"Re-Purpose" cat genie solution eeprom

*** this is my fist ible so be kind...

I'm going to show you how to make a eeprom reader to read and write to those 24lc00 eeproms embedded in the cat genie solution cartridges. I have seen the adrino versions of this but realistically this is WAY cheaper and, in my opinion, much easier.
Lets face it: once you empty the cartridge, the next step is to throw it away so why not do something useful with it!!

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Step 1: Where to begin?

You have a couple of options open to you at this point:
1) do you want to make a reader that looks nice or
2) do you just want to cram something together and make it work?

Either option you choose you will need:
-sani solution cartridge (duh!)
- preferably a desktop computer with a parallel port capable of ECP and EEP protocols (explained later)
- 2X BC337 NPN transistors
- 2X 2.2K resistors (or +/- 200ohm)
- 2X 4.7K resistors
- 1X 10K resistor
- 1X100nF capacitor (any non-electrolyte type will work)
- 1X PC parallel port stub (male or female depends on your computer)
- an old USB cable you can destroy
- various wire lengths
- (optional) 4X small springs (3-4mm diam, 5mm tall)

tools: wire strippers, low watt soldering gun (20W max), solder, super (or hot) glue,

nthomson-1 says: Apr 16, 2011. 8:26 AM

I could not get this to work until I created a file using a HEX editor. The file is imported into PonyProg. There are just 16 bytes of data but I had to repeat these same 16 bytes to build a file that was 2048 bytes in total size.

Example
00000000 01 01 01 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 08 08 08 21 21 21 FF
00000010 01 01 01 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 08 08 08 21 21 21 FF
00000020 01 01 01 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 08 08 08 21 21 21 FF
.................
.................
.................
000007F0 01 01 01 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 3C 08 08 08 21 21 21 FF

This was very easy to do using a free editor called HxD

lilimike says: Oct 14, 2009. 9:23 AM

OK so here is my story, I tried this and was able to read the cartragesuccesfully, built on a greadboard in 10 minutes and it worked onfirst try (that's unusual) I see that I can use the utilityfillbuffer from Ponuprog to change the data but I have to modify line byline which is quite a long process, I can not read the file withnotepad. I tried to save as hex, then modify with notepad but when Iopen the file again in Ponyprog it is not good.
Anyone have any advice?

lilimike says: Oct 11, 2009. 5:55 AM

I am surprised to see no comments here, has anyone tried it? any succesful stories? any issues?

ScottSEA says: Aug 29, 2009. 3:28 PM

A very nice Instructable. Very well done. I'm the one that started this ball rollin' - and I have to say, your solution looks very doable. If I ever come up with another need for my arduino, I'll have to whip up one of these! Helpful hint: Your 'ible doesn't come up when I search for "CatGenie" (one word) you might want to add that as a keyword or change your title.