Seeing the recent thread regarding the assorted DIY programmers,
programming software, confused beginners, etc. as well as recalling the
beginnings of an "official" FAQ of sorts.

I don't know how that is progressing, but I figured it might be a good
time for a beginner (me) to chime in with what they are using and their
experiences with said devices. It would also be a good time, perhaps, to
add the 'me-too' comments or put in your assorted 2 cents. ;)

Anyhow, here is my setup:
JDM PIC Development Programmer
PIC16F628 DIP (included w/the programmer I bought)
IC-Prog
MPLAB IDE (for windows)
GPASM (for *nix)

The JDM PIC programmer I bought from http://k9spud.com/jdm/ for $26.00.
That includes the shipping cost. The method of ordering is a little odd,
but I've heard nothing bad about him nor his products. A friend referred
me to the page after they had purchased the PIC Programmer and, I
believe, the VWPIC. Included with the programmer is a single
PIC16F628-20/P chip to use with it.

The IDE I use is MPLAB from Microchip. You can go to
http://www.microchip.com/1000/pline/tools/picmicro/devenv/mplabi/index.htm
and download the IDE.

I use IC-Prog at http://www.ic-prog.com/ to put the programs onto the
chips. The site isn't home of the best navigation, but
http://www.ic-prog.com/download.html is the download page.

GPASM is a UNIX (and similiar OS) assembler that is intended to be
compatible with Microchip's assembler. I use it when I am away from home
and can't use MPLAB for working on my code.

Problems I have had:
It works fine under windows XP only AFTER I downloaded the driver and
told IC-Prog to use the windows driver. The driver can be found on the
download page for IC-Prog and is under the "IC-Prog NT/2000 driver"
link near the bottom of the page.

Hope this proves useful for someone! :)
Sabachka

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