Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM
Subject: Memory-Extended MiniWave
From: mbedtom@...
Date: 2002-08-03
Another possibility to extend the number of resident waves on a MiniWave would be to load 8 EPROMs-worth of data onto a single, high-capacity 27C4001 EPROM. That EPROM costs only $7.50 each, quantity-one from Mouser. (511-27C4001-12B catalog page 118.) That solution eliminates power consumption from multiple idle EPROMs when they aren't selected, too. This is a 32 pin EPROM so an adapter would have to be fashioned, but would work well with the thumbwheel switch idea to select which EPROM image is presented to the MiniWave. This would also be very small and could easily fit as a piggyback board to the MiniWave - no external card and messy wiring.
An added benefit is that the EPROM could be "added to" if it wasn't full to begin with. (You cannot get rid of what you already have, but the unused areas of the chip are blank and can programmed in any number of sessions as your wave collection grows.) I would think that 8 standard EPROM's worth of data should keep one occupied for quite a long time. And for less than 8 bucks, the price is right.
The downside of this approach isn't strictly technical... it is a matter of getting a number of people to cooperate in allowing "their" waves to be co-resident on the same chip as "his" waves and "her" waves. I own a device programmer that could stamp out these chips (each one could easily be unique), but I would be somewhat hesitant to volunteer as the waveform police.
Technically, I think this idea has some merit. Politically, it might be a bomb.
What do you think?
Cheers!
Tom Farrand
PS "tastes like... burning" Was that the same episode as "I'm so hungry I could eat at Arbys"?