Reprogram a greetings card?

Did you see these :
If by "these" you mean this quote:
The only way to change the tune is to change the chip.
Of course I did, I used it in my response. Do you see anywhere where he, or you, or anyone else positively identifies the OP's board as not being able to be programmed? I don't. I see two posts saying that it might not be, probably not be, and so on. THAT was point that I made.

Did you see all the links posted previously, including the Greeting Card circuits that ARE re-programmable? What I am saying (three times now) is that I do not know if his board can be programmed, I think it is possible. Whether it is or is not re-programmable in the end, it is worth playing with it for its own sake.

That's my position and I am sticking to it.
 

ScottWang

Joined Aug 23, 2012
7,397
If by "these" you mean this quote:


Of course I did, I used it in my response. Do you see anywhere where he, or you, or anyone else positively identifies the OP's board as not being able to be programmed? I don't. I see two posts saying that it might not be, probably not be, and so on. THAT was point that I made.

Did you see all the links posted previously, including the Greeting Card circuits that ARE re-programmable? What I am saying (three times now) is that I do not know if his board can be programmed, I think it is possible. Whether it is or is not re-programmable in the end, it is worth playing with it for its own sake.

That's my position and I am sticking to it.
Unless you or anyone have the documents to point out that the board can't be reprogrammed, otherwise anyone saying that it is could be reprogrammed or not are all correct, we can't just according the experienced to say and decide that the board can't be reprogrammed, isn't it?

And the OP just trying to find the possibility to reprogram the board, EE has many possible to do, try and try is the funny thing, sometimes you can't say that it is waste the time, everyone can be post their opinions and ideas, no one can't says that which is right and which is wrong, unless discussing the theories has its own rule and formula.
 
Unless you or anyone have the documents to point out that the board can't be reprogrammed, otherwise anyone saying that it is could be reprogrammed or not are all correct, we can't just according the experienced to say and decide that the board can't be reprogrammed, isn't it?

And the OP just trying to find the possibility to reprogram the board, EE has many possible to do, try and try is the funny thing, sometimes you can't say that it is waste the time, everyone can be post their opinions and ideas, no one can't says that which is right and which is wrong, unless discussing the theories has its own rule and formula.
OK fine, no harm no foul, but I think you missed my point and I don't blame you as I was using humor to be indirect.

In fact, I object to, what comes across as a pronouncement that it can't be re-programmed because someone has 10,000 years of experience solely with greeting card blob chips and they issue the proclamation with papal infallibility. I object to it because it lacks critical thinking. Years ago, (and as it turned out, I investigated one of these for a friend - this was maybe 1993, who was interested solely in sales premiums) I would say that yes, it is certainly more likely that it was OTP. Now days, however, such sales premiums are commonplace and accessible to folks who have very small markets in mind - like weddings and small conferences.

The board in question distinctly has an edge connection that is obviously intended to allow and edge card connector to be attached. The purpose of the flier was for, what I believe, is a relatively small health care conference - I don't know, but maybe as few as a thousand of these could have been made.

If you mask program the blob chip (for as little as one cent each) then why the heck do you go through the added expense of making an edge connector on the board?

Could there be reasons for that edge connector that I don't know - yes, for sure. But, looking around, I notice this:
greeting card1.jpg
from:https://www.talkingproducts.com/promotion-greeting-cards.html

See how they used the edge connectors - it was to utilize ROMS for large orders, but they can also do smaller orders without that....and possibly using re-programmable boards.

Now, what would the conference folks do? Do they have a gaggle of EEs who will interface with overseas manufacturers to put together a 1 cent per blob chip for their conference? Or do they go to a middle man type operation who gives them a quote that fits their promotion budget?

THOSE are the reasons that I think it MIGHT be re-programmable, that is my thinking.

As far as the, play with it because it is fun - yes.
 

ScottWang

Joined Aug 23, 2012
7,397
it is certainly more likely that it was OTP
If just according to the experienced then I will say that it could be an OTP programmed by the users not factory, because it was added the interface, when the board has the interface then the users can be program the board by themself according to their required Quantity for each item, no matter the Quantity is 10, 50 or 100 or more.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Trying to figure out the edge connectors is not an impossible task.

Ten seconds looking at the picture identified the first/leftmost connector is V+. The second in from the right is a speaker connection. Ground should be easy to identify. (I bet it’s the rightmost pin because it’s beside the speaker pin). And if there’s one speaker connection, there’s likely to be two. A continuity check should identify that right away.

That’s half of the connections. Then, there begins the guessing game.

Two pins are labeled IO1 & IO2. Good candidates for audio input. We’re down to one or two unidentified pins.

One is labeled OK1. A good guess might be this is the control pin. Bring it to ground while supplying audio to the IOx pins and then remove ground. Or bring it to V+ and see what happens.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained my Dad says to me all the time.
 
Trying to figure out the edge connectors is not an impossible task.

Ten seconds looking at the picture identified the first/leftmost connector is V+. The second in from the right is a speaker connection. Ground should be easy to identify. (I bet it’s the rightmost pin because it’s beside the speaker pin). And if there’s one speaker connection, there’s likely to be two. A continuity check should identify that right away.

That’s half of the connections. Then, there begins the guessing game.

Two pins are labeled IO1 & IO2. Good candidates for audio input. We’re down to one or two unidentified pins.

One is labeled OK1. A good guess might be this is the control pin. Bring it to ground while supplying audio to the IOx pins and then remove ground. Or bring it to V+ and see what happens.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained my Dad says to me all the time.
gcard2.jpg

IO3 is also identifiable. There are pads and keypads. It looks like I02, I01, 0K1 and I03 are labels for the circular pads as are G- and 0k2. Looks like G- is going to keypad 2. It's hard to see but it certainly looks like Keypad1 is V+ and Keypad2 is G. I only can make out 4 resistors and a jumper (0 for 0 ohm resistor?) which is not closed. The O and 0 characters seems to be the same on the silkscreen - all are zeros?. I wonder if there is anything on the other side of the board.

edit: wait is it 3 resistors and a cap - what is the 104 smt? That's a cap, right?
 
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