Rom Chip for TV Typewriter project.

[Wiikid6]

Now I know this is really old school but I recently picked up the book TV Typewriter Cookbook By Don Lancaster. I was intrigued by this TV typewriter when I saw a picture of it on the Cover of Radio Electronics magazine. The parts of the TV Typewriter are still made today (like most chips), however it requires a character ROM to print letters to the CRT TV. Remember this was before RCA Cables were popular and so I'm using antenna forks connected to a coaxial cable adapter so it's a little weird. I like bringing old tech back to life and the great part about it is I can use for a terminal for my older computer (Altair mostly). The problem is I need a ROM Programmer or need to send it off to company to have it programmed. So is there any commercial ROM programmers still out there or not and if not what company still programs ROM chips?

 

[sky_123]

If it is not a lot of bytes (and I guess it isn't for a character ROM), you could actually get a traditional EPROM (e.g. 27xx series) and build a simple circuit with many toggle switches (or better still hex switches) to manually program it, byte-by-byte. Or, get a parallel EEPROM (like 28xx series) and at least it is easier to erase. Maybe get child labor (nephew/neice) to do the switch-flipping exercise and pay $5.
If you're lucky, you may find an old EPROM programmer with a serial interface at a car boot sale. That was where I got mine. I didn't use it much so I gave it away many years ago to a car mechanic who used it to soup up cars.

EDIT: looks like you could get one **broken link removed**, they are not too expensive, maybe sell it after you're finished with it.

 

[Wiikid6]

Maybe I could use one but I read the book again looking for the ROM setup, and found out there were pre programmed character ROM. can anyone tell me where to find this ROM chip: 6072 Character generator (7x9, Row scan, Uppercase and lower case) taken straight from the book.