This is posted merely for the information of anyone, particularly 
newbies, who might be thinking about building a PIC programmer from a 
kit.  I have no ties of any sort with either Olin or Embed, Inc.

When I first started working with PIC's several years ago, I bought the 
Wisp628 (already assembled) from Wouter.  However, I now needed a 
programmer for the ds30F line, and the EasyProg promised to do that.  
(Wouter has promised also, but of course I have no way of knowing his 
timeline. :-)

I bought the EasyProg kit with all the parts included -- I do not think 
anyone would save money by buying the parts separately.  It comes with 
no directions, but sufficient documentation can be downloaded from 
Embedinc.com so that the parts list, together with the clearly-marked 
circuit board, is enough for anyone who has built a few kits to easily 
put it together.  (I would not recommend it for someone who has never 
built a kit before, however -- some fairly precise soldering is required 
and one has to spend a bit of time identifying some of the parts.  This 
should not be your first kit, IMHO).

Once it was put together, which took an afternoon, it powered up with no 
problem.  The checkout, as described in the downloaded documentation 
went smoothly.  I don't think that the documentation is as complete as 
the documentation that is available on the Wisp628, but that may be 
because it is a much newer product.  The parts are good quality, the 
circuit board is well-made and very well marked. 

So those are my impression, for whatever value they may be.

John
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