Richard,

I too have a PicStart+ R4. I bought the pic MCU required from Digikey and
programmed the hex file from microchip into it. I'd already done the Vpp mod
some time ago. It seems fine, and MPLAB assures me that it will program
16F877A's and 16F873A's so I'm happy.

Here's the voltage mod, from the PicStartPlus User Guide (reproduced without
any sort of permission)

B.1 Introduction
This appendix describes how to change the VPP programming voltage of
older PICSTART Plus hardware units to comply with revised programming
specifications.
B.2 Highlights
Topics covered in this appendix:
* Overview
* Procedure
* Validation
B.3 Overview
In order to remain current with Microchip's programming specifications, any
PICSTART Plus, Revision 7 or lower, might need a slight adjustment of the
VPP voltage. This adjustment will bring the VPP voltage from a nominal 13.75
volts to a nominal 13.00 volts. This is due to the update of the programming
specifications, after the introduction of the PICSTART Plus.
B.4 Procedure
To identify the revision of PICSTART Plus, look at the label on the back.
The
serial number will end in a -Rx, where x is the current revision of the
PICSTART Plus (e.g., -R7 or -R13). If this number is -R7 or lower, use one
of
the following two methods to adjust the VPP voltage to the nominal 13.00V:
Method 1:
Locate resistor R4, and solder a 562 kOhm 1% resistor across R4. This will
lower the value of R4 and lower the VPP voltage to a nominal 13.00V.
Method 2:
Locate resistor R4, and remove R4 and replace with a 22.6 kOhm 1% resistor.
This will lower the VPP voltage to a nominal 13.00V.
B.5 Validation
After completing the procedure, apply 9V to the PICSTART Plus and measure
the voltage across Capacitor C5. It should be a nominal 13.00 (12.75 -
13.25)
volts. If the voltage is correct, the modification is complete. If not, make
sure
that the procedure was properly followed and there are no solder shorts near
the rework area.

HTH,

Cam Bremner  -  Canadian Coast Guard Technical Services
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary and
those who don't."


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard J. Pytelewski [mailto:res0bidc@VERIZON.NET]
Sent: December 15, 2003 4:46 PM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [PIC]: Updating a PICStart Plus R4


Located an old PICStart Plus hardware version 4 programmer and would like to
know if anyone has ever updated one of these -  I want to bring it up to
current PICStart Plus standard.  I've been all over the Microchip website
and have found ambivalent information. Called Microchip and while they felt
that by getting the latest upgrade kit, the UK-003010, and changing a
resistor,  I'd be OK...... but they left me feeling that they hadn't thought
about it enough.  Any have any suggestions / experience?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Richard J. Pytelewski

E-Mail:  psi.pytelewski@verizon.net

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