RP5H01 chip reader and programmer

Ricoh RP5H01 reader

I have made pretty simple circuit to read out the Ricoh RP5H01 PROM chips. It uses a FTDI FT232RL USB interface to connect the RP5H01 towards your computer.

PCB design

For the reader circuit you can use a widely available FTDI FT232RL interface board. You can choose to replicate the circuit above on a bread board, or you can create the PCB below. The board below can be easily plugged into an FT232RL interface board.
 



You can download the gerber files here

Parts:

  • 6 Pin right angle female header
  • 1x 8 Pin DIL IC socket
  • 1.2k resistor
  • FTDI FT232RL breakout board

 

MAME RP5H01 security chip file format

I have chosen to use the MAME RP5H01 security chip file format, since this will be easy to compare your chip dumps against the widely available dumps. This format is different between the PlayChoice-10 and Super System dumps. The PlayChoice-10 format has the bits per byte in reverse order and all bits are inverted. However, the Super System dumps are 1-on-1 dumps from the Ricoh RP5H01 chip, so no reverse order or inverted bits.

Example;

Contra PROM content is hex "434E5452D8E7E61A"

MAME dump is "3D8DD5B5E41898A7"

1-on-1 dump from the RPOM:

​0100 0011 0100 1110 0101 0100 0101 0010 1101 1000 1110 0111 1110 0110 0001 1010 = 434E5452D8E7E61A

Bits inverted:

1100 0010 0111 0010 0010 1010 0100 1010 0001 1011 1110 0111 0110 0111 0101 1000 = C2722A4A1BE76758

Per byte reversed:

0011 1101 1000 1101 1101 0101 1011 0101 1110 0100 0001 1000 1001 1000 1010 0111 = 3D8DD5B5E41898A7


Programmer

I have also made a programmer device, in case you are interested or need the programmer software, please contact me.

Software

Reader software

Programmer software

To dump the content of the RP5H01 chip, I have programmed a small application that connects to the FR232RL board and sends the right instructions to the RP5H01 chip.
Download

RP5H01 reader v1.0 32bit or 64bit
RP5H01 reader v2.0 32bit or 64bit

FTDI driver v2.12.00

Changelog

Version 1.0

  • Initial release


Version 2.0

  • Added an installer
  • Fixed bug selection combo
  • Added Progress bar
  • Added Status bar
  • Added About dialog
  • Added icon
  • Open MAME RP5H01 file format
  • Open MAME RP5H01 NSS file format (using File menu)
  • Fixed some minor bugs