New to the list so if I ramble or hassle ya feel free to monkey punch me.

I built the ElCheapo (www.myke.com) PCB version that comes with the book.
The board checks out at every step, but when I go to program the yellow dot
on the windows interface is not on and it tells me that there is no link
active. I did have to solder a 470-ohm resistor across the 1k-ohm by the
parallel port (R2) in order to get the board to work with my port.

As a side, I also built the homebuild version listed as the latest on the
website but it also had problems. The _MCLR pin will not drop below 6.5V
with a PIC in circuit. It will go a bit less than that, 4.5-5V with just the
empty socket. The rest of the programmer checks out fine, just the _MCLR is
giving me trouble. The PNP transistor I used for that portion is a 2N3906
PNP from Radio Shack with a hfe around 50. I can verify with the circuit,
just can't program because of the _MCLR fault.

I would like to fix one of them at least, so I can get a project prototyped.
Although, in hindsight, I should have eaten ramen for a month and bought a
PICStart.

The PIC I am programming is a PIC16F876. I won't likely be using EPROM chips
in the programmer, only Flash EEPROM.

If there is any help one can give me to repair either one of the
programmers, or to sob with me and let me know they have the same trouble
and haven't fixed it I would greatly appreciate it.

If there is any other programmer that is cheap enough and will work with
better result, I would appreciate a point towards it. I am leary of picking
another myself after piecing two together that are giving me trouble.

Email: airdance40@hotmail.com

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