(If these are stupid questions, or they're in some FAQ that I couldn't
find, I'm terribly sorry. This is my first post to the PIC list.)



   Greetings. I'm new to PICs, and would appreciate it greatly if
someone could tell me if I'm on the right track or not. I'm using
a 16F870, and I'd like to use a programming setup like the one
described at:
http://www.piclist.com/techref/microchip/16F877/taitlinux.htm

I've checked the archives for a general description of the LVP
programming mode, which seems ideal for my application since I'll
probably end up changing things all the time.

Am I correct in guessing that the drawbacks to the LVP modes are
that:

o  RB3 can't be used in the application, and needs to be connected
   to a 10K resistor to ground for the device to operate normally?

o I can grab the +5V power off the red wire on a harddrive power
  connector to power the PIC for programming?



Also -- Can anyone recommend free programming software for Linux
(ideally 2.4-kernel-compatible) that will work with the Tait-style
programmer in that first link? Will most programming software work
if I change the "Begin Programming" byte to 0x18 instead of 0x08?

(picprg2.2 doesn't seem to be able to find the parallel ports. I've
got /dev/parport0, the kernel sees it during boot:
"parport0: PC-style at 0x278 [PCSPP(,...)]" , but picprg doesn't seem
to be able to open it. I can run strace with picprg and see that it's
setting ioperm's on 0x278, though. I also get these in the strace:
open("/dev/lp2", O_WRONLY)              = -1 ENOSYS (Function not implemented)
open("/dev/lp2", O_WRONLY)              = -1 ENODEV (No such device)

(even though /dev/lp2 is symlinked to /dev/parport0)






--
Andrew S. Mehlos               |finger dweezil@execpc.com for PGP key

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