Hi Andy,

> >I must say I PICs in the field fail very rarely, perhaps 4 out of
> >1000 that I have had to do with.  All done with a PICstart
> >programmer at standard voltage.
>
> If 0.4% of hobby-progg'd chips fail, that's a very effective advert for
> production-quality programmers! :-) Still, that raises a question which I (as
> a newcomer) would love to know the answer to. How reliable are the PIC chips,
> when programmed to production standard?.

Nay I say.  You quote out of context.

I said we have had 0.4% PIC failues in the field and I attribute it to
spikes on input pins, all there devices are communications products that
have long interface cables and are often in industrial environments.
These units sometimes come back with tracks burnt on the board before the
primary surge protection but the PICs are fine.

I don't recall ever having a PIC that was programmed with a PICstart
that did not work.  That is to say if it verified in the programmer,
sometimes the MPSTART software and the PICstart will get stuck
on a chip and require a reboot, the chip under work will be part programmed
and sometimes not be possible to complete programming, typically I
toss the chip.

Got two new high volume products about to come off the line so I will
probably get a PROMATE to do the stuff just so I have more confidence
in the units that are going to be automotive temperature.

Cheers
--
Kalle Pihlajasaari   kalle@ip.co.za   http://www.ip.co.za/ip
Interface Products   P O Box 15775, DOORNFONTEIN, 2028, South Africa
+ 27 (11) 402-7750   Fax: 402-7751    http://www.ip.co.za/people/kalle

DonTronics, Silicon Studio and Wirz Electronics uP Product Dealer