At 05:01 PM 5/14/99 -0600, you wrote:
>I have connected a retired DSS smart card to my Picstart +.
>I have a neato application that these units would work great
>on.  However, I have found no evidence that it is possible,
>but am told it is just a 16F84 and thus ICSP connections
>should apply.
>
>I've also heard that the logic for the /MCLR may be inverted,
>and on some cards, C7 - RB6.
>
>In the ISO specification, VPP is also connected to C6, is
>this required?
>
>The connections I've used:
>
>C1 - VCC
>C2 - /MCLR
>C3 - RB6
>C4 - NC
>C5 - VSS
>C6 - NC
>C7 - RB7
>C8 - NC
>
>I did extract something, after several tries.  The oscillator
>was LP, watchdog was off, power up timer was on, and code
>protect was on --- as expected.
>
>Any help?
>
>Craig

The old DSS cards use a Motorola micro and a EEPROM.  If you serach for
"dss near merlin" using Altavista's advanced search there is tons of
information out there about how the cards work and how to hack them.  The
newer 'H' series cards use a 8051 variant, the EEPROM, and an ASIC that
makes everything difficult.  All I've ever done is to look at these sites,
DirecTV still gets their $30/month from me!


-- Dennie Lee --
dwlee1@bbtel.com                ICQ: 19351768
www.uofl.edu/~dwlee001  <- Being Rebuilt, painfully slowly!
Call: KF4GDK