Black Progger Programmer

Review date: September 12, 2004

BlackProg Programmer: (Category Universal Programmers)

This is the BlackProg programmer. It is a not a hybrid programmer, like the Infinity USB Phoenix. Even though it does have both a USB port and a COM port, all programming is actually done via the COM port. As far as I could determine, the USB port is exclusively used to supply the programmer with the necessary power.

I have redone this whole review page, based on software version 1.06 recently, because there were so many new (and some very nice) features added in version 1.06. And while testing the unit with the new software I accidentally stumbled over some peculiarities that I had not noticed before. While investigating some eratic behaviour, I found much to my surprise, that the programmer does not actually use the USB port for anything else but supplying power to the programmer.

If the design does look familiar, that should be no wonder as the enclosure is similar to the one used for the MasterA-, MasterCRD- and SC-Master-programmers. It is a solid enclosure and very tidy finished, but it looks very uuuhhhhhh ....... black ;)

BlackProg USB

Insert the card with the contacts facing up.

As said, you need 2 cables to connect the BlackProg programmer. So your PC will also need to be equipped with both an USB port and a COM port. Unfortunately, this design does cost you a USB port, just to supply power to the programmer. It is not a solution that I am fond of. Why not simply put a connector for an ordinary power supply on the unit? It sure is big enough to host a normal power connector.

Thanks to the traditional COM port, the BlackProg does offer full Phoenix/Smartmouse possibilities. And that also qualifies it as a real Universal Programmer. Apart from the dedicated BlackPro software, I also tested the programmer with MKFind, ISVedit and Cardinal (GSM card software) and all these programs worked without problems.

If you look in the chapter Tables/Navigation, page Performance, you will notice a comparison of programming performance for all tested programmers with a selection of cards. As you can see in that table, the BlackProg doesn't perform bad, but it isn't a top performer either. Still, that table doesn't tell you the whole truth. If you need to regularly program Funcards with big EEproms (for CAM updating f.i.) then all of a sudden the BlackPro is a very good performer.

Time for a brief explanation:
The data for the external EEprom is programmed through a special loader in the Flash. The more efficient that loader works, the faster the EEprom can be written. However, the loader itself needs to be programmed to the card (the Flash) before it can do its job. And programming that loader also costs time. Let's call this the programming overhead. In the case of the BlackPro, the overhead only starts paying off on bigger EEproms. A comparison with 2 other very fast programmers will illustrate what I mean.

Programmer + Software Fun 2   Fun 6  
AD-Teknik MP 3.5 USB + MultiPro v1.60 0:26  1:15 
Black Progger + BlackPro v1.03 0:52  2:10 
Infinity USB Phoenix + Infinity v1.46 (verify OFF) 0:32  2:42 

As you can see in this table, the BlackPro is clearly the slowest of the 3 when programming the Funcard 2. However, when programming a Funcard 6, it is faster than the Infinity USB Phoenix and the difference with the MP 3.5 USB has not become that much bigger. This shows that the overhead gives the BlackPro a disadvantage on small EEproms, but it turns that inot an advantage on big EEproms.

Where the BlackPro stands out from the competition though, is in its extra Titanium functions. Programming a Titanium card can be done just as well with a whole bunch of other programmers, but the BlackPro is the only one I know, that has a few checks to determine possibly malicious files before yopu put them on your card and risk damaging it.

Maybe you do remember that shortly after the introduction of the Titanium clone cards, files appeared on the web that contained a special piece of code to destroy the Titanium clones. If you don't know what I mean by original Titanium cards or clones, then please read the chapter Smartcards, the page about the Titanium. Anyhow, the BlackPro software does have built-in checks to filter out files that contain that kind of malicious code. So if anything suspicious is detected while loading the file for programming, you will be notified by BlackPro. And you can also use the BlackPro software to detect if your card is an original or a clone.
These are two very handy functions and I wouldn't be surprised if we are going to see these ideas implemented in other software as well in the near future.

My conclusion:
Advantages:
- solid and neatly finished enclosure
- true universal programmer and therefor suitable for every programming need
- unique and very handy Titanium functions that ensure your cards safety

Disadvantages:
- does cost a USB port, just for supplying power
- slow on programming PIC cards

All in all this is a convincing introduction, especially thanks to some very nice innovative new features. Now they only need to optimize the mode switching routines for speed and add an extra power connector. to get rid of the extra USB cable in case you don't have a USB port to spare.
In short, this programmer does have a lot of potential.