I have assembled the El Cheapo Programmer using the PCB that came with the
book "Programming and Customizing the PICMicro MCU" but cannot get it to
work.  It was assembled using the instructions that came with the Version
0.84 interface provided at the author's website.  I've tried contacting the
author of the book at the email address given in the book and also on his
website but have received no response.

First  problem  was with the 78L12 regulator.  It gets very hot after about
10  seconds  and  shuts  down.   I saw that the home built programmer, also
described  by  the  interface,  used  a  78L08  with the 5.1V zener drawing
current  before  the  regulator  so  the  PCB was modified to use the power
supply of the home built version.

Voltages measured at each assembly step are now within the ranges specified
by  the  instructions  but  errors  appear when trying to program a 16F84A.
Clicking  the  PROGRAM  button  on  the  interface causes the error message
"programming  failure at address 0x00, 0x02805 was written, but 0x03E03 was
read  back"  to  appear.   The 0x03E03 read back is not constant, i.e other
numbers appear when different 16F84A's are used.

Any help rendered would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Emmanuel D. Sorreta


-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist