Several come to mind, many much less than the price range you've given.
Wouter's Wisp (http://www.voti.nl/wisp628/n_index.html), and Olin's EasyProg
(http://www.embedinc.com/easyprog/index.htm) are both designed and supported
by list residents and many have found them very useful. Both are available
fully assembled, but various parts kits are available. They're also open
source so you could build your own without a kit.

But at the $150 price range I'd probably recommend the ICD2 strait from
Microchip (http://buy.microchip.com/productsearch.aspx?Keywords=DV164005)
It's Microchips's "official" development programmer, and usually has support
for all the newest chips before they're even released. For a little cheaper,
there are also some clones of the ICD2, most notably Olimex
(http://www.olimex.com/dev/pic-icd2.html and
http://www.olimex.com/dev/pic-tinyicd2.html) (Olimex products are available
in the USA from Sparkfun www.sparkfun.com)

Good luck,
-Denny


> 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 on the net, but many seem out of date (even the ones reccamended by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 just want
> to get a product that I know will be worth the money I am spending for
> it.  Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
>
>                                Joseph
>
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