At 8:09 AM 11/28/98, cloudscraper@EXCITE.COM wrote:
>I'm trying to construct the KISS programmer
>(http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~lapi/KissPIC/)  for my PowerMac clone (powerbase).
>
>Anyone have any experience with this project - Any gotcha's to keep from
>frying my mac?

I also found that site after purchasing tools for my PIC development on the MAC,
and dismissed it as being, inexpensive yes, but very "one offish". Note the
caveats about the code, and it sounds like its only been tested/used on a
MAC SE. Depending on how the code is written your faster powerMAC may not
provide the proper timing for proper PIC programming. Only a discussion
with the author or satified users will tell. KISS may not be so simple.

I too was worried about connecting developmental hardware to my PowerMAC, so
found a nice SE 30 to play with.

>1). re: The serial port connections in the circuit - are these the way they
>should be connnected to the female 8pin DIN on the pcb or should any of
>these lines be reversed to match the Mac's output.

Check the info at the URL below. It looks like the  pins are as seen from
the MAC serial port.
http://developer.apple.com:80/technotes/hw/hw_10.html

>
>2). My powersupply will be an old surplus "brick" 12VDC that is actually
>putting out about 14.2 volts. I was going to add a 660 ohm resistor to bring
>the voltage down to 13 - 13.5. Any flaws with that idea?
>
I agree with the previous email, but would recommend that the programming
voltage be regulated.

>3). Any way to test the serial ports before I put power on this thing to
>prevent the wrong flow of electrons into my Mac?

The RS232 spec. says the pins should be immune to frying, with +/- 12V
level voltages, but? To help determine if you have the correct pins you can
try the program command and check for activity (pulses) on the TxD+, and
HSK0 pins.

>
>As you can see, I know very little about electronics and any help would be
>appreciated.  Thank You.
>

If you want to build your own, I would recommend checking the Francis Deck
programmer at;
        http://www.execpc.com/~fdeck/mac/index.html

This will require code be burned into a PIC16F84, so you must have a
programmer available.

This programmer is supported by Kevin Coble's MacPIC, Assembler, simulator,
and programmer at;
        http://www.srv.net/~kxc/MacPIC.html

MacPIC also supports WARP 3 (no longer available),WARP17,and PICSTART+
programmers.

I am using Kevin's software (and am pleased with it), with a WARP 3
programmer. I haven't built or used the Deck programmer, but its well
documented, and looks like it will do the job. Perhaps others can comment?

Hope this helps,
Heinz