Huntron Tracker 2000 – 87C51 Firmware Dump Available?

[Chris56000]

Hi!

The prices of these Huntron Tracker 2000 instruments are going thro' the roof on fleabay, so much so that I reckon I can build one from the Parts Lists, schematics and layouts in the original Maintenance Manual for less!

Has anyone been able to extract the Firmware Dump from the 87C51 MPU used in this, or has anyone got a programmed one they can sell me from an old, spare or unrepairable unit?

All reasonable costs of a chip reimbursed if there's no dump available – I've never been able to find out if the MPU is locked or not as my manager at my work that has one of these instruments watches me like Quelch in the W.G. Bunter stories and I daren't take my employer's one to bits!

Chris Williams

[Silicon Steve]

Hi Chris

Have two Huntron 2000's that the PIC chip version 1.0 has been damaged. Have requested the firmware from Huntron hopefully they may help. If not will try downloading the firmware from the damaged IC's. As they are damaged I dont know how well that will go. If the firmware is intact will email it to you. If you have managed to get the firmware would love a copy.

Steve

[CJay]

The code protection on early 805x chips wasn't 'all that' and could be defeated quite simply with some rather easy tricks involving PSEN and an external EPROM.

Some later variants had better protection but could still be read out.

[mojoe]

If you are going to build something, look in the Aug 2018 issue of Circuit Cellar magazine. There is a curve tracer built using an NXP dev board. I have only glanced at the article so far, but it looks interesting.

BTW, thanks to Saelig for sending the free magazine along with my new scope. I haven't read Circuit Cellar in years, so I would have missed this article.