hi i have just checked my 2 month old Picstart Plus power supply and it is producing 9.07v off load mine is a black box 110x50x40 and inside is a switchmode psu ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew McDermott" To: Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 7:06 PM Subject: PICStart Plus Problem (Power supply?) > I am using a PICStart Plus with the original power supply that came with > the machine when I purchased it two years ago. I have had progressive > difficulties with the programmer in the past two days. The problems > usually are characterized by a message from MPLAB instructing me to > check the power and serial connections and/or reset the programmer. The > PICStart Plus is rated for a 9VDC input; also the output rating of the > power supply I am using. I have measured the power supply output and > found close to 12VDC even when plugged into the programmer. I say the > problem was progressive because it was initially manifest as the > occasional inability of MPLAB to talk to the programmer. This became > more frequent and finally resulted in failure to program a 16C84 and > then the complete inability to talk to the PICStart Plus from MPLAB. > > I know it isn't unusual for a power supply to show a voltage different > from the nameplate rating, but 12VDC in lieu of 9VDC seems excessive. > Does anybody have any experience with how tolerant of variations of > input voltage the PICStart Plus programmer might be? > > Thank you for your consideration, > > Andrew McDermott >