I have been trying, without much success, to program the data
memory in a 16C84 using the new Picstart Plus programmer under
MPLAB.

EEPROM data programming is supported by the Picstart Plus, at
least according to the menus.  What I have seen is that the
data that gets written is always 'FF', regardless of the data
in the source file.

Verifying the data in the EEPROM always passes with an un-
initialized device (FF data), and fails with an open socket or
a device programmed with any other data.

A source file with EEPROM data definitions seems to assemble the
expected data, and the EEPROM window shows that data after a
build.  However, the data written to the device is still all
'FF'.

Here is a simple test case which I used (after more complex
cases failed):

----<TEST.ASM>----------------------------------------------
;
; This is a test to generate EEPROM Data
;
   PROCESSOR   16c84

   include     P16C84.inc

            __CONFIG _CP_OFF & _PWRTE_ON & _WDT_OFF & _HS_OSC

            org     2100
            de      "NEW STUFF\r\n"
            de      0,0,0,0
   END
-----------------------------------------------------------

Here are the steps that I followed with this test case:

1.  Open a new project and add TEST.ASM to the project list.
2.  Build all files
3.  Open an EEPROM window
    - The "NEW STUFF.." string was shown in the window.
3.  Enable the Picstart Plus and program the EEPROM data only.
    - this completed and was successful.
4.  Use ITU PIC-1 programmer to read the data area and write a
    HEX file.
    - the HEX file shows all 'FF' data.

I also took a different PIC that had other (non 'FF') data and
programmed it.  The ITU verified that the data was "Hello World"
before programming, and all 'FF' after.

Previous experiments showed that I could write the correct data
to the PIC with the ITU programmer, and that the ITU reads the
data back correctly to the HEX file.

Has anyone else used the Picstart Plus to write data memory with
success?  Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Brent Miller