AT89C52 controller chip programming

[Strugh]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. My cousin has a production line that uses Atmel AT89C51 controller chip.

He used to have a production engineer in charge of programming the chips. But due to management reasons, my cousin decided to fire him. In retaliation, the engineer locked all the chips and left no program behind for flashing the chips. Also he set an expiry date in the program to disable the program.

Officially, I understand that the flash program inside the chip will be erased if the chip is locked. But I just like to know if there's any way to get around this and download the program from the chip for use again.

Regards

Ed.

 

[Macbeth]

Yes the method is known as potential memory failure (AKA glitching.) Basicly you raise and lower the voltage in an atempt to get the fuse Bytes to fail, but i would advise that befor you try this you have a few spares to try this on for it can fry them. This method has been around for years. I would sugsest trying some of the Atmel hacking sites you will have to filter through all the DTV stuf but there are some there.

 

[Strugh]

Thanks a lot, Macbeth