Ilia

The AD1860 DAC IC is correctly wired and produces a valid analog output. A reference schematic from the early 1990s is used to identify non-critical components, and a full-scale sawtooth waveform (±3 V) is generated on one channel using an Arduino. The hardware setup functions as expected; the remaining task is implementing a correct SPI interface capable of handling 18-bit transfers.

Several methods for generating ±5 V rails were evaluated, ranging from dual wall warts to regulator-based and buck-boost solutions, with stability, noise, and grounding complexity as the main trade-offs. The most practical approach for the DAC setup proved to be regulator-based supplies, while more complex configurations offered little benefit and higher power consumption.

An Arduino-based EEPROM Programmer supporting AT28C devices is evaluated, highlighting wiring, performance, and hardware constraints. Advanced features like RDY/BUSY polling and page-write mode enable major speedups on DUE but are not viable on MEGA.

Page-write support in the AT28C256 can significantly speed up programming, but it depends on tight timing. The Arduino Mega is too slow to use this feature reliably, while faster platforms like the Arduino Due make it practical and stable.

Both DATA and RDY/!BUSY polling methods cut EEPROM write wait time by roughly threefold compared to fixed delays. They deliver similar performance and are simple to implement on Arduino. The limiting factor is the Arduino’s processing speed, not the AT28Cxx IC.