I've been trying out using in-circuit programming, with no luck.

I built an adapter for my Picstart Plus programmer consisting of a
DIP socket and a clamp-on IC pin probe.  The idea is you clamp it
onto an unprogrammed chip in a board and give it the transfusion.

Great theory.  I only hooked up MCLR/VPP, ground, Vdd, RB6 and RB7.
Are these the only pins that need to be connected?

So far whenever I use the adapter I get "check power and serial
connection"  errors, even when clamped onto a bare chip not in the
board.   Leads are 12" long - is this excessive?

I didn't design a serial programming header into my current project
(D'oh!) and now I'm sorry.  I also have a trace connecting MCLR and
Vdd, instead of the recommended small resistor.  (grrr)  Had to cut
this trace.  Next time I'll design with ISP in mind.


Best Regards,

Lawrence Lile