This jibes with the one schematic I found online for this common-yet-obscure ISP BIOS/EEPROM programmer. CH341A MiniProgrammer ISP programmer schematic Credit: onetransistor.eu 2) Install libusb-1.0 (version 1.0.22+)

I did get it to work last night, although not using the CH341A programmer. Because of my weird arrangement, I wondered if it could be an issue due to noise on the SPI bus. I wondered if I could fix this by playing with the SPI speed. As the CH341A can't do that, I got my raspberry pi up, which has native SPI and flashrom support, and used flashrom to play around with the speeds. After a lot of trial and error, I got multiple good, verified reads and proceeded to modify the bin file, successfully upload and verify the flash chip, resolder the chip, and boot the device. Here I cut the connection between the holes at location 6 with an X-acto knife and added the wire jumpers like in the diagram above. I used the legs from a spare resistor I had lying around. They are thin so they leave enough room for the through-hole pins to fit. Add wire jumpers from a spare resistor insert the clip’s jumper into the mini programmer (with the numbers 1 2 3 4 on the left, 5 6 7 8 on the right) in the first part of the CH341A female connection (ie on the left, the part right being dedicated to EEPROM 24 chips), CH341PAR.ZIP - archive containing driver files for interface mode and API (header and library to access the device and use any protocol you want).

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Since the Windows tool has severe issues with some chips and doesn’t have an auto-verification system, your best bet is to do the flash from a Linux computer. If you don’t have one, you can use the instructions in the following paragraphs to set up a Live USB with Linux (a Live USB is one which contains an OS you can boot from and use as a normal computer). If you do have a Linux system already, you can skip to the next part of the guide. Multiple flash chip definitions match the detected chip(s): "MX25L3205(A)", "MX25L3205D/MX25L3208D", "MX25L3206E/MX25L3208E", "MX25L3273E" Once you have compiled the software locate the executable ch341eeprom. Feel free to execute the newly compiled software now. The output should look as follows:

Calibrating delay loop... OS timer resolution is 1 usecs, 1262M loops per second, 10 myus = 10 us, 100 myus = 99 us, 1000 myus = 993 us, 10000 myus = 9969 us, 4 myus = 4 us, OK. You can also try fake powering on the board/PSU (short the PSU on pins via paper clip etc, AKA “Jump Start PSU”). DON’T really power on the board, just the PSU Compact EPROM programmer, works through the USB port, easy to use, compatible with various memory chips available in the market, used in TVs, motherboards, notebooks, satellite receivers, monitors, etc. Ideal for the maintenance technician or developer in the computer or electronics area. As I was trying other methods before buying the CH341A programmer, the chip was on a bodged-together carrier board. I thought, however, that my wiring was okay as I could read the correct ID from the chip.

5) Flash the ATtiny85 Digistump board

These memories are used in numerous board of electronic equipment, where the operating software of the equipment or configuration information is recorded for correct operation, and for some reason an error may occur in this software and compromise the entire system operation. If you are trying to flash your board with an SPI, there’s a good chance you already know the basics of Linux. Even if you don’t, though, I’ll still go over it.

CH341PAR.ZIP– archive containing driver files for interface mode and API (header and library to access the device and use any protocol you want). The manufacturer of CH341A chip offers drivers for all operating systems. They even offer API for programmers who want to build software to talk to CH341A. In spite of this, software tools for CH341A are not very easy to find. For Windows there is a programming utility that requires a license which is offered only if you buy the programmer from the developer's shop, on Chinese platform Taobao. In this post I'll show you the alternatives. This device allows a variety of options to program/flash SPI flash or BIOS chips but also other types of EEPROMs of type 24XX and 25XX which are found in various devices like routers, access points, videocards,… and is suited to program the SOIC-8 BIOS chips that are used in a lot of systems these days. 2) Adapter, cable or clipif nothing works, then the procedure becomes more complex. If the software can not read the chip properly, it can not also reprogram it, on the contrary it will further corrupt it. It will be necessary to disassemble the BIOS of the motherboard and put it directly on the small integrated circuit (as in the image below). AsProgrammer is now ready. Use the toolbar buttons to read, write, erase and verify chip (hover the mouse cursor over them to see what the do). There is a plentiful of software available on Linux to deal with EEPROM CH341A programmer. Many of them are available via standard Debian repository such as flashrom. press the Detect button of the software to recognize the Bios. The program should recognize the type, the brand and the model of the chip. For the Dell system I used, the text was pretty readable by taking a proper macro picture and zooming in:

Can be used to update Bios of motherboards, notebooks, satellite receivers, DVDs, TVs, etc. Provided that the memory is listed. Like on Windows, using this method we can be sure that the programmer can communicate properly with the chip and we reduce the chance for corruption. All seems to be good in the above output. If you see a different hash, you first need to fix this before proceeding. For the Dell system, I found the BIOS chip on the lower right part of the motherboard, next to a label “SPI”: connect the SOIC8 clip to the Bios (8-pin SPI memory chip); it is near a JSPI1 connection (see image below). The program recognizes that the programmer is connected.

NOTE: Linux and BSD systems (Android, MacOS, iOS, Ubuntu, ChromeOS etc) are sometimes called "UNIX-like" operating systems. You either need to get clip perfect still, or you need to add/remove power from board. And, in the end, some rare cases you 100% must remove chip from board to read or write properly (but again, usually at failed corrupted read is still possible, usually) In the above output we can see that both files generated the same hash, so they are identical. This is a good indication that communication with the IC and programmer works as expected. I tested it with 24C02 I2C EEPROM (256 bytes). Reading took less than a second. Programming took 36 seconds. Then I placed a SPI flash on the programmer. I didn’t even bother to see what’s marked on it, I used the Read ID button and it detected W25Q128 (16 Mbytes). Reading took 2 and a half minutes and writing slightly more than 3 minutes. Note that some chips are write protected and you will need to alter protection registers (see the dropdown menu on the Unprotect toolbar button). Other utilities The finished jumper board looks like this. Please forgive that there is still flux on the terminal base. Completed CH341A PCB pin board