>I've been trying to program an '84, preferably via RS232. I've tried
>several schematics (some parallel instead), and have intermittant
>results.

>I first tried the RS232 circuit that runs under PIP. Its schematic is
>available from ftp://rasi.lr.ttu.ee/pub/SIS/CAD/DIY/BITMAPS/com84.gif. It
>looks like the serial info is getting to the pic; however, I don't know
>enough about the programming timing to tell if it's working correctly or
>not. PIP-02 (with pinapi driver installed) goes through the motions, and
>reports "Error Programming Device!".

I was expecting first "Error ..." reports from users.
Few questions I need to know to help you out:
Does PIP read the PIC using RS-232 serial programmer?
Does it erase the chip? If getting "Error .." report
does the chip get programmed partially or not at all?

FYI there is a small test program four our drivers -
/pub/sis/msdos/drivers/drvtst1.zip
that program can be used to test drivers/hardware.
You can use that program to set programmer pins and
to read them back. Did you verify your RS-232 programmer
hardware with that program?

>I've tried the blowpic program and its related circuit:

We dont have currently support for blowpic schematics
because it has a manual switch. However as it seems
that now there is at least one user to that schematics
we will possible introduce drivers also for hardware
with manual VPP switching (ie blowpic design).

Hints on programer selection: there are several schematics
published, lots of them already are supported by our drivers.
And our software is free. If selecting one of those programmers
then software support is already there. If you find a programmer
you like, but we dont have driver yet, let us know!

If your final "product" is a software package please ask us
about licensing of our programming routines/drivers. You would
get support at once for all the hardware we support.

If your final "product" is a hardware with in circuit programming
of PIC's you may also ask for programming support from us,
DOS units or Windows DLL's available for in circuit programming.

PS we had some problems with PIP and RS-232 programmer ourselfs
howevere only in Windows 95 DOS boxes. We have found that that
exiting PIP and removing and re-installing the RS-232 programmmer
driver has solved that problems. We are working on that problem
currently, but until it's solved, please try to re-install the
driver if having problems to program from DOS boxes

antti

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-- Antti Lukats                          Silicon Studio --
-- sis@rasi.lr.ttu.ee                    PO Box 3500    --
-- ftp://rasi.lr.ttu.ee/pub/sis          Tallinn EE0001 --
-- http://rasi.lr.ttu.ee/~sis            Estonia        --
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