Hi everyone.
  I've previously been using an EPICPlus Programmer to program
my 16F876s.  This was taking around 60s for each one.  On my
new computer it kept coming up with errors, so I thought I would
make myself a programmer.  This is based on a 16F876 (I've got a
lot of them).  Basically you download the .hex file over the serial port
and it is stored on eeprom.  From here it is programmed onto the
PIC.  According to the programming data sheet, programming
takes nominally 2ms per memory location, maximum 4ms.  I have
set my programmer to start with a small delay, write the memory
location, read it back and check it.  If the data is not correct then it
increases the delay and writes again.  Using this method, a
16F876 is programmed in around 18s.

Is there any problem doing it this way?  Is there anything to be
gained by waiting more than the minimum required time to
program?  It seems from the datasheet that the write cycle is self
timed, so I don't see why there should be a problem.  If this is the
case, why are the other programmers taking so long?

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Martin Hill

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics
(like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics