Thank you all for the input. My quantities are small, perhaps I'll do 100 per year, probably less. But, I need fast turn around and the only way to do it is to have the programmer here in my hands. I also need the ability to change the programming on the PICs as needed and with fast turn around-basically I need to have the burner in house otherwise I'd gladly pay Microchips programming prices. So, I did buy a pickit2 from Microchip despite the temptation to buy a clone on ebay::> I was really thinking about rolling my own socket. I was looking at gold finger stock (PCB edge cards) to see if any of the standard connectors have spacings corresponding to the pin spacing on the 28 pin SOIC. I do have a spare PCB with tinned etches for a 28 pin SOIC, but the SOIC pads are tinned, not gold plated and I know how much better the gold plating will work-so I am hesitant to use tin plated SOIC pads. The project is a kit, so the PIC's are not soldered onto a PCB. I can't program the chip on the board unless I start soldering the PIC's to the board and selling them as an assembly. Thanks so much to all who commented. Art On 6/23/08, Dwayne Reid wrote: > How many of these do you need to program? > > Small quantities: I've simply used a solder-type DIP to SOIC adapter > and pressed the chip being programmed onto the SOIC pads, then > hitting the "Program" button. I've never had a failure but its finicky. > > Medium quantities: head over to TI and purchase one of their MSP430 / > FET kits. Pick the kit that has the 28 pin SOIC programming socket > included. Whole kit costs about $100 and you can still get discounts > for the recent MSP430 day seminars. > > The programming socket is separate from the FET tool and you can wire > your favorite PIC programmer to it . > > dwayne > > > At 08:57 PM 6/21/2008, Artie Jones wrote: >>Hi all, >> >>I'm not a PIC programmer, but I need to program some PIC18F2550 28 pin >>SOIC PICs with a bootloader. > > > -- > Dwayne Reid > Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA > (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax > www.trinity-electronics.com > Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist