John Loch <johnloch@MTT.COM> wrote:

>I need to buy a programmer for the PIC 16C74 and have found three that
>are available from Digikey.  They are in descending price order:
>
>1.) Promate Development Kit from Microchip at $695.00 plus $141.00
>2.) PIC Programmer from Parallax (PICPGM) at $215.58 plus $49.00
>3.) PICSTART 16C from Microchip at $193.32
>
>From what I can tell the Promate (#1) can program all variations of
>PIC's but will require that I purchase a separate adaptor for each
>pinout at around $150 each (can you say pure profit).

    Can you say, "You get what you pay for?"

    This list and the Microchip BBS are full of complaints about
    PICSTART reliability.  As far as I know, no one has EVER had a
    problem with PRO MATE reliability.

    Also, the PRO MATE (unlike the other two) is a "production"
    programmer; it verifies chips at both Vmin and Vmax.

    On the other hand, it IS expensive; if you're just doing
    hobbyist-type things, buy one of the other two.

>The most important consideration to me is the assembler.  The Parallax
>assembler says that it accepts Microchip and 8051-like instructions
>(which I am familiar with).  I am about to purchase the Parallax
>programmer, but I would like to hear from other developers.  Any
>comments?

    Here's my standard Parallax comment:

    Parallax's hardware is ok.  Nothing wrong with it, and it fills a
    big niche in the hobbyist market.  I've been told that their
    customer support is pretty good, too.

    Their assembler, on the other hand, is a toy.  In my opinion, it
    isn't really suitable for professional software development.

    By including "8051-type" macros, their assembler "protects" you
    from having to learn the PIC instruction set.  Unfortunately, it
    also protects you from such assembler features as conditional
    assembly, macros, multi-module assembly, source-level compatibility
    with the PIC-Master emulator and MPSIM simulator, object-level
    compatibility with the MPC C-compiler, an optional Windows
    interface, etc.

    For the same cost (free), you can get Microchip's MPASM assembler,
    a real state-of-the-art assembler that DOES have all those
    features.  The fact that you already know the 8051 instruction set
    makes little difference; the PIC's 35-or-so instructions can easily
    be learned in one sitting.

    -Andy

--
Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
Fast Forward Engineering, Vista, California

Steve Addison
University of Aberdeen
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Tel: UK 01224 272889
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