Building up a programmer isn't rocket science, and the parts cost next to
nothing.  A couple of months ago I went to Radio Shack, who has the highest
prices on the planet, and priced out parts for a programmer at about $11.
Of course, even the most underprivileged junk box is likely to have most of
the parts.

I do have one caution, however.  Should you decide on a serial port
programmer, recognize that there is an astonishing range of what passes for
a serial port these days.  Many designs that work on one won't work on the
next.

Once upon a time, RS-232 ports always put out +/- 15 volts, and many serial
designs assume this.  The standard says that the 15 volts may be as low as
12.  However, zero crossings are easy to detect, so for input, most ports
are happy as long as the signal goes through zero.  This isn't true for
programmers that sometimes try to power themselves off the serial port.

Preparatory to starting the PIC-Elmer course, I asked folks to take a
voltmeter to their serial ports.  The most common voltage was +/- 0.9V, with
somewhere around 9 being a close second.  Those designs that expect 15, or
even 12, won't work on most modern PCs.

72/73 de WB8RCR    http://www.qsl.net/wb8rcr
didileydadidah     QRP-L #1446 Code Warriors #35


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Hawkshaw" <mike@SPIKEY-MIKE.COM>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [PIC:]FPP Can (was cannot) cannot erase the A part pic16F628A


> Wouter,
>
> As an RF engineering professional with a digital / analogue background and
> hobby - most importantly hobby, I knocked together my simple serial port
> programmer from scrap and had it working with icprog in half a day.
>
> At $100/h this is an expensive programmer, but at 0$/h, very cheep. It
> happily programs 16f84s and now I've grown up a bit, 18F452s as well!
>
>
> > How such a figure should influence the choosing of a programmer depends
> > a how you value your time. A hobbyist with plenty of free time and eager
> > for the learning experience will (should) of course make a different
> > choice than a professional who has to bill $100/h.
> >
> > Wouter van Ooijen
> >
> > -- -------------------------------------------
> > Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
> > consultancy, development, PICmicro products
> >
> > --
> > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
> > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
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>

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