I have used a programmer similar to willem
http://www.sivava.com/img-ebay/pcb4-5c_construction-EBay.jpg
but the software hasn't been updated in a while.  There is an excellent 
PIC open source software that is available for it willem and other 
programmers:
http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/winpicpr.html
I have updated this program once in a while when a new chip is 
necessary.  Usually, all that is needed is a new definition in an INI 
file to take care of the new chip type, no recompilation needed.  This 
seems like an ideal solution because you don't need to wait for the 
author to distribute a new program version when a new chip comes out, 
you simply add the appropriate settings for the new chip in the chip 
config file.




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.  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.
> 
> 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?
> 
> Cheers, Ling SM
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