customers have with they programmers I have learned a lot about Sunshine programmers. Many of our customers use the latest IC's on the market and therefore I have heard of problems with programming before Sunshine got complains from other distributors. I have been in contact with Sunshine about 250-300 times during the past years, and it is some of that information I will try to put up on this page.
The questions is both from our customers and from e-mails I have got from people around the world. The answers is quoted from Sunshine or made by me in the light of my experience with Sunshine programmers (problems I have had myself).

TOP-2000W


Q: Do you know how I could get info on the Top-2000 product. Such as the socket adapters availbale and price and since sunshine is defunct, where can I buy one?
A: The TOP-2000W programmer is exactly the same as ALL-11 from Hi-Lo systems. (Hi-Lo systems have nothing to do with Sunshine but just before Sunshine closed, Sunshine considered a co-operation with Hi-Lo regarding producing TOP-2000W and Sunshine got a few samples from Hi-Lo which they sold).

Q: Can I use the Top2000 software with EXPRO ?
A: NO! The Top-2000W is completely different from Expro-60/80 because Top-2000W is using the serial port (COM1-4).



POWER-100


Q: I got an hardware error when starting the software that told me to run the H/W test. The H/W test 2 said that there was an TTL error on PIN 12. I then run the īSINGLE STEP TESTī and the TTL PIN 12 said error until I send a PULSE by pressing īSī and the error disappeared!!! I have not got the error message since the first time I send the pulse (it is like the Power-100 have repaired itself). But from time to time I have problems programming devices like eproms and FLASH (It will not program) but after running the H/W selftest 2 then there is no problem! It is one of the first models you sold us so there is no fan near the power supply.
A (by Sunshine): According to your description, our technician said it could be bad connection between top and bottom board at the position on Pin 12. The error could be occured by shaking the model,it has nothing to do with power supply.



EXPRO-60/80


Q: When reading an AMD MPU like D8753H or 80C32 ITL we get a wrong (different) checksum everytime the same MPU is loaded.
A (by Sunshine): The CPU speed too fast or the textool dusty could get the different checksum.

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PEP-01/04


Q: When I connect a PEP-01 to a VESA LOCAL BUS SUPER I/O CARD from GOLDSTAR I get a 'Communication error'. I can print from the printerport
A: Please try to use a NO NAME I/O printer card. It should solve the problem. A normal ISA printer card solved the problem for me.

Q: I own a pep 01 eprom programmer but I did not get any cabling with it. I have tried a printer/laplink/straight through cable configuration but no luck so far. I am getting a communication error message, is this the cabling ?
A: It is a normal parallel printer cable. In your BIOS you probally have to change the LPT settings. It should be set to NORMAL or similar (not any fancy stuff like EEP+GTTHIHHJ+ ...etc. :) )

Q: My PEP-01 is not running on a pentium II processor
A: The problem with the PEP programmer is:
1. The software will not run on a fast computer (Pentium II and Pentium above 200/233 MHz computers). You will get a 'runtime error - divide by 0' (caused by bad programming (using loops instead of a timer or something like that).
2. PEP doesn't work on fast computers above 100MHz. I have this note from Sunshine:

PEP-01 do not work with Pentium 100/up due to compatibility problem. The PC speed is too high, PEP-01 is not compatible with them because originally it was designed base on 486 DOS and there is no new software for this problem.

It seems that the PEP-0x is generating a lot of heat around the printerport connection so you are not able to program eproms (The programming stops and verify fails). I cannot use the PEP-0x on a Pentium 133 after 3 min. of use. Then it begin to fail (the first 3 min. before it gets hot; it works ok). BUT on the other hand I have heard from 2-3 other people that they could run PEP on a fast computer so maybe the ASUS motherboards I have tried the PEP on is involved in the problem in some way (printerport on motherboard -> fast printerport -> failure ????)

It is very strange because the PEP-0x programmer serie is newer than the POWER-100 Universal programmer and there is no problem with the POWER-100. I have experied that the PEP-0x is faster than the Power-100 and maybe thats the problem. I have had one problem with a Power-100 that was to fast for the printerport so I slowed down the Power-100 by changing a capacitor (inside the Power-100) and then everything worked well. I will try to check if it is possible to change the hardware but for now it seems that there is no solution for the Pentium problem.

I have never tried the PEP on a Pentium II computer myself so I don't know if it will work if the cache is turned off. On my computer, turning the cache off, did NOT solve the heating problem on my Pentium 133! The programmer would not work at all.

Here is a note I have received via E-mail: I have received from my supplier a script which turns off my cache from my DELL latitude pentiumII 233 MHz notebook. And now my programmer operates FINE and my printer port did not show on this moment heating problems. The PEP01 stayed on for about four hours and I programmed only one EPROM from Thomson (M27C512)..

Here is another note I have received via E-mail: I have an Celeron running with 450 MHZ. Setting him to 300 MHZ - disable L1 Cache - Bios Cache and Video Cache, PEP 01 works good !!!

Q: When I use a power adapter I get programming errors or the programmer won't program.
A: If you use an external power adapter then please use one that can deliver at least 1A. (The 500mA that the Sunshine manual says is not enough!!!! - You will get errors).



HEP-801/804/808


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EW-701/704/708


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EW-901/904/910


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UTILITYS


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