On May 20, 2005 10:46 pm, Joseph Pantoga wrote:
> I have recently gained an interest in PIC programming, and I was
> wondering if there was a cheap (under $100-150 US) PIC programmer
> that could program a diverse selection of microchips, but was
> supported often and had excellent support.  I am not looking for a
> kit, unless it comes from a trustworthy vendor.  I have seen a lot of
> programmers on the net, but many seem out of date (even the ones
> reccamended by the list) or they just dont have the capabilities to
> program many PIC's.  Does such a programmer exist in my price range?

I don't think you will find such a programmer to fit your requirements 
since the number of people actually involved programming PICs isn't 
large enough to justify an extremely cheap programmer that is supported 
that often.
For example, everyone who owns a computer, needs a video card, so the 
likelyhood of selling a video card is in the millions (this allows 
cheap and lots of support as well), but people who program are only a 
fraction of all computer users (you may note developer tools are 
sometimes buggy and not so refined as consumer software), and "embedded 
programming" is of interest to only a special FRACTION of programmers 
capable of both software and hardware (so it's a real small group) and 
the numbers indicate that.... for example piclist is host to a world 
audience of about 2000 people specializing in PICs....

...Now just supposing that 1 out of 10 people on this list bought "your" 
specific programmer, then that would be about 200 units sold... you 
said cheap, okay, let's say $20, but $19 goes into parts, so that's 
maybe $1 profit per unit or doing the math, $1x200 is about $200.

If you can find someone willing to do all that work for $200, let us 
know who it is so that we can get them to make such a programmer   ;-)

...so, in summary, I think you will either get really cheap programmers 
which support a few, or more expensive ones which are going to do them 
all and with more comprehensive tests as well, which is exactly what 
you are finding out there.
 
> I just want to get a product that I know will be worth the money I am
> spending for it.

I don't think anyone is making a king's ransom on selling programmers, 
so whatever you pay will be well appreciated by whomever you decide to 
purchase from. If you are doing this as a hobby, get a cheap one and 
live with the fact you simply can't program every available chip. If 
you are doing this for business, appreciate the fact, a lot more time 
than it was probably worth, may have gone into making you a quality 
programmer.

> Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

I hope you found this informative  ;-)
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