On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 6:38 PM, SM Ling wrote: > Usage: non production need, general R&D, repair and hacking purposes. > > Is there another open source programmer around? or better one with USB support? > > I got 2 type of universal programmers. The higher quality one is > normally quite expensive to maintain, I have 2 needhams basically > sitting idle now. That is quite typical. Back in 1999 I was trying to update an Data I/O (was Sprint) R&D programmer and they asked for something like US$3000 for the software updates. In the end I bought Promate II+PICC 7.85+ICE2000 for less. But for mass production, the company maintain a contract with Data I/O since there are many different types of programmable device, including some legacy device. > Their software update is also not as fast as the > Chinese made programmer I have (runfei.com.cn) . But runfei > website is having some problem. Try to call them. Maybe they forget to pay the bill. But maybe they go bust. Xeltek seems to be one of the best supported programmer among main-land China programmer makers. > Along the way, I also made various type of programming adapters for > different needs. To protect the investments on future adapters, as > well as to benefit from the flexibility of an open source programmer, > I thought an open source programmer with its increasing library and > longer lifetime should be more useful. > > Comments? > >From the Wellem website, I think it is not great after all. And the support for PIC is even worse and it seems to rely on WinPIC800 (closed source, non-free firmware now). How many programmable device are you using? It seems to me it is too costly to support a good universal programmer for an indivisual or a small company. And now for new MCUs, the vendors will tend to provide a good and relatively cheap programmer. And most of the new MCUs will support JTAG or some kind of ICSP (or ISP) programming so you do not really need an expensive adapter. So I think universal programmers are now kind of obsoleted except for mass-production. Xiaofan -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist