IMSProg

IMSProg

• System software requirements
• How to use
• List of supported chips
• Packages
• Changelog
• Project structure
• Chip database format
• Licensing
• Translations

IMSProg - I2C, MicroWire and SPI EEPROM/Flash chip Programmer - is a program to read, write EEPROM chips use the CH341A programmer device, CH347T programmer device and FT232H v1.2 programmer device.

The IMSProg makes respect to QHexEdit2 hex editor and SNANDer programmer. The format of the chip database is based on the format used in EZP2019, EZP2020, EZP2023, Minpro I, XP866+ programmers. Warning, format is not the same!

IMSProg is a collection of tools:

1. IMSProg - the chip programmer (it's the main part).

2. IMSProg_editor - chip database editor.

3. IMSProg_database_update - update chip database using external web-server.

Compiling project

git clone https://github.com/bigbigmdm/IMSProg.git && cd IMSProg
sudo ./build_all.sh

System software requirements

Linux

For build are needed:

• g++ or clang
• CMake
• libusb 1.0
• libftdi
• Qt5 or Qt6
• Qt5LinguistTools or Qt6LinguistTools
• pkgconf or pkg-config
• udev

On Debian and derivatives:

• for Qt5:

sudo apt-get install cmake g++ libusb-1.0-0-dev qtbase5-dev qttools5-dev pkgconf libftdi1-dev

• for Qt6:

sudo apt-get install cmake g++ libusb-1.0-0-dev pkgconf qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev libftdi1-dev linguist-qt6 qt6-l10n-tools qt6-base-dev-tools qt6-tools-dev-tools

On Debian >=13 and Ubuntu >=24.04:

sudo apt-get install systemd-dev

On older:

sudo apt-get install udev

:information_source: Debian [!NOTE]

In the current version, the MicroWire (93Cxx) protocol is not supported by the CH347 programming device.

CH347T V1.1 - a device with a lower speed than the CH347T V1.0.

• If the chip supply voltage is 1.8 volt he must be inserted in 1.8 volt adapter and the adapter into needed programmer slot.

• Plug the CH341A programmer into the USB socket of your computer and running the IMSProg.

• You can plug and unplug the programmer device (CH341A) to the USB port at any time when basic operations (reading, checking, and programming) are not in progress.

• Read more about adapters here.

Chip type selecting

Select the type of chip used from the Type pop-up menu: SPI_FLASH when using SPI NOR FLASH chips of the 25xxx series, SPI_NAND when using SPI NAND FLASH chips, 24_EEPROM when using I2C EEPROM of the 24xxx series, 93_EEPROM when using MicroWire EEPROM of the 93xxx series, 45_EEPROM when using DataFlash chips AT45DBxxx series. When using 25xxx series SPI NOR FLASH chips (Menu item type -> SPI_FLASH), or SPI NAND FLASH chips (Menu item type -> SPI_NAND), or AT45DBxx series SPI FLASH (Menu item type -> 45_EEPROM) the Detect button will be available. When the Detect button or or `` is pressed, the JEDEC information is read from the chip and all parameters of that chip are loaded from the chip database. Any parameter (size, page size, block size, VCC voltage, and 4-bit address length) can be changed manually. You can manually enter the Manufacture and Name pop-up menu data - all other parameters will be automatically loaded from the chip database. When using 24xxx or 93xxx or 95xxx or 25xxx SPI EEPROM (non NOR FLASH) series chips, it is necessary to manually enter the Manufacture and Name pop-up menu data - all other parameters will be automatically loaded from the chip database.

File operations

• The or `` button is used to save the computer buffer to a file.

• The or `` button is used to save the file in the computer buffer.

• The or `` button is used to save a part of the computer buffer to a file (the start address and length of the part must be entered). This operation can be used when splitting a binary data image into parts.

• The or `` button is used to load a small file to a certain address in the buffer. The data fragment in the buffer will be replaced with new data from the file.

• The or `` button is used to invoke the chip database editor.

• The menu item File / Import from Intel HEX is used to save the Intel HEX file in the computer buffer.

• The menu item File / Export to Intel HEX is used to save the computer buffer to a file in Intel HEX format.

Basic programmer operations

• Pressing Read or or `` to read data from the chip into the computer buffer.

• Pressing or `` to write data from the computer buffer into the chip.

• Pressing or `` will erase all data in the chip.

• By selecting Main Menu -> Chip -> Check erase or pressing ``, you can check whether all data has been correctly deleted from the chip.

• Pressing the or `` button causes the data in the chip and in the computer buffer to be compared.

The progress bar shows the progress of the read, erase, and verify operations.

• The Auto button is used to perform erase, check erase, write and verify operations in sequence. If one of these operations is not needed, you can uncheck the checkbox for that operation.

• The or `` key is used to force interruption of chip read/write/erase/verify operations.

• The i key show the connection chip to CH341A device image form.

• The Main menu -> Chip -> Chip info or `` item shows the Serial Flash Discoverable Parameter (SFDP) register and the status registers of the SPI NOR flash memory chips.

If the SPI NOR FLASH chip is detected normally, but is not read (gives the message Error reading sector 0), then in the Chip info window you can change bits BP4 and BP3 to zero and press the Write registers button. Then repeat the chip reading operation.

If the SPI NOR FLASH chip is read unreliably (with a different checksum each time) and Status Register 2 is available in the chip, you can change bits DRV0 and DRV1 to zero and press the Write Registers button. This will increase the power of the output stage of the DO pin of the chip. Then repeat the chip read operation.

For 25xxx, 95xxx and 45xxx series chips that have only one status register, the Chip info form is as follows:

For SPI NAND FLASH chips the Chip info form is as follows:

• The Main menu -> Chip -> Security Registers or `` item is used to work with SPI NOR Flash and SPI NAND FLASH security registers data. This form allows reading, write, erase, save and load security register data from the computer.

The buttons at the bottom of the form (, , , , ) perform a similar function to the top buttons on the main form. The Security register number: drop-down menu allows you to select one of the valid registers for the current chip for operation. The security registers can be locked for writing forever. If you want to know about this, please see Main Menu -> Chip -> Chip Information item or , data fields in LB3, LB2 and LB1 in Status register 1. Please refer to the datasheet of your chip for detailed information. For NAND FLASH chips you can scanning bad blocks, use Main Menu -> Chip -> Bad block management or `` key.

For these chips, you can also change the erase and write parameters in this menu.

[!NOTE] In this version of IMSProg, damaged blocks are not skipped when executing the Verify and Check erase functions for NAND Flash chips. If your chip contains damaged blocks, please do not use these functions.

Buffer (Hex editor) operations

The hexadecimal chip editor (right side of the screen) is used to display and modify buffer data.

It contains the following controls: undo, redo, and the search/replace. The [Ctrl+A] key used to update the CRC24 checksum. The [Ctrl+G] key used to move the cursor to the entered address. The [Ctrl+L] key is used to fill the hex editor buffer with a special test array. The [Ctrl+K] key is used to fill the hex editor buffer with a user code. The [Ctrl+M] key used for compares the results of the last and penultimate chip read or file open operation.

Programmer type

The Main menu -> Programmer item is used to change the programmer type.

List of hotkeys:

Chip database editor

Chip base editor - IMSProg_editor is a stand-alone program that can be launched from the Development menu or from the IMSProg program by clicking on .

All operations in the editor become available only after loading a chip base file with .Dat extension.

Menu File.

• Open or [Ctrl+O] or allows you to load the data file.
• Save or [Ctrl+S] or saves the chip parameter table to a database file.
• Exit or [Ctrl+X] or - exits the editor.
• Export to CSV format or [Ctrl+X] or allows to unload data about chips in CSV format for further processing by spreadsheet software - LibreOffice Calc, OpenOffice Calc, Google Tables, etc.
• Import from CSV file or [Ctrl+Shift+X] or
• loads a table in CSV format and adds data from it to the existing data in the table.

Menu Edit.

• Delete Rows or Del or - deletes one or more rows.
• Add Row or Ins or - adds a row below the selected row and copies all data from the selected row to the new row.
• Move Up or '[Ctrl+Up]` or - moves the selected line up.
• Move Down' or [Ctrl+Down]` or - moves the selected row down.
• Import selected rows to CSV format or
• saves selected rows to CSV file.

The most recent version of the chip database file can be downloaded from this page in both .Dat and .csv formats.

Chip updater

Once IMSProg_database_update app has been run, the downloaded database is copied to the ~/.local/share/imsprog folder. The script then displays the number of chips in the database before and after the update.

List of supported chips

I2C EEPROM

24C01, 24C02, 24C04, 24C08, 24C16, 24C32, 24C64, 24C128, 24C256, 24C512, 24LC515*, 24C1024, 24LC1025*, 24M02

[!NOTE] *For 24LC515 a