UniSite Xpi Programmer and modules

These units are frequently on eBay and may work, usually the seller knows nothing about it so they say for parts only.  They will say in the auction the Self-Test passes because the light stays on, WRONG!!  If it does not go out there may be a problem, if they did not have a boot disk in the drive then the self-test cannot continue and the light stays on. If the unit has a MSM the light should go out in a couple minutes.  Without the 17 PinSite modules and no adapters installed the self-test is about 10 seconds.  As you add PinSite modules the self-test takes longer.  With all 17 modules plus the Site 48 and PinSite adapter the self-test takes about 5 minutes booting from the floppy. If the unit does not have a hard disk then a floppy boot disk is required to complete the start-up and the self test light will go out. If the unit has a internal hard disk then the the self test light will go out after the self test without a boot disk. I use a standard USB to 25 pin 3 wire cable for serial and the HP parallel cable for the high speed port. I usually do a quick test of any Data I/O with my terminal just to see if it boots without errors. You must be in terminal mode to see test results, not Tasklink.

Data I/O used two revisions of logic boards in the UniSite series. The early revision, as present in programmers with revision codes -001 through - 011, did not support the hard drive option and required the memory expansion board to go beyond 1MB RAM. It is easily distinguished, in terms of visual inspection, by the fact that it does not have a pair of 30-pin SIMM sockets in the left front quadrant ('front' referenced to the front of the programmer, or close to the big 60-pin expansion connector if you're just looking at the board).

The later revision, present in programmers with revision codes of -012 through -016 and up, are much more useful. They will support the hard drive upgrade without further modification, and it is also easily expandable in terms of memory.

Most UniSites with the late-revision board will already have their max memory of 8MB installed, in the form of two 30-pin 4Mbit x 9 (parity is required) 70nS SIMMs. If you run across one that has less than this (some models only had 1 or 2MB) it can be upgraded by plugging in the requisite SIMMs, you also need to change out U91 (a 22V10 PLD) so the Unisite will recognize the additional memory. Click on this link for the .JED file to recreate U91 for this application, it is in a ZIP file format.

If you have to go searching for memory, check at computer surplus places as well as on eBay, they do still turn up. You should attempt to get the types of SIMMs which use nine discrete chips, as opposed to the three-chip models, something to do with refresh timing. Check with me I probably have them in my stash of old computer memory.

You should always go by the programmer's PART number. This has been pretty consistently in the format of 901-0058-0xx, where the two digits at xx are the revision level. If an eBay seller has one you're interested in, and their listing photos do not include a readable image of the manufacturing label, always ask them to send you the actual part number before you buy, and explain the format to them as described above.

NOTE: UniSite manual page 2-20 has a listing of LED conditions and their results. Once again if the self test does not turn off the unit is defective and possibly the OS!!

Check this link for additional information on eBay
Bruce is very knowledgeable and his site has a lot of info.
ftp dot bluefeathertech dot com

If downloading a UniSite manual I would recommend the XPi version although larger it is more complete. There is very little difference between the the standard UniSite and the XPi version. The only real difference is a version 014 or later board, MSM and a parallel port all other functions are the same.

Please see the last 2 PDF files they will explain how to add a parallel port to your UniSite if it has an MSM module (hard disk). These files plus much of the above information was provided by a UniSite user and more of an expert than I am.

I reccently purchased 2 UniSite models listed as for parts only, One was a UniSite with MSM and the other was a UniSite Xpi-68. From their description I knew the first one was working because it stated the self-test light went out after a couple minutes. The second was a really nice looking Xpi and I thought I would update using the chassis with the parallel port but it turned out to be working. In both cases I made a offer and they were accepted, now I have a backup.

If you see a UniSite 6800 or UniSite Xpi-68 listed, they contain all 17 pin driver cards and the MSM with 8 megs of memory, the Xpi just adds the parallel port and a nicer case logo.