Thanks for the comments! We're looking at 3,000 to 5,000 chips a month, most of them surface mount. The hassles of dealing with very small chips by hand makes the "tube to tube" programmers interesting. Right now we're using a ProMate with an associated PC. I set up a menu and batch files to dump the hex approriate hex file into the programmer and program the first chip. Since we code protect all our chips, I don't think the "master chip" method would work. Also, the promate dos program (procmd.exe) that I use to send stuff to the programmer does not appear to support the 16LF870. I'm not looking at having the people programming the chips having to deal with MPLAB to get the hex code into the programmer. Anyone know if Microchip is planning on adding that chip to procmd? I see that procmd is not shipping (as yet, if ever) with MPLAB6. Harold ---------- Paul Hutchinson writes: We've had good experiences with gang programmers from both Advin and Logical Devices. If we want very low end employees to do the programming then we prefer a stand alone unit (No PC needed). With a standalone the employee can just drop in a pre-programmed master chip, press load, insert the blanks and press program (no thought required ;-). We've never been able to justify the price of one of the auto loading machines (Data I/O, BP Microsystems) for our volumes, ~500/year or less of any one particular chip. Paul ========================================= Paul Hutchinson Chief Engineer Maximum Inc., 30 Samuel Barnet Blvd. New Bedford, MA 02745 phutchinson@imtra.com http://www.maximum-inc.com ========================================= >-----Original Message----- >[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Harold Hallikainen >Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:12 PM > I'd like to hear anyone's comments on gang programmers or >programmers that can take chips from tubes or tapes for >production. We are looking at buying something so we don't have to >do thousands of chips one by one. > What's your favorite production programmer, and why? > >Thanks! > >Harold -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.