Bit of a can of worms here James. How many times have you written a program that appears to work ok on MPLAB under simulation but doesnt work when its ported onto the PIC. I'd be quite happy to use my Picstart to program anyone a few PICs in the UK if the source code / Hex file was supplied (along with fuse settings. I'd charge a couple of UK pounds per chip plus postage for the service but it would look like being more hassle than it was worth with customers returning the Pics saying they didnt work etc etc. I would have thought that if you had the electronics experience to be able to knock up a circuit which used a pic then you'd be able to quickly knock up a Parallel port programmer and blow your own with some of the excellent free software thats available out there. It costs a couple of UK pounds to make your own "Picall" or "Tait" compatible programmer anyway + 30 minutes of your time to breadboard it out. Maybe there would be a market in a cheap "universal" programmer (<$20) that would hook up to the serial port of a PC and use some freeware programming software. I know this has been discussed before - in great depth last year and it all amounted to nothing. I would like to see an improved JDM compatible programmer that used an external power supply. It would have to work on the serial port and be reasonably cable length independent (the parallel port programmers complain about certain parallel port voltages, cable run lengths etc etc. The closest programmer I've come across that does this job is the WISP but its always put me off having "all my eggs in the one basket" - what if Wouter gets fed up and doesnt release any more updates for his programmer (God forbid). I think that a JDM based (or Hybrid) programmer with an external Power Supply and an ICSP connector would be ideal. Piclist members who have the experience could develop open source software with .ini files used to tell the software what each Pic chip's programming algorithms were - i.e. 16F628.ini and 16F872.ini etc etc. A seperate board with a Ziff or turned pin socket could also be sold with an ICSP connector on it to mate with the programmer. The free open source software could be kept updated on the Piclist along with all the .ini files as a central store. People would be free to make up their own boards, sell them at their own leisure for a "capped" price and they could be supported through the Piclist. I would quite happily make up boards for new members and donate $5 for each assembled board to the Piclist to help keep it going and continually improve it. Out of the $20 charged for the board (Approx 12 ukp), $5 would go to the Piclist, $5-$7 would be used for parts and PCB's, $3 would go towards shipping and $5 would go in my pocket for assembly and time. This is an idea that we could all benefit from - the new users get a "standard" programming board and free programming software, experienced members could sell the boards to the newbies and make a few bucks each time, the Piclist would benefit from increased donations and everyone would be happy. Is anybody interested in this project ? For a minimal amount of work this could really go somewhere. We would need to get a team of people together and agree on the best way forward. There should be a couple of golden rules here - not too many people involved initially - "too many cooks spoil the broth" and my favourite - KISS - "Keep It Simple Stupid". Let me know your thoughts my friends. Dom ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Newton, webhost" To: Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 1:29 AM Subject: [PIC:] Chip programming services? > Hey, does anyone already, or want to, provide a PIC programming service? I > see a need for some people who want to buy a PIC pre-programmed with > existing code. There are projects that need a microcontroller and hobbyists > who may not want to get involved with microcontrollers enough to buy a > programmer. For a one time thing, it makes more sense to buy the chip with > the code burned in for a fee rather than buying the programmer just to > program one chip. > > Anybody out there willing to be listed as a resource for programming chips? > What sort of fee would be expected? > > --- > James Newton, webhost piclist.com (former Admin #3) > jamesnewton@piclist.com 1-619-652-0593 fax:1-208-279-8767 > PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com or .org > > -- > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu