Like I said before, my girlfriend bought me a USBProg for the holiday. I 
just got it today, and I just got my first 12F675 program working 5 
minutes ago.
My background is that I've been using the ATMega168 and avr-gcc on Linux 
for the past few months. My last PIC project was quite a while ago, and 
I used an assembler on Linux. So I decided that since this programmer is 
USB and I have a nice laptop running Windows, I'm going to use MPLAB and 
see what it has to offer for me.
Well 3 hours later I have a blinking LED from a 12F675. Not a far cry 
from the 30F3013 I plan on using for an SMPS project, right? ;-)
So far the USBProg works great. I don't have any complaints. The only 
thing I would like is a cable to go from the programming header to my 
breadboard. This is probably quite user-specific so I guess I can't 
blame Olin for not including one. I just soldered wires to the back of 
the header.

The USB driver worked just fine. I installed the software and it said it 
installed a driver, and that I should reboot. Me being me, I decided to 
see if it would work without rebooting (silly Windows).. it worked fine. 
YMMV.

I really like that the programmer can supply the Vdd for the target 
circuit. This means that I don't have to mess with an extra power supply 
for small circuits. It's also "pretty cool" that the programmer has a 
solid Vpp to stand on, so you know that your MCLR resistor isn't going 
to cause problems unless it is much too small.
The circuit board was hand-soldered. I have visions of someone, 
somewhere, with strained eyes and wrists.
Overall I'm happy with it. I think I may put it in a project box. $88 is 
too much to blow because something may get shorted out.
I will field questions, though I am far from experienced with this device.
--
Martin K
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