Anyone who is interested in the future of PIC based test equipment, device programmers, boot loaders, and even ICD should go look at the CUMP e-groups site. Dan Michaels of Oricom has been designing a board that adds device programming support to his existing firmware for single chip test bench functions. I've forwarded my conversations with him to the CUMP list. http://www.egroups.com/group/cump/ It lives!!! WHAA, HA, HA, HA, HAAAAAA. But of course, it's a mutant child corrupted by commercialism and horrible profit motive selfishness . Now, don't cry... Try to think of it as a challenge to design a better one that is "free source". BTY, I am in no way participating in the revenue stream from this project. I want the thing to exist so I can buy one. With a few orders Dan can get the PCB price down to below $20. With a lot of orders, it will drop to the $10 range. Please buy one so I don't have to pay so much for it! The goal is a $50 complete kit (right Dan?) and it will be worth it, I think. The capabilities that his (mostly propitiatory) firmware offers, well, I don't think you can beat it right now for that price. If you are a beginner, this is how to get the most bang for a little buck, and if you are a professional, another channel never hurts and the portability is nice. Any ASCII terminal.... are there borgs out there? PDA heads? Description: http://www.sni.net/~oricom/projects.htm Schematics (the link from the description don't work for me) http://www.sni.net/~oricom/wst-1.gif Should have been an '877 but.... It will be cheaper this way. http://www.sni.net/~oricom/wst-2.gif http://www.sni.net/~oricom/wst-3.gif should be SIMM compatible but... it has a kick butt connector pattern (see the CUMP postings) http://www.sni.net/~oricom/wst-4.gif http://www.sni.net/~oricom/wst-5.gif That last one is the really new part. It adds PIC controlled variable regulated high voltage, thanks to CUMP for the idea. Command set: http://www.sni.net/~oricom/ictc-cmd.htm Screenshots: o'scope http://www.sni.net/~oricom/ictc-od.htm logic analyzer http://www.sni.net/~oricom/ictc-ld.htm ports and registers http://www.sni.net/~oricom/ictc-ba.htm Its time to admit that commercialism works and to pick up the gauntlet and show that open source works too (for more than just ideas and idle talk). There is a lot more to be done: The device programming firmware needs to be written. Actually, you could program devices just by using the commands to change the port values and PWM high voltage output, etc... but that would be impossibly difficult. It needs a little macro language to automate the programming algorithms. Like a smaller version of http://techref.massmind.org/language/meta-l using just the | and ? parts and adding [ and ] for looping. It would be nice to make a system that is compatible with MPLab. Hint: http://www.cosmodog.com/pic open source (free) command line interface for the PICStart+ (read: It writes out the MPLAB commands to cause the PICStart+ to work Its Open Source. If you want to make a programmer MPLAB compatible you would.... Oh! BING!) and if it could be extended for other devices by the user. Hint: http://www.picnpoke.com/engine.html And someone should write a nice GUI for it. Tony? Something to do while recovering in the hospital after that car runs over you? Didn't they make a movie or to about cars that have a mind of their own? and it should be upgraded to use an '877 and be bootloadable. http://techref.massmind.org/idea/ebb And an CPLD or FPGA should be added http://techref.massmind.org/logic/ispgals http://techref.massmind.org/lattice http://www.teleport.com/~thandley/Wilbure.htm And I bet we can figure out how to make an ICD out of a '877 without buying one from MChip. Chop! Chop! You all have different little bits of the big picture. WORK TOGETHER. Having said all that, I'm in a development crunch at my primary clients and will have to ignore all this for a few days. $$$ again. See ya! --- James Newton mailto:jamesnewton@geocities.com 1-619-652-0593 http://techref.massmind.org NEW! FINALLY A REAL NAME! Members can add private/public comments/pages ($0 TANSTAAFL web hosting)